“It’s lighthearted, not particularly complicated music…it’s also off-kilter and engaging and fun, smart and weird yet not overly concerned with itself or its image, unpretentious in a world of pretense.” – Marissa Brown, AllmusicHaving just wrapped up national tour playing with HEALTH, The Locust, Sleeping People, Zs, and Melt Banana for its latest record, Two Kings of The Same Kingdom, Brian Esser and Jason Temple, the duo behind Yip-Yip, recent discussed an upcoming project with us.
Says Esser, “Yip-Yip will be one of six bands to cover Nirvana songs on a split 7-inch record, to be self-released in approximately May. We will cover ‘Very Ape’ off of Nirvana’s In Utero album. The song will include a new addition – vocals, added by synthesizer.” Esser further explained that to be on the safe side, the record is being self-released releasing it to be on the safe side. If there’s any trouble, “well then we can just pull them off the shelves or whatever,” he explained casually.
The pair is also working on its next project in a unique roundabout way. Esser and Temple first came up with song titles and then went on to create music around them. Esser elaborates, “Jason gets these weird stickers at his [photo lab] job that are basically three to four letter words… they always seem to be funny, especially if you put two of them together. So by doing that, we have come up with probably 15 song names already that give you this goofy idea in your head of what they might sound like, like ‘Apes Ahoy.’ ”
And if you think the eccentricity stops there, you haven’t checked out the live shows. Paul Heibing of Metromix explains saying, “It’s hard to categorize what exactly Jason Temple and Brian Esser, the duo behind Yip-Yip, accomplish on stage. Dressed head-to-toe in identical checkered costumes, the two look more like manufactured clones, an impression that’s reinforced by their spasmodically electronic yet strangely organic music.”
When asked about the possibility of a costume change, Esser replied “I don’t know when we are going to change the checker thing… I’m down with checkers. It’s our first good costume idea.” Check out some live Yip-Yip footage HERE.
Temple and Esser recently sat down with CMJ who asked all of the questions any Yip-Yip fan would want the answers to, including their preference of Ms. Pac-Man over her male counterpart. Check out the whole nationally syndicated interview HERE.
Two Kings of The Same Kingdom Tracklisting:
Stream The Album HERE
Release Date: 02.05.08
01. Anarchist Clog
02. Sprinkle Council (MP3 VIDEO)
03. Genius Beast
04. Humanly Wanderers
05. Car Picnic
06. Jazz Rats (MP3 VIDEO)
07. Gender Changers (MP3 VIDEO)
08. Club Mummy
09. Audacity Beach
10. Outer Tomato
11. Heavies Go Odd
12. High Heel To Mammal
More about Yip-Yip:
Yip-Yip is Brian Esser and Jason Temple, two 25 year-old “writhing costumed beanpoles” from Orlando, Florida. They have been making music together since they formed in 2001. They have also been roommates for much of this time, annoying neighbors in apartments until moving into “The Reptile House” in 2004. The house provides Yip-Yip with the space they need to continue making all of its music, recordings, art, videos, and costumes at home.
Yip-Yip started as a recording project and has, in its six years, resulted in two self-released full-length albums and an EP, two handmade art zine/CD singles, the CD-R-turned-international-release Pro-Twelve Thinker, and two more “real” releases, In The Reptile House and Two Kings of The Same Kingdom. Two Kings of The Same Kingdom is Yip-Yip's fourth full-length album and comes in at just under 25 minutes. Its twelve new tracks were recorded by Yip-Yip in its house in Orlando, Florida over the summer of 2007.
New additions to the Yip-Yip arsenal of musical instruments on Two Kings include an organ, cymbals, a gong, and a real saxophone, a noticeable departure from the digital horns heard on its previous album. Yip-Yip also experimented with video for the album (a DVD is included with the CD), making a music video for every song using newly acquired, cheap, used equipment. Esser and Temple try to push themselves to their musical limits with each new album, resulting in a sound that is increasingly complex, yet still fun to listen to. The same goes for their live show.
Esser and Temple started playing live shows in 2003 and since then have experimented with incorporating everything from videos and strobe lights to rollerskates and goodie bags. At the beginning, they played scattered shows around Florida with friends and soon after began opening shows for various touring acts. A year or so of this led to their first tour in 2004, after which they've done eight tours with two more planned before the end of 2007. During this time, Yip Yip has played nearly 300 shows, played with many of its favorite bands, made a lot of great friends, and seen most of the United States and parts of Canada -- this after serving a one year ban from the country in 2005 after trying to enter without work permits.
This year, Yip-Yip has stayed busy making new music, trying to push its sound into new musical territories. Their live show is a constantly growing, portable multimedia event, including costumes, video projections, and matching backdrops with every hand and foot being used to play the music on various analog synthesizers, an organ, a saxophone, cymbals, and effects.
Tools & Photos:
www.fanaticpromotion.com/rosterdetails.php?indexkey=82
On The Web:
www.yip-yip.com
www.myspace.com/yipyip
www.youtube.com/user/yipyip
www.safrecords.com
www.myspace.com/safrecords
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