Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

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.

I've read an interview with them. They're definitely smart people, I'll grant you that.

like if it was ever in doubt, they just spent two years reading about the way they look & what they sing about and the first single they drop from their new album rhymes "horchata" with "balaclava"

its pretty funny how throwing on a blazer has rendered this pleasant minor band who play a style of music no one really listens to anymore worth having strong opinions abt

and as someone who grew up in an affluent boston suburb i can definitively state that their stance is clearly playful and not irl wasp shit

I guess you can read that in one of two ways: (a) they read the criticism of their image, and rather than cut against it to curry favor with their critics, they doubled-down on the image as an in-joke to themselves and their fans or (b) this is just the kind of music they write.

(xp to J0rdan)

yeah but that would imply that they were never in on it in the first place, and i think that's definitely not the case

i think it's both in a sense although if they CHANGED images now somehow i mean who the fuck wouldn't call them on it

its pretty funny how throwing on a blazer has rendered this pleasant minor band who play a style of music no one really listens to anymore worth having strong opinions abt

lol. I still listen to -- and enjoy -- some yacht rock. But I can't appreciate it without a ton of ironic distance (like, "I love this stuff for nostalgic reasons, but this band is such a bunch of tools").

but yeah i have read stuff that indicates that this is just sort of the stuff ezra is interested in and likes to write about

("She's just 16 years old, leave her alone, they say . . .")

but yacht rock never really played up class signifiers did it?

I'm not sure about that. It certainly seemed like a bunch of 30 to 40-ish upper middle-class white guys, with a fruity drink in hand, strutting up to some barely 19 year old girl.

So maybe not overt class signifiers, but it was in the subtext.

(Don't get me wrong, with the appropriate ironic distance of someone who experienced the era (tho I was v. young at the time), I love yacht rock).

By yacht rock do you mean Steely Dan, Doobie Bros, Hall & Oates? Because this doesn't seem like a modern day equivalent of that to me.

they're certainly not oblivious to their privileged status, i'll give you that

Dan S: Not really. When I think "yacht rock," I think of Benny Mardones, Firefall, and Elvin Bishop, among others.

There's a bazillion threads on ILX identifying (and praising) yacht-rockers.