Songfacts®:

• In this song, Karen O sings about having unsatisfying sex with a man she finds a little too "small." "I need the real thing tonight," she sings. "The bigger the better."
  
  The band did their part to bring fun and energy back to rock music, so a tune about a guy with a small penis was right in their lane.
• "Bang" is the first track on Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the group's first EP. It was released independently in 2001 about a year after they formed in New York City. Along with their hyperkinetic live shows, it build quite a buzz, especially in the UK where lo-fi American rockers like The White Stripes got their due.
  
  Yeah Yeah Yeahs released another EP in 2002, then signed with Interscope Records, which issued their debut album, Fever To Tell, in 2003. Those who remember the band from "Bang" were shocked when the breakout hit was "Maps," a heart-rending ballad unlike most of their other tracks.
• Karen O slips the band name into the lyrics a few times, using "yeah yeah yeah" as an expression of pleasure - the kind she gets from more satisfying men. They chose the name for the group in part because it's so versatile, able to take on different meanings depending on the context.