Yeah Yeah Yeahs risk a career no-no

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sophomore album won’t be in stores for nearly a month, yet the sniping of fans is already under way.

“It seems the YYYs have lost the edge -- or at least forgot how it started,” a poster calling himself “ypunkd” wrote on the trio’s Internet bulletin board after hearing the lead single, “Gold Lion.” “They are well on their way to sounding just like any other band.”

That’s to be expected of any group whose debut was as distinctive and successful as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ 2003 album “Fever to Tell,” a furnace blast of darkly sexual post-punk dance rock that went gold, got a Grammy nomination out of the gate and wound up on many critics’ Top 10 lists.

Vampy lead singer Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase, however, are nothing if not disciples of George Santayana who know that those who fail to learn from the pop music past are doomed to repeat it -- and themselves. That’s exactly what happened to New York’s the Strokes, whose second album was an echo of the first and was critically and commercially drubbed.

“I think we were all disappointed that their second record seemed like such a continuation of their first,” Zinner said. “Maybe that’s what made it even more clear to us that we didn’t want to make a continuation of ‘Fever to Tell.’ ”

So the YYY’s “Show Your Bones,” due March 28, is what is often referred to politely as “a departure.”

Where “Fever” and the group’s first two EPs consisted of jagged but concise electrified tone poems, most under three minutes, some “Bones” songs are epic and circuitous, driven by melodies and acoustic guitar. Karen O’s vocal maturity, however, may be the most striking change -- she sings in place of her trademark orgiastic caterwaul.

“There’s been some growing up going on,” O said. “It would be pretentious if we did the same thing twice.”

That’s one criticism the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are unlikely to hear about “Bones” or the group’s eight-date mini-tour that kicked off in New York last month and stops tonight and Sunday at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

“It’s going to go good,” she insisted from a New York rehearsal studio while battling laryngitis. “I’m hoping it’ll all be OK once we hit the stage. The anticipation is killing us.”

“We’re all pretty terrified,” Zinner said.

Hardly the snarling, beer-spitting, sleaze-rock avatars whose captivating single “Maps” -- with its lullaby-like chorus, “Wait, they don’t love you like I love you” -- became an anthem of summer 2003. But to hear the band members explain it, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are no longer that group.

Until now, the preening party jolt the threesome delivered on record came easily. They simply translated the electrified blues stomp of their stage performances to tape.

“ ‘Fever’ is basically a live record,” Zinner said. “We knew exactly what it should sound like before we went into the recording. So we could have this bratty confidence.”

Not so with “Bones,” recorded last year at the home studio of producer Squeak E. Clean (aka Sam Spiegel, brother of O’s boyfriend, director Spike Jonze).

“This time, we were a little more insecure,” Zinner said. “We knew we didn’t want the same sound or musical paradigm. And we all had intense bouts of self-pressure and self-doubt.”

Drummer Chase said the pressure sometimes resulted in flare-ups between the bandmates.

“There were times when we were feeling impatient or frustrated or angry and temperamental,” he said. “A lot of that could have been rooted in the stress we were feeling, knowing this was going to be a high-profile record.... We needed to go through that.”

Spiegel’s resume consists mostly of hip-hop projects and television commercial scores -- he and O created original music for an Adidas TV spot directed by Jonze. And that song, “Hello Tomorrow,” was downloaded on iTunes more than 11,000 times and hit No. 85 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

The band says it recruited Spiegel for his positive attitude and jokey nature. But when asked about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ chemistry, the producer seemed momentarily nonplussed.

“They’re some intense people with intense emotions,” he said. “All three of them have this intense energy on their own but when they’re together, it’s super magnified.”

Two years ago, while on hiatus from the band, O moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood. In self-imposed semiseclusion -- she says she had “no social life” although she did cut a solo album tentatively set for release in 2007 -- the part Korean, part Polish frontwoman (real last name: Orzolek) says she faced her fears and fundamentally changed her MO.

“I ran dry on the sound of angst,” she said. “I wasn’t feeling whatever was informing my attitude. And I knew I’d have to go in a different direction that wasn’t quite as in your face. Less aggro.”

That attitude adjustment extends to her reckless stage persona -- which resulted in a painful tumble in Sydney, Australia, where O nearly broke her neck. “I don’t think I can run around like a maniac like I did before,” the singer said. “The new songs call for a different kind of performance.”

With drastic change, however, comes the risk of alienating fans. To hear it from Peter Baron, MTV’s vice president of label relations, O’s visual impact has been crucial to the band’s success so far.

“She’s so iconic, this artist cuts through your TV,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of those kind of video stars. For us, it’s all about her.”

Even if the bandmates are no longer the cocky upstarts they were in 2003, Chase says their newfound maturity shouldn’t be mistaken for lack of spleen.

“Ultimately, Yeah Yeah Yeahs music feels like a celebration even when it is moody,” he said. “It’s strong and confident even when it’s working through darker feelings.”

“ ‘Show Your Bones’ feels more introverted and introspective. We don’t wallow in self-loathing,” he said. “It is never weak.”