Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

anyway i think this song is fantastic

I dunno how I feel about the song yet, but I like that a song about horchata now exists.

i really liked the guitar a lot on the first album, probably the thing i liked best about most of their songs. this definitely has an AC/panda bear thing going on with that break down with the steel drum-ish synths and "OOOHHHHHHHs". obviously there's a bunch more shit going on at the end...still kinda disappointing

I don't see the similarities with AC. Musically if not lyrically I think this song is great, and the complexity and subtlety of their musical arrangements is always underrated, because the focus is always on what they represent.

to me this sounds like potentially their best song

i really liked the guitar a lot on the first album

Me too, but I also like its non-presence on this track in favor of some cheapo synthy sounds. I'll never be a VW apologist and won't defend them if it takes more than a minute of my time, but I really like what they do.

omg this is worse than when he spilled kefir on his keffiyah

song is pretty good though

I like the bass line a lot; it's the string stuff that's more annoying this time -- it's cloying when set against Koenig's voice.

there is nothing "indie schmindie" about this song or vampire weekend

this is pretty good, i like ottoman a bit more. most annoying thing is that he sounds the "h" in horchata. death vessel did it right on their first record fyi.

VW is one indie band that i think can grow sonically for as long as they want and still make music that is interesting & good. rostam and ezra are just really great musicians, i think that def got lost in the fervor over their choice of college and brand of button up

true--it doesn't get mentioned much but tons of the first album was pretty much home-recorded. dudes have some untapped potential still.

How sublime! I hope this weekend never ends.

This song is really good, so here are my reasons for not liking this band:

i assume that is a picture of them wearing nice clothes that is blocked at my work?

Jody Rosen and Jonah Weiner discuss "Horchata":

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2009/10/07/track-of-the-week-vampire-weekend-s-horchata.aspx

This song is really good, so here are my reasons for not liking this band:

― sleepingbag, Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Yes yes, go on.

glad we'll be covering the exact same critical ground again when this album drops

Awesome, let's poll this.

Faust Arp

some good stuff in that slate bit

J.R.: I like Koenig, too. Good songwriter. I can't quite fathom the criticism leveled at Vampire Weekend for being, you know, too Ivy League, too effete. That's the point! They're owning it. And I think there's more intentional self-parody in Vampire Weekend's songs than they're given credit for. There's an ironic distance between the well-heeled, hyper-verbal post-collegiates who populate VW songs and Koenig himself. Although, of course, he fits that description. Come to think of it, there's a bit of Whit Stillman in the posture—the lovingly detailed, amused depiction of, as the Metropolitan director would have it, the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie. In any case, what I really like about this band are the hooks and the nifty arrangements.

this is super otm imo

yeah i dunno how you could hear a line like "spilled kefir on your keffiyah" and not get a strong stillman/allen vibe off the whole thing.

I guess they're just not made for my ears, tho I like them enough to have downloaded the debut (and I'll probably download the new disc, too). I like some of the influences I hear rumbling around the music. It's the final product that somehow leaves me cold or -- with respect to some of the lyrics -- makes me wince. You can see them as "writing lyrics where rhyming and phrasing and creating images that are evocative but not necessarily meaningful," à la Lil Wayne. I see them as "writing lyrics where rhyming and phrasing and creating images that are evocative but not necessarily meaningful," à la Barenaked Ladies.

Not trying to be a jackass, tho. De gustibus non est disputandum.

I'm glad they've decided to embrace their inner Haircut 100 and busted out the marimba.

seriously, I've always felt like "Love Plus One" is surely the biggest historical precedent for them in general

i can't help but think that they are explicitly trolling with these lyrics

― autogoon delight (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 5, 2009 5:54 PM (3 days ago)

this is a great way of putting it, and i think/hope it may even be more true than "self-parody"

so lame how a band can get dismissed for being too upper class but none ever is for being too low class. no THAT is a virtue.

Yeah. Honestly, no matter what they did they were going to get the same furor over no big deal as the s/t did, so the ballsy (and really only) thing to do is to go even MORE OTT with class signifiers and Aranciata.

I mean...not that the simile scans much beyond that, but it's sort of the Fall Out Boy post-Cork Tree thing, innit? Make us poster boys for yr scene but we are not making an acceptance speech, as long as the room keeps singing. etc. Whatever People Say I Am, That's Exactly What I Am x1000000. SO THERE..

xp, clearly.

this is very likable

breezy

xxxp

afrofuturist philosopher (The Reverend) wrote this on thread Whatcha listening to in 2008? on board I Love Music on Nov 21, 2008

Vampire Weekend are excellent trolls. I'm sure they are very amused as they play up their priveledged status, play oblivious, and watch certain folks sputter themselves silly. Pretty good band, too.

yeah otm

so lame how a band can get dismissed for being too upper class but none ever is for being too low class. no THAT is a virtue.

I'm not sure this is true. I imagine that a lot of people dislike certain rap acts or Southern rock acts because, for instance, they create an image for themselves that's too violent, misogynist, trashy, glib, or any other set of qualities the listener considers "low class."

I don't think it's surprising or objectionable that people form opinions based on the image an act creates for itself. FWIW, my problem with Vampire Weekend is (a) there's a cod-rock quality to their music that I've never liked and (b) I think their lyrics are sometimes embarassingly silly (not always, but certainly with this new song). And yeah, Vampire Weekend's irony-free "upper-class" image grates on me.

I totally get why people like them, tho. As I said, I've got their first disc, and I'll probably get their new disc.

ehh i mean be careful not to conflate like actual offensive content with like, dudes who wear polo. also, i think there's nothing irony-free abt their image.

Oh, I'm not trying to equate violence/polo-shirt wearing.

Maybe I'm missing VW's irony.

oh there's DEF ironic distance there

Maybe I should re-approach their debut album.

i think it's pretty obvious that playing around with people

yeah i mean i dont necessarily know how to describe but it's there--i think a lot of it is how detached and observational most of the lyrics are.

from the slate thing

J.W.: I was corresponding over e-mail with Ezra recently (I've known these guys a bit since they were undergrads), and he pointed out that it's very infrequently mentioned in pieces that catalog the band's penchant for deck shoes, Cape Cod shout-outs, etc., that the chief songwriters in the group—Ezra and Rostam Batmanglij—are of Jewish and Persian descent, respectively. Gatecrashers at the blueblood boating party. He wasn't disavowing or trying to cred up the band's Ivy League provenance so much as saying what you're saying: there's distance between the band and the world it narrates. I think that distance—ironic, critical—becomes apparent on the new album in subtle but important ways, if not on this song particularly.

"Playing around," yes. But not much irony dripping from them toward their "upper-crust" image, either.

i think there's also irony in the fact that the upper-class signifiers they use are completely played out--like, anyone can buy and wear (cheap) deck shoes and even i was able to swing a week on the cape last summer

Do you think they intend that part of their image to be understood as ironic?

Vampire Weekend are excellent trolls. I'm sure they are very amused as they play up their priveledged status, play oblivious, and watch certain folks sputter themselves silly. Pretty good band, too.

― hood acumen (The Reverend), Thursday, October 8, 2009 10:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah right. whatever makes you feel better

too violent, misogynist, trashy, glib

if only these traits were confined to a single class. yes i get it that it's about the listener's perception. Perhaps I should've used "working class" instead of "low class." Was Bruce Springsteen ever ever slammed for being too working class?

I don't think it's surprising or objectionable that people form opinions based on the image an act creates for itself.

It's just lame! Consider that an objection. Seems so high schoolish. "This band isn't cool enough and if I say I enjoy their music than I'm not cool either." It's 2009 and I guess I assumed people have moved past that Punk sort of mindset.

whatever makes you feel better

see, why the fuck would that make him feel better? why do you think he needs to make himself feel better about liking their music?

yeah right. whatever makes you feel better

― iago g., Thursday, October 8, 2009 9:12 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

you really don't think that this band is playing it up to bait people with a line like "i spilled kefir on your keffiyah"

i think it's seriously underestimating the mindset of lots of college bands & college kids to think that they couldn't be playing people for kicks. not every band is the arcade fire or kings of leon WALK THE WALK AND TALK THE TALK *serious promo photo*

daniel yeah i definitely do--from what i've read the one thing they are not is stupid and while their choice of clothes and signifiers may be informed first by their backgrounds i have no doubt they are very aware of how their self-presentation contrasts with other bands.