NME: Watch Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cover Bowie at First Gig in 16 Months

Yeah Yeah Yeahs have played their first set since December 2014 at a New York gig celebrating Mick Rock, the British photographer renowned for his shots of rock stars including Mick Jagger and David Bowie.

Rock is releasing a new documentary, ‘Shot!: The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock’, which premiered last night at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film is directed by British director Barney Clay, husband of Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O.

As reported by Rolling Stone, at the premiere’s afterparty at Dream Downtown, Karen O joined up with Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, plus Money Mark and TV on the Radio’s Jaleel Bunton. They covered Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’.
Click here for clips: http://www.nme.com/news/yeah-yeah-yeahs/93181

For my sins in a former life, I’ve been forced to spend an inordinate amount of time with musicians in this life. Of course, I love them.

A camera is a wonderful ally. It requires minimal maintenance and provides entry to a world of endless imagery.

My ambition was not to be a great photographer (though that certainly would have been a worthy stance). It was a lust to embrace anything that startled or energized me.

I am not in the business of documenting or revealing personalities. I am in the business of freezing shadows and bottling auras.

Without the rock ‘n rollers, I would not have developed as an image man.

You want to shock people with a bit of mystery and beauty. That’s my favorite kind of shocking.

I’ve never felt like a voyeur, although I’ve certainly done plenty of looking!

There’s an art to looking back - how to celebrate the past without being entrapped by it. Photographs provide the great physical link.

My allegiance was always to the act. I wanted them to be happy. I wasn’t owned by a magazine or a record label.

I smell pictures more than I see them and I hear pictures more than I can smell them. It’s very habit forming.