By Julianna
The early 2000s was a dark time for New York. While the city was celebrating the beginning of the new millennium, anxieties plagued the city: the aftermath of the dot-com boom, the Y2K bug that never was, and, of course, foreign threats in a post-9/11 world. Author Lizzy Goodman discusses the feelings bubbling to the surface amongst New Yorkers after 9/11. in crowded streets and claustrophobic corners. More specifically, Goodman describes the impact 9/11 had on the largely overlooked indie rock scene in New York, before the release of her book Meet Me in the Bathroom (and subsequent film adaptation) brought it into a sphere of relevance. Think of the bands who might today be considered the fathers of “indie sleaze”: The Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Rapture, The Moldy Peaches, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Maybe you haven’t heard some of these bands since the 2000s, or it makes you cringe thinking back to the early Brooklynite hipster years. Their sound reflects and reacts to the paranoia and loss of innocence among youngsters, but now they also tell a story of what it was like to be in New York in 2003.
Karen O, lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, was so emblematic of this era. She was a cultural icon for young women in New York and elsewhere who needed a release; an escape from the instability and chaos ensuing around them. She was an anomaly; a woman fronting a rock band; she performed not with grace but with rage and raw emotion. She became what young women hoping to penetrate the male-dominated rock scene could be. For Karen O, a half-white and half-Korean woman, the stage was where she could escape from racism and sexism. There’s a scene in the Meet Me in the Bathroom documentary that shows Karen O transforming into her on-stage persona, her eyes coated in kohl black eyeliner and conventionally ugly (we would call it ‘camp’ now) costumes, after downing a couple of drinks.
“... the whole hedonistic side of me was kind of trumping everything else. We were feeding off that manic street energy,” said Karen O, in an interview.
Karen O wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable on stage in front of thousands of strangers, which is evident in her band, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s hit song “Maps” off their 2003 album Fever to Tell. The indie rock love song is cathartic and energetic, piercing through the soul of all those who’ve listened.
The highly recognizable drum beat and aggressive guitar juxtapose the simplistic, confessional lyrics. It’s an ode to Karen O’s lover at the time, Angus Andrew, who was also the frontman of a band. Thus the two were living pretty similarly, touring and being away from each other for prolonged periods of time.
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you
This line, softly sung by Karen O, is repeated over and over again throughout the song. It’s one of the most powerful choruses that physically pains you to hear, even after listening over and over again. It’s timeless.
The music video of the song is shot intentionally haphazardly at a school cafeteria as if they were simply rehearsing for an upcoming show. In the middle of the video, tears begin to stream down Karen O’s face. Later she revealed that those tears were real.
“My boyfriend at the time (Angus Andrew) was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour. I didn't think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him,” she said.
As intense as the song is there’s also a hint of innocence. We all remember what it was like to be let down or heartbroken by your first love. Or the bitter feelings of unrequited love and the inability to not let your emotions pour forth from you. “Maps” is a song of their youth for so many, not just because of when it was released but because it’s a reminder of what it’s like to love someone so honestly and painfully, and when is that more true than when you’re 21?