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Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performs "Love Song No. 7"

There is something tragically poetic about pop artists who enter the public’s field of vision on the shoulders of a universally well received record. The enormous shadow cast by their inaugural work can loom grimly over even the most ambitious followup.

Sadly, fickle listeners associate with inadequacy any deviation from what drew them in to begin with. Like players in an ironic drama, these artists are cursed for their initial brilliance, doomed to live out their days falling short of unreachable expectations. Or are they?

The Brooklyn-by-way-of-Philadelphia quintet, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, sees it differently.

One of the first genuine grassroots success stories of the 21st century, word of the group’s 2005 self-titled debut spread quickly on various blogs and message boards. The disc catapulted to the top of many critics’ “must have” lists and leaped onto the pages of Rolling Stone. Within months of its release, it sold more than 40,000 copies.

In January, the band self-released its sophomore effort, Some Loud Thunder—a brooding departure from the melodic, New Wave-tilting pop of its predecessor. It has received lukewarm reviews.

“To be honest, a lot of the reviews I’ve read are like reading fiction,” says Alec Ounsworth, the group’s lead singer and paramount songwriter, during a phone interview. “I commend anyone for making the effort for trying to put into words what they took out of a particular album. But from my direct experience, it doesn’t make much sense to me.”

An Austin Chronicle critic opined, “If anything, the title track is an attempt to debunk the band’s own cultish status and freak-out fair-weather fans.” But Ounsworth, whose speaking pitch only slightly echoes his David Byrne-channeling singing voice, says Some Loud Thunder’s swirling atmospherics and gloomy themes manifested naturally.

In fact, Ounsworth says he wrote the material for both albums periodically over the past 12 years—most before ever envisioning Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

“I think the mood just had to do with playing around in the studio and trying to decide upon how the album would move,” he says. “A lot of that was based upon a way that I was feeling at the time; not just about the songs, but personally. I don’t think there is such a thing as an evolution—but there is such a thing as transition. The mood just comes out as it is because that’s the way it was supposed to be at that particular time.”

The group formed in 2004, when Ounsworth, a lone songwriter from Philadelphia, ran into multi-instrumentalist Lee Sargent in Somerville, Massachusetts. The two decided to set up their base operation out of New York City. Later, Sargent’s bass-playing twin brother, Tyler, hopped onboard and the outfit began to coalesce. Ounsworth tapped two college buddies—drummer Sean Greenhalgh and guitarist/keyboardist Robbie Guertin—to fill out the band’s roster.

The group, which took its name from a piece of Brooklyn graffiti, scored a weekly residency at Pianos, a Lower East Side haunt. Ounsworth commuted from Philadelphia to make each gig.

In no time, Clap sparked an infectious word-of-mouth buzz and started making considerable waves in the New York underground. Gigging constantly, the group tightened its blend of guitars, keyboards and synthesized vocals. Soon, CYHSY would blossom into nationwide indie royalty.

Over the course of 2005, the band toured with fellow DIYers the National, and sold out its New Year’s Eve performance at New York’s sprawling Irving Plaza. The band even grabbed the ear of Byrne and earned praise from art-rock’s other famous indie-ambassador, David Bowie.

Today, Ounsworth describes himself as detached from the sphere of fame and celebrity endorsements.

“I don’t really live in that world, except to go on tour and to make albums,” he says. “It’s very far away from me. It seems that people really want it to affect us, or that’s what I’ve heard, anyway. They’re a bit incredulous when it’s suggested that it hasn’t.”

The band recently embarked on a tour that will make pit-stops in four different continents in as many months. Does the perplexing material from Some Loud Thunder translate well to the stage?

“Typically it’s a matter of everybody adjusting and re-adjusting as the tour goes on,” Ounsworth says. “That’s the way it’s always been, even with the old songs we’ve been playing for awhile. Hearing how everybody started off, it was perfectly fine how it was, but we still re-adjusted to make it interesting every night, to make anew all the time. I think you have to, to prevent yourself from going crazy.”

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah plays the Town Ballroom Sunday, April 15 at 8pm.