Still it is refreshing that after banging on in my blogs for the last two years about Apostle of Hustle and other Canadian worthies fusing indie and world music that someone outside Canada's latched onto the idea.
Are you saying Apostle of Hustle and company came up with the idea of fusing indie and world music? I guess it depends on how you define "indie."
― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:26 (sixteen years ago) link
I was cheered that MattDC is into this, but was all wtf at his finding 'irish' influences. Then I realized maybe he means the pre-chorus keys in 'A-Punk'? They sound Zep-ripped to me.
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:12 (sixteen years ago) link
I assumed he was thinking of the violin at the start of "Bryn," actually.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, I suppose. I think that comes out of compositional study.
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Bryn's an Irish name, isn't it?
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Welsh.
― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.higheredjobs.com/images/ProfileLogos/ProfileImg_353_020013.gif
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I think that comes out of compositional study.
is this code for "classical music"?
― Jordan, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link
well, that's where you start when you study composition, but it's not necessarily where you end, especially at columbia
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link
"Composition" is a good way to refer to contemporary classical without using that oxymoronic term.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Has anyone heard the House Of Blondes album? Mastered by the same people. Similar NYC literate indie pop. Very interesting.
This is great though. Just so... enjoyable.
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:34 (sixteen years ago) link
They remind me a little of Spoon.
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
vampire weekend = trying to fuck a week after you had your balls cut off.
I think people in the NYC area are reasonable in hating them. If you know how things work here, you know a band like VKWW shooting to the tops out of nowhere usually means they had some ... assistance.(ala the STrokes). Doesn't put their merit in question necessarily, but a little resentment is natural.
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:52 (sixteen years ago) link
voice is on the case:
Vampire Weekend: Meant for Joy, Not Rage, By Mike Powell
Vampire Weekend: Please Ignore This Band
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link
what does that even mean?
vampire hands is like trying to mow the lawn with a english muffin a day after it rained!
― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Re their outfits: Dockers and deck shoes are indeed questionable
That's from the latter article. Ugh, it depresses me that someone is criticizing them based on what they are wearing at a given moment.
― dell, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm no doubt obtuse, but I can't understand Shepherd's politics or rockcrit: VW's music, with its immaculate construction, its high-collared violin solos, its boy's-choir croonery, is claustrophobically ordered—the sound of a band lulling itself into complacency. Whether they are truly bluebloods is beside the point: They embrace and exalt the accoutrements of a privileged Mo' Money/No Problems lifestyle.
PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY TECHNICAL COMPETENCE DENOTES AN EMBRACE OF REAGAN-ERA VALUES.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:25 (sixteen years ago) link
plus i hate all the sex-music metaphors ppl say all the time...like "the decemberists is like having a wank in the hall closet, the meters are like fucking in a cheap hotel room"...it just seems lazy anyway and the whole thing is just a way for dudes to suggest that they are real freaky cats in teh sack, check it out ladeez...
also a big fan of: "shit like this can't rock a dance floor" by dudes that sit in front of computers all the time and never go out.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:26 (sixteen years ago) link
i forgot to mention the last one is by julianne shepherd ftr
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link
We have blog house now, we don't need to go out.
xp
― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:29 (sixteen years ago) link
powell predictably otm he might be my fave critic around right now
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
people who think this music is joyful must have some easy-flow seratonin. it sounds like sonic drywall
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:35 (sixteen years ago) link
The last line of "One"—"Oh, your collegiate grief has left you dowdy in sweatshirts/Absolute horror!"—is as bitterly mocking as Evelyn Waugh or Whit Stillman
That line actually reminds of aFrenzal Rhomb lyric (Australians are prob the only people who know who they are)not Evelyn Waugh.
― W4LTER, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:36 (sixteen years ago) link
music is made for metaphor. but not vice versa. g'night.
xxp
― whatever, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:36 (sixteen years ago) link
more xxxxxxps than that actually. who cares.
― whatever, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:37 (sixteen years ago) link
sorry about yr mental problems, burt
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Ha, my biggest bone to pick with Dr. Shep would be the contention that they are out to whitewash African music, as opposed to the more plausible claim that they've just grabbed a pinch of it to flavor their indie/pop.
This seems symptomatic of that thing where, once someone's successful, it becomes tempting to read all their decisions as canny, cynical, and pitched at the context of the whole world. It seems a million times more plausible to me -- it seems flat-out self-evident to me -- that these were nerdy collegiate pop players who listened to some African pop and copped a couple rhythms and guitar sounds. Calling this a conscious whitewash of African music is like saying marinara sauce is an attempt to water down basil.
(xpost!! Burt is awesome on this thread, it's like there was a horrible car accident where Waldorf died and now all we have is a brain-injured Statler)
― nabisco, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:41 (sixteen years ago) link
hey johnny rotten defaced that pink floyd shirt for YOU, man. never forget.
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:45 (sixteen years ago) link
P.S.: I have a pretty firm belief that this album will wind up about where the first Strokes one did -- i.e., some time will pass, it'll cease to seem like an issue to have strong opinions about, and people will circle around into some general agreement that these are catchy and likable ordinary songs, the kind that come on in bars and people smile and go "oh yeah, this was a nice tune," etc. It's interesting how their detractors object to their being branded the Amazing New Thing, whereas their supporters tend not to claim this -- the claim tends to be that they made a particularly solid/likable pop record.
What I'd be interested in hearing, detractor-wise, is an argument for why that sort of record doesn't belong in people's lives -- what's wrong with having that one pleasant, breezy, well-written indie record in your season's buying that you use the way I'm imagining people will use this one. (I mean, you can want something riskier and bloodier and with more fire, and even the legendary 12-CD-buyer has 11 other chances at that, but ... why get galled about this doing something else rather well? Unless your complaint is the suspicion that those other 11 will be the exact same thing, which doesn't really have anything to do with the quality of this one.)
― nabisco, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:51 (sixteen years ago) link
8) i do it becuz i care
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:53 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
lol
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Haw!
― roxymuzak, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 02:54 (sixteen years ago) link
nabisco otm re strokes comparison. it was the first thing i heard when i started listening.
― fukasaku tollbooth, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 03:04 (sixteen years ago) link
this is a cute enough record but I don't hear gabriel influence much at all; simon, yeah. you do realize this album is about three steps away from being the dave matthews band, though, right? I mean, really. but it's pretty good.
― akm, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 05:12 (sixteen years ago) link
you do realize this album is about three steps away from being the dave matthews band, though, right?
um, yeah?! :D dmb is way less popwise or compositionally astute or pretty or intelligent tho.
great show tonight, btw.
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 06:06 (sixteen years ago) link
or tasteful, if you care about that sort of thing
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 06:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Results 1 - 10 of about 55 for "vampire weakened". (0.13 seconds)
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 11:11 (sixteen years ago) link
nabisco otm
― tremendoid, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 11:32 (sixteen years ago) link
What I'd be interested in hearing, detractor-wise, is an argument for why that sort of record doesn't belong in people's lives -- what's wrong with having that one pleasant, breezy, well-written indie record in your season's buying that you use the way I'm imagining people will use this one.
first off, "what's wrong with one pleasant, breezy well-written album?" is a hair away from "when did you stop beating your wife?" I mean, boo fucking hoo, dude. the "argument" is basically that you can find stronger vocals, hooks, and grooves from afropop-jackers of twenty years ago (not to mention afropop itself), and that the difference in quality makes the album not particularly pleasant for the "detractor." How hard is that to get?
― da croupier, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
and please don't follow this with the "i'd like detractors to specifically name the twenty better afro-pop jackin albums they prefer" argument
― da croupier, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 14:49 (sixteen years ago) link
also, folks who say the strokes album is full of "likable ordinary songs" aren't seeing the forest for the trees. The Strokes have a very idiosyncratic, atypical style, one that's manna for fans of Feelie/New Order jacked up trebly drone strums and slurred vocals. They're NOT ordinary, it's still subculture pop. And when people call those kind of albums "ordinary," its usually blinkered indie "my world is the world" logic.
― da croupier, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
"likable ordinary" implies that those who don't need it are the freaks, rather that the music is niche bubblegum
― da croupier, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link
The first afro-indie band were probably Red Guitars and there's more than a touch of their 'Marimba (Jive)' in some of Vampire Weekend's tracks. Jerry Kidd had a less sweet way with a melody; and as they were socialists from Hull the Red Guitars were unlikely to be caught up in the Ralph Lauren cardigan controversies that seem to be the main objection to the VWs. Sure the Red Guitars would be pleased that class war is alive and well.
― Guy Beckett, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
its possible that i might hear the pleasure in vampire weekend when i look past the groove that feels minimal and tepid compared to larger combos and the singer who has a lot of typical indie flaws compared to even paul simon and david byrne, but as of now I'm still kind of hung up their inability to provide the pleasures I usually expect from this kind of thing.
― da croupier, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
and the singer who has a lot of typical indie flaws compared to even paul simon and david byrne
PAUL SIMON AND DAVID BYRNE ARE NOT CHOPPED LIVER!
jeez, it's like everyone's all dissin' simon on this thread, like vampire weekend ever wrote a song as good as mrs. robinson or had chevy chase in their video. don't even start w/r/t to the talking heads, this is majors vs. minor leagues.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:40 (sixteen years ago) link
As far as I know, Vampire Weekend have yet to steal arrangements from Martin Carthy or break UN sanctions.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:45 (sixteen years ago) link
(this is where we need Geir to come in and say that the apex of afro-indie fusion was Dance Into The Light by Phil Collins)
― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:47 (sixteen years ago) link
as long as you have chevy chase in your video you can commit genocide for all i care
― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Steve Gadd vs. this weak-ass drumming
― Jordan, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:48 (sixteen years ago) link
the drumming live is v different from that on the record
― gabbneb, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 16:49 (sixteen years ago) link