Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

The only thing that really grates right now for me is the M.I.A. sample on "Diplomat's Son." It just seems really unnecessary, and it doesn't feel natural at all; it sticks out.

would be better if he was rocking a balaclava - they seem to have kinda negative charisma as performers

that was a massive improvement over ezra's early performances for their first album iirc--dude was awkward as hell

would be better if he was rocking a balaclava - they seem to have kinda negative charisma as performers

― supra-max (ice cr?m), Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:04 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but rumor is the guy looks psychotic in a balaclava

I like the videos of them playing at Reading Festival. Its great when the crowd singalong with the instrumental bits.

http://www.bikyle.com/images/AssosBalaclava.jpg

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma?

eh i disagree n/a i think there's a lot to dig into with this one.

― call all destroyer, Sunday, January 17, 2010 1:02 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hmmm nah gonna have to go ahead and just ... disagree with you on that one

cool man let's agree to disagree

they may not be super deep but saying they dont have hooks is just strange

i've thought abt this for a while and i'm pretty sure this album is good so this matter has been settled fyi

what abt how the singer is always looking out the side of his eyes while the rest of the band is all yeah welp - dont u find that a bit off putting

ppl you're doing it again

i stopped listening to them because of that, actually.

sometimes knowin wht things are called is a class signifier

believe its called the internet tbh

i had to look up "hyannisport" on wikipedia 1st time i herd their first album and i never heard of horchata b4 so i dont think that really matters(?)

the lol cape - if they really wanted to snobby abt it they wouldve gone full nantucket

what abt how the singer is always looking out the side of his eyes while the rest of the band is all yeah welp - dont u find that a bit off putting

yeah it's a little weird he looks like he's trying to find a sniper

nah iv heard of nantucket so

im talking relative social status not obscurity here

also nantucket is a ghetto doesn't really work with the meter so u might as well admit u were rong

lol im just sayin even poors go to the cape

if they wrote a song called "man from nantucket" i probably still wouldn't like them but i might lol a little.

I don't think "inoffensive" is a insult when referring to this band. It's hard to speculate when a band's only made two albums, but I suspect these guys are, like Spoon, a really good minor band.

i agree w/that

So who's a major band right now then? Not disagreeing, just axing.

Why does everyone talk like Hipster Runoff on this thread?

bands that fall under the category "bands for people who listen to too much music" xp

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/01/have-u-caught-vampy-fever.html

I didn't mean inoffensive as an insult but it's not exactly a bragging point either.

is that HRO link worth clicking on?

Is an HRO link ever worth clicking on?

without apparently doing anything particularly original or special, an album by an indie outfit that 'builds upon' previous works becomes one of the most talked-about and feted records of the year

why

Writing solid, non-novelty, hooky album earns band fans. Who would've thought it???

i think we are confusing 'novelty' with 'interesting' maybe?

You're right. You've convinced me. I actually find the album very boring and I've been lying for the indie cred that I thought such a position might reward me.

dood, u been jaggerd

ha i'm just saying that the word 'novelty' is loaded with inappropriate connotations - it is as if experimentation or originality is some kind of non-serious jape - i do not like the word

Mordy oddly prescient. just wasted twenty seconds of my life skimming another worthless tl;dr Carles post.

incidentally nothing against VW but the pattern in my first post there is endlessly, endlessly recurring imo - it is not their fault they get 1500-post threads when other bands get maybe a couple of mentions

That's some Geir-level critique imo. Band must be original as only standard of value?

no i didn't say that

xp to alfred - they might end up as minor in the long run, but at the moment it seems as if they're blasting through the indie-pop ozone layer at uncontrollable speeds. there's a lot to that spoon comparison, but i think they might be standing in just the right spot with their mouths wide open to gain enormously from this whole 'mainstreaming of indie' thing that i hear is going on.

if you don't know by now why vw generate 1500 posts i really don't know what to tell you

So then stop acting shocked that people like the band even tho they aren't the most innovative force on Earth. (I'd actually argue there is something innovative about what they're doing, but that's irrelevant.) Are you bitching on the Owl City thread about the lightning bugs?

i'm overstating my case as usual but today at least this thread has been a hoover. there's a good chance I'LL like the band a little! my problem is with the devotion of so much thought and discussion and analysis to something that's pretty straightforward, not with the band.

I kinda think there's are some complexities in the Vampire Weekend thing. I'm on spec for an article about Jewish artists and afropop as a new mediation of Jewish-Black musical relations (riffing off The Right to Sing the Blues), so it could definitely be I'm hearing very different things in this album than you are.

hmm - that's certainly a way of looking at it. i'm concentrating not on VW personally so much as a wider indie malaise where albums become important cultural bellwethers and periodical yardsticks rather than, you know, artworks. viewed as art, it's possible to like VW and to appreciate their appropriations, and their songs. but like others before them they seem to be about to transcend a musical sphere where there's choice, and enter one where there's consensus. hard to quite describe what i mean but when this record ends up near the top of most year-end lists regardless of publication like certain other albums of late, my point will be made. the idea that (and i'm sure none of you are doing this) you can stop after hearing all the 'important' records because that is how 2010 or whatever should have sounded for you. as i say, none of you are guilty, i'd imagine, but the creation of indie consensus goes against the spirit of musical exploration. try not to suggest ban me, i'll be off this thread soon enough. not looking for trouble, just a bit exasperated.

I think the problem is that you participate way too much in this Hipster Runoff community. You gotta emancipate yourself, bro.