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Music

Blood brothers

YEASAYER at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Saturday (May 1), 9 pm. $18. rotate.com. Sold out.


Pitchfork disapproval does not, thankfully, destroy a band or necessarily keep its fans away. Take Yeasayer, the out-there Brooklyn-based experimental rockers whose new album, Odd Blood (Secretly Canadian), threw the tastemakers for a loop.

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The sophomore effort thumps with dance-floor beats and bone-shaking bass, tripped-out synths and sentimental pop melodies that occasionally bring to mind Tears for Fears. A departure, then, from the New Agey, Eastern-influenced psych rock found on their debut.

But despite a 6.1 rating on the Pitchfork scale (major complaint: “a bit too much of not enough”), Yeasayer’s upcoming show at Lee’s Palace sold out months ago, and the Guardian called Odd Blood “a master class in modern, multicultural, weirdo pop music.”

“I’m happy with the way it turned out, which is the most important thing,” says vocalist/keyboardist Chris Keating over the line from a techno-blaring Seattle T-shirt shop. “There are some haters out there, though. They tend to stick in my mind more than the people who like it.

“Actually that’s not true, that’s not fair. But you always take the negative criticism to heart and brush off the positive.”

Odd Blood has a sweaty, summery feel despite being recorded over three months in a snowy backwoods cabin in upstate New York. (“I was trying to be escapist or something,” says Keating.) Juxtaposition is the band’s speciality. Listening to Yeasayer is an uplifting experience, yet zero in on the lyrics and you realize that Keating and vocalist/guitarist Anand Wilder have an apocalyptic vision of the future and a fascination with drug culture and violence.

“We’re always trying to balance positivity with negativity,” Keating explains. “I find that’s the most interesting thing you can do when you’re writing songs or doing art. Have double meanings. Take bleak situations and find humour in them, and vice versa. Mix dark and light, like that chiaroscuro idea.”

The band self-produced the album using computers, sequencers and samplers to layer, splice and shape sounds recorded in unconventional ways. Like singing tribal harmonies through a fan and manipulating them with pitch shifters. Or miking a harmonium in a bathtub with running water.

Their live show is equally inventive. For their current tour, which included an insufferably packed Coachella gig that earned them a shout-out from Jay-Z, they’ve brought along sculptor/industrial designer Creegan.

“We do these crazy light shows that look better in small spaces,” Keating says. “They’re all-consuming and retina-burning, which I think is good.”

music@nowtoronto.com

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