Summary: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (often abbreviated CYHSY) is an American indie rock group founded in New London, Connecticut based in Brooklyn, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania whose members include Alec Ounsworth, Lee Sargent, Robbie Guertin, Tyler Sargent, and Sean Greenhalgh. Their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was self-released in 2005. The band, whose members met at Connecticut College, started out by playing weekly shows at Pianos in Manhattan.[1] They are notable for achieving their initial fame and commercial success via the Internet rather than through a record label. Shortly after the release of their first album, they received attention from numerous MP3 blogs and a favorable review from Pitchfork Media, who gave the band a "Best New Music" commendation. The ensuing demand for the album was so great that the band was forced to repress the CD, as the initial production run was too small. They garnered even more press after David Bowie and David Byrne were spotted at some of the band's shows in 2005. [2] [3] They received praise from Rolling Stone as the 'Hot New Band' for 2005. On October 3, 2005, they were signed to Wichita Recordings in the UK. The band members live in Brooklyn, with the exception of Ounsworth who lives in Philadelphia. Ounsworth has a solo project, (Flashy Python and the Body Snatchers), and is said to be forming an "indie rock supergroup". [4] Meanwhile, Greenhalgh moonlighted as the frontman for Mr. Brownstone, a Guns N' Roses tribute band, until their breakup in June 2006.[5] The band has a fairly extensive repertoire of superpowers that expands outside their two-album parameter. Several non-album songs are frequently performed at live concerts, most notably, "My Papa's Waltz" (Also known as "Cigarettes" or "We Met at the Cemetery"), "Me and You Watson," "The Sword Song," and "Wet Dynamite" (Also known as "Pass Along This Way"). They have also been known to cover the ballad "Helpless," written by Neil Young. On November 11, 2006, the group partook in a tribute show for "The Music of Bob Dylan" at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. They performed the Bob Dylan song "Love Minus Zero / No Limit" from the 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. In 2006 Robbie Guertin contributed a t-shirt design to the Yellow Bird Project on behalf of the band to raise money for Art for Change. The band released their second album, Some Loud Thunder on January 29, 2007 in the UK and January 30, 2007 in the United States. In Australia, the song "Sunshine and Clouds" can be heard as the backing track to a Honda Commercial. Members Alec Ounsworth Tyler Sargent Robbie Guertin Lee Sargent Sean Greenhalgh
