Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with a huge tour and a vinyl reissue. The dates kick off in spring 2025 with a North American run that includes shows at New York’s Webster Hall and Los Angeles’ Regent Theater, before Alec Ounsworth and the band head to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand to wrap things up. To go with the announcement, Ounsworth has shared the original, 2004 version of “Heavy Metal”—a recording he says captures “a special moment in time—a young group of guys all piling into one hotel room to wake up and go to a real studio (!) to try to come up with something special just for the fun of it.”

Ounsworth added, in press materials:

At the time, “Heavy Metal” was meant to appear alongside a small collection of songs to be used for an EP to be shopped around to labels. We never thought that an album was possible at the time. Later, during the mixing of the EP, a decision was made to add other songs. This final collection of songs went on to be the first album.

I guess I didn’t think this original version of ‘Heavy Metal’ sat very well on the album once we started recording some of the later songs (‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth,’ ‘Is This Love?,’ etc.) so I decided the song should be changed even though the original (as a standalone single) had always worked. Now that I listen to the original ‘Heavy Metal’ remixed and mastered, I realize it very well could (should?) have been on the album itself.

I really like both versions of ‘Heavy Metal’ but 20 years later I think I’ve come to appreciate this one a little more. The rest of the album has this excitement too of course but the earliest songs speak even more to a certain innocence around that time which I try hard not to forget.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah:

01-31 Washington DC – The Atlantis
04-01 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04-02 Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
04-04 Ft. Worth, TX – Tulip’s
04-05 Austin, TX – Scoot Inn
04-07 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
04-08 Los Angeles, CA – Regent Theater
04-09 San Francisco, CA – Independent
04-11 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
04-12 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Café
04-13 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
04-15 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
04-16 Denver, CO – Bluebird
05-02 St. Paul, MN – Amsterdam Bar and Hall
05-03 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
05-04 Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme
05-06 Toronto, ON – Great Hall
05-07 Albany, NY – The Egg
05-08 Somerville, MA – Crystal Ballroom
05-09 New York, NY – Webster Hall
05-10 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
09-14 Leffinge, BE – Leffingeleuren Festival
09-16 Dublin, Ireland – Button Factory
09-18 Paris, France – Gaîté Lyrique
09-19 London, England – EartH
09-20 London, England – EartH
11-05 Sydney, Australia – Metro Theatre
11-07 Melbourne, Australia – Northcote Theatre
11-08 Brisbane, Australia – The Triffid
11-11 Auckland, New Zealand – The Tuning Fork