The Yeah Yeah Yeahs got a healthy dose of the music world circa 2009 when they were forced to move up the release date of their new album, 'It's Blitz,' almost a month after the tracks leaked online. Frontwoman Karen O admitted that the New York-based trio is a little miffed.

"I'd be lying if I was to say, 'I'm totally cool with it, man,'" Karen O tells Spinner. "There's a certain amount of frustration. We still have a really outdated way of thinking about a record release, that everyone gets it at the same time and it's this exciting thing. That's just not really how it goes anymore, and it's hard to get our heads around it."

At the same time, the group is trying to accept the reality of the situation and take a healthy approach to having the music leaked. "The whole thing is it's out of our control, and what's the point of really being angry about it or putting that kind of emotion out there into the universe when it's just the way things are," she says.



For Karen O, though, it's ultimately about the music. "It does feel like it's so lawless, the way people acquire things these days, and everyone's guilty of it, including me. At the same time, I can't help but feel like that sort of lawlessness, that really scattered way of acquiring things, is really doing a disservice to the way that you experience music," she says. "For me, it's exciting to get a record and to be able to listen to it from start to the bottom. That format is important to me. A record is not just a bunch of singles put together."

So what was the last piece of music she acquired lawlessly? 'Monster Mash,' "for a Halloween DJ party. I got it on a file-sharing site, so there you go," she says, laughing. "The thing is, I do definitely support and buy all the new records that come out. I don't find those or steal those, because I'm an artist and I want to support other artists. But you can't really just say, 'So, that's OK to get 'Monster Mash,' but it's not cool to get Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new record [for free].'"


Full Karen O Spinner Interview