Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Coming from a band with only one album and a handful of EPs available at the time of its release, Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow is a remarkably complete DVD, containing an hour-plus concert, bonus songs, backstage footage, and other live performances. Though seeing a filmed concert by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doesn't quite capture the band's live energy the way that seeing Karen O scissor-kick across the stage in person does, their show at San Francisco's Fillmore is vibrant and seamlessly edited to capture the best of Brian Chase, Nick Zinner, and O's performances. Newer songs like "Rockers to Swallow" and "Cheated Hearts" blend well with older songs such as "Machine" and "Our Time," as well as Fever to Tell highlights "Maps," "Date With the Night," "Black Tongue," and "Modern Romance." The bonus songs include "Rich," "Sealings," and "Miles Away," and while they're nice to have, they don't pack quite as much of a punch as the longer concert. "Fukuoka Nagoya Osaka Tokyo" is, as the title implies, a backstage look at the band's Japanese tour that includes O getting so into one of the performances that she falls into the monitors on her face and arm. "They Don't Love You Like I Love You" features interviews with the fans shot by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze before the Fillmore show, and features some surprisingly silly and sweet moments from random concertgoers, including a ten-year-old girl and her mother. Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow's best feature is probably the band's collection of videos, including the simple but affecting clip for "Maps," the kiddie mayhem of "Y Control," and the stop-motion video for "Pin" that was directed by TV on the Radio's Tunde Adepimbe. A live version of "Maps" from 2004's MTV Movie Awards rounds out the disc. Tell Me What Rockers to Swallow is impressive enough in its own right, but it also suggests that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be able to put out an even more striking disc once they have more songs and videos to present. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide