if vampire weekend were really evil geniuses like JM they would've made the banner ad upthread clickthru-able
― tramp steamer, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 05:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I think it's very difficult not to see the massive hype of Vampire Weekend as signaling a new change in the marketplace. Just like The Strokes (who, I find it difficult not to compare them to) and their NooYawk thrift store aesthetic (cheap amps, dollar bin new wave) and the "New Rock Revolution"; I feel like we're due a college boy aesthetic of Polo Shirt chic and 90's pop-rock.
This is why people will probably hate Vampire Weekend pretty soon.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 10:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, reading this elif bautmann blog now. She is clever!
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 10:15 (sixteen years ago) link
batuman
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 10:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Classwise are VW any more 'offensive' to a certain mindset than Coldplay are in the UK?
― Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 11:37 (sixteen years ago) link
another-u2-lite doesn't really compare to the amount of non-rock signifiers VW dally with.
and hurting's posts about offensiveness really do work better if you think of 'rock' rather than 'popular music.'
― da croupier, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 13:24 (sixteen years ago) link
i almost kinda regret noting that cuz then the debate is "why should they have to rock?" when I'm much more curious about what the heck makes this good pop.
― da croupier, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 13:26 (sixteen years ago) link
really, if it wasn't for the bands symbol-play and the commentary it inspired would anyone anywhere have anything to say about them other than "zzz, ugh" or "wow! that's some good pop! that's just some...good pop!"
― da croupier, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 13:28 (sixteen years ago) link
The purpose of pop isn't "talking about it" though.
― Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah but the purpose of praising it is
― da croupier, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 13:42 (sixteen years ago) link
I feel like we're due a college boy aesthetic of Polo Shirt chic and 90's pop-rock.
In the words of Divine, "KILL EVERYONE NOW."
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not sure what "'90s pop rock" means, but it would be kind of cool if Vampire Weekend ended up rescuing us from the baleful influence of '90s grunge-rock.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
lolindie vampire weekend to da rescue
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/shared-blogs/austin/music/upload/2008/02/write_and_win_spin_party_passe/spincover.jpg
― tramp steamer, Friday, 22 February 2008 05:32 (sixteen years ago) link
ew, looking kinda inbred
― gershy, Friday, 22 February 2008 05:35 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah they've seen better days
― J0rdan S., Friday, 22 February 2008 05:37 (sixteen years ago) link
So, I pick up an old NME with the album being reviewed, and say "OK", and immediately the video for "A Punk" comes on e4.
I like.
― Mark G, Friday, 22 February 2008 07:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Although, boy does it remind me of "Little Girl" by the Banned!
― Mark G, Friday, 22 February 2008 09:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I think they're cute in that picture, I wonder what that says about me...
― I know, right?, Friday, 22 February 2008 10:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Curiosity got the better of me and I went to their show at ULU last night. They seemed like pleasant boys, shirts tucked in and everything.
Shame about the fire alarm + evacuation mid-way through their set.
― Upt0eleven, Friday, 22 February 2008 11:23 (sixteen years ago) link
damon did it !
― tramp steamer, Friday, 22 February 2008 18:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Le Weekend Vampire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osCK6rs2RNA&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSa23oJy78U&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1Qgdt9tTlk
― gabbneb, Saturday, 23 February 2008 19:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Dirty Projectors review on Dusted by VW singer from 2003...
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1012
― Benjamin-, Thursday, 28 February 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
wait, isn't that the same VW singer that also played in the Dirty Projectors touring band?
― Hurting 2, Thursday, 28 February 2008 17:24 (sixteen years ago) link
So I got the single...
See, it's a 'pack' where you get the CD single and the 7" single for £3.99
So, it's one for the price of two: Same 2 tracks on both, the admittedly fine a-side, and a badly recorded 'demo' version of some lesser track.
― Mark G, Friday, 29 February 2008 09:37 (sixteen years ago) link
B-b-but the album pretty much WAS their "demos" -- they have pre-demos somewhere? I thought the single b-side was "Ladies of Cambridge," which is from the same sessions as everything else.
― nabisco, Friday, 29 February 2008 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Xgau:
Young twentysomethings who write about what they know -- college. Liberal arts majors broad-minded enough to worry that "ion displacement won't work in the basement," they took their Columbia studies seriously, which is my idea of how to exploit privilege (though how much privilege is less self-evident than Ivy-hatas assume). Hence all the flags about appropriated exotica, class distinctions and cultural capital -- and the not unrelated correct accents, designer brands and vacation retreats. Their chief thematic concern is whether there's life after graduation, and rather than Afropop, from which they misprise a guitar sound but nothing of the groove it was conceived to serve, their music, as with most fresh recent bands good and bad, is quite Euro. Affecting a clarity and delight that pleases the many and confounds the some, their lyrically alluring, structurally hop-skip-and-jumping songs aren't deep. They're just thoughtful fun. And now let me give it up to an I Love Music post by Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef: "off- kilter, upbeat guitar pop, with -- in comparison to their peers -- something singular about both their music (e.g. not just the touches of African pop but the willingness to use space and let the songs breathe a bit) and their lyrics (detail-heavy, expressive; too bad they're images of wealth instead of poverty, otherwise they'd be critical manna)." Right on, my brother. Grade: A MINUS
Grade: A MINUS
― Ioannis, Saturday, 1 March 2008 14:37 (sixteen years ago) link
that line came to me even later - it's even better than the fireflies one
― gabbneb, Saturday, 1 March 2008 14:44 (sixteen years ago) link
they have pre-demos somewhere?
there's this - http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1041/free-songs-vampire-weekend
― gabbneb, Saturday, 1 March 2008 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I wouldn't say its their clarity and delight that confounds me.
― da croupier, Saturday, 1 March 2008 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Its possible that if I hear "A-Punk" 30 more times (which Fuse, record stores, coffeeshops, etc seem dead set on making happen) I might like it as much as the 5th best track on Outlandos D'amour ("Truth Hits Everybody"?). If I could get past the vocals and into their witty lyrics maybe the songs would resonate stronger. I appreciate the Tim Pope-ness of the video.
― da croupier, Saturday, 1 March 2008 15:51 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=24636
― gabbneb, Saturday, 1 March 2008 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
SNL next weekend
― gabbneb, Sunday, 2 March 2008 18:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Breakup end of month, solo album from lead singer in May, Behind the Music special in June, acoustic roots reunion album in September...
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 2 March 2008 18:20 (sixteen years ago) link
hahahahaha
― stephen, Sunday, 2 March 2008 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/01/vampire_weekend_backlash.html
― gabbneb, Sunday, 2 March 2008 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm ahead of being behind my time.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 2 March 2008 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought these were awful on Jools Holland the other night - such a thin, limp sound.
― chap, Sunday, 2 March 2008 19:04 (sixteen years ago) link
limpcore
― gershy, Sunday, 2 March 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
i wonder how much vampire weekend owes in student loans. columbia has to be pretty expensive. kudos to them for having the grit to record music while working jobs to pay school off
― kamerad, Sunday, 2 March 2008 20:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Does anyone want to go with me to the show in SF on Sunday? You can't smoke.
― youn, Thursday, 6 March 2008 01:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Oops. I searched for threads and thought this was ILE. My apologies. Please ignore the post above.
― youn, Thursday, 6 March 2008 01:44 (sixteen years ago) link
They're getting more push from MTV again this week. Between videos in the early morning hours (between 6 a.m. and 8 Eastern time) see them in short clips, riding bikes, singing, and chatting about their fave songs on their album, etc.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 March 2008 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.subterraneanblog.com/2008/03/04/mtv-artist-of-the-week-vampire-weekend/
― tramp steamer, Thursday, 6 March 2008 23:22 (sixteen years ago) link
O! I wish I had a television at times.
― youn, Friday, 7 March 2008 01:26 (sixteen years ago) link
The best thing in that was the gesture.
― youn, Friday, 7 March 2008 01:43 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1582660&vid=213890
John Jay and ButlerStax!
― gabbneb, Friday, 7 March 2008 06:10 (sixteen years ago) link
one of those videos features an appearance by an Official Columbia Squirrel (or possibly an Official Columbia Squirrat)
― gabbneb, Friday, 7 March 2008 06:17 (sixteen years ago) link
i dont really care about this band but im just dropping in to say jshepard's vv article was awful
kthnxbye
― deej, Saturday, 8 March 2008 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link
First off, this Friday's FADER radio was one of my favorites ever, because we played all music related to our Africa issue (mostly hiplife from Ghana, lest any deans and/or peens deem it necessary to take my specificity to task and/or publicly renounce our friendship - LO mfin L!). JShep, now working at Fader, on her blog
Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live tonight
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 8 March 2008 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Good lord, it's like they're constitutionally or contractually unable to do any sort of press more than four blocks from the corner of 114th and Amsterdam.
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 March 2008 20:54 (sixteen years ago) link