Yeah Yeah Yeahs

When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs first took the New York City scene by storm — the kind that clobbers power lines, mind you — it was nearly impossible to get past Karen O's spotlight-snatching stage presence and throat-scorching vocals. That is until "Maps," the breakthrough single that brought the brittle beauty out in a band that refuses to follow any sort of routine. Instead, Karen, Brian, and Nick prefer obliterating every preconception in sight with all their albums, from the dark underbelly and acoustic strains of Show Your Bones to the wild banshee wails of Fever to Tell and twitchy electronic textures of It's Blitz!.

And then there are the EPs, rarities, and remixes that have expanded the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' sound even further, as spotlighted in our Next Steps.

While a surf guitar-led cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" isn't a surprise coming from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs camp, some of the following songs stage a sneak attack on your speakers. For starters, "Hologram World" is a thrash-about collaboration with Tiny Masters of Today, a brother/sister duo that first caught America's attention when they were 11 and 13 years old. Meanwhile, Tommy Sunshine's remix of "Heads Will Roll" is hammered home by hollow drum beats and killer bee keys, and Animal Collective's alternate take on "Zero" is spacious and spooky, refusing to let Karen O go free for the first minute and centering the entire cut on a spare, psych-infused series of synth lines.

There's more to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs than Karen O, a natural-born rock star who stalks the stage like a feral cat crossbred with Iggy Pop. For starters, there's the rest of her buzz-stoking band: a piston-powered drummer who moonlights in New York's downtown improv scene (Brian Chase) and a string-abusing guitarist (Nick Zinner) who looks like a pale-faced Cure fan but plays like a pedal-pushing madman. All the better to propel the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' eye-blackening back catalog: the hammerhead hooks and reckless howling of "Art Star" and "Date with the Night"; the bottom-heavy strut of "Down Boy" and "Gold Lion"; and the shock-treated synths of the entire It's Blitz! album. And just when you think you have 'em figured out as art-damaged punks with an attitude, the group shifts to their sensitive side with tear-duct drainers like "Maps" and "Diamond Sea."