Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

gotta finda apostrophe brb

i think i would like this band more if they had a umlaut over the "a" and spelled it like "vampyre"

Had always avoided this band thinking I wouldn't be into them - but when I noticed this thread was turning clusterfucky I decided to stream the album and found it was excellent, would listen again.

u should check out dave matthews band

We might as well throw in Steely Dan as another reference point for VW.

― Cunga, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:21 AM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"Okay, first one is a warning."

http://www.mvchamber.org/pictures/news/323.jpg

xposts (or who cares anyway but)

i'm not saying vampire weekend isn't an indie band. i'm saying they're an indie manifestation of a world-beat lineage that, sure, goes back to byrne/gabriel/paul simon and beyond, but also includes a big chunk of the modern jam-groove universe even if indie fans don't know it because they don't listen to that stuff. and when i was trying to get a handle on what exactly i don't like about vampire weekend, i realized that my reaction was similar in a lot of ways to what i don't like about a lot of that stuff. which, when i thought about it, made sense. to me, anyway. there are similar aesthetics at play, a similar facile-ness in the grooves, a sort of irritating self-congratulation in the appropriations... and, yeah, those yelpy vocals.

no joke 'send me on my way' is an all-timer for me

that's exactly the song that vw first made me think of.

Had always avoided this band thinking I wouldn't be into them - but when I noticed this thread was turning clusterfucky I decided to stream the album and found it was excellent, would listen again.

Stick around. In a week you'll be like the rest of us, looking at their tax returns and vacation history.

fav dmb jam' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGA_n5LFUw

gotta say i dont hear rusted root or DMB in vämpyre weekend at all, even tho im willing to go to bat for the jam 90s/2000s jam band axis

They should work "pupuseria" into one of their lyrics.

i mox u on VW thred.

― Did you say you were going to mangle the light? (staggerlee), Monday, January 18, 2010 9:20 PM (5 minutes ago)

lol @ old conflating casual typing w/ lolcat speak. why don't you email this page to your aunt or something

think i'll just keep posting in "rapspeak", goof

i think it's straight-up wacky to say vw shares musical qualities with the jamosphere

AH CONFL8D U!

ive only heard that song by these guys that is in step-brothers at the start and it's so weird hearing them compared to Paul Simon and shit when that just sounds like a mid-90s ska-punk record.

Also horchata de chufas is a very nice drink, does that make me a wasp?!?!?!

bzzzzzzzzzzzz

yes jim if youve only heard a-punk not really sure if this discussion will be meaningful to you...

serious question tho: what is a "contra" in the last song? is it slang that i dont know, or is it just a word that means something to ezra?

up up down down b a b a select start

Srsly?

The Contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship. Although the Contra movement included a number of separate groups, with different aims and little ideological unity, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as by far the largest. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.

From an early stage, the rebels received both overt and covert financial and military support from the United States government through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), initially supplemented by the Argentine dictatorship of the time. At other times the US Congress wished to distance itself from the Contras and withdrew all overt support.

It's also a video game that young people play.

i think i would like this band more if they had a umlaut over the "a" and spelled it like "vampyre"

― Na'vi Girls (Need Love Too) (M@tt He1ges0n), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 10:21 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

would listen to

thank you for the history lesson alfred, and the video game matt, i am actually aware of both of those meanings of the word "contra"

believe max is asking abt what it means in the song particularly

so are jam bands pretty good but douchey i don't get it, dont wanna tuomas this to death but i don't wanna have to go away and listen to like five albums by phish b4 i can have an opinion on this 4 this thread. send me on my way is a great song tho

i appreciate that my inability to capitalize or use punctuation has led you to believe that i am very stupid though

uk version should be called probotector

it's a cipher you see, it means whatever you want it to mean

IKR u should move to NYC so we can start a band

doesn't ezra's "contra" just mean someone (a girl i assume) who's turned "against" him? but with (glib, irritating) political/historical reference thrown in just for fun.

eh really im asking because i have a halfway take on it but i dont want to embarrass myself by writing a thing and then having someone be all "lol @ u actually a contra is [meaning of slang term]"

surprised he didn't rhyme contra with sriracha to throw in more waspy signifiers

jam bands are kind of boring and vanilla; that is the thing about them. also they don't have "songs" per se, they have "jams"

hey max i think you are smart fwiw : )

i figured u just wanted to show off how much u know about video games ;-)

They've said their use of "contra" denotes someone who's disagreeable and pessimistic.

here i have c&pd the lyrics - noticed it has the word revolution in it - seems like tipsys prob right

I had a feeling once
That you and I
Could tell each other everything
For two months
But even without hope
With truth on our side
When you turn away from me
It's not right

I think you're a Contra
I think you're a Contra
And dear Contra
I think you're a Contra

My revolution thoughts
Live in lies of desire
I wanna trace them to the source
And the wire
But it's not useful now
Since we both made up our minds
You gotta watch out for yourself
So will I

I think you're Contra
I think that you lie
Don't call me Contra
Till you've tried

You wanted good schools
And friends with pools
You're not a Contra
You wanted Rock' n' Roll,
Complete control
Well, I don't know

Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you
Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you

I think you're Contra
I think that you lie
Don't call me Contra
Till you've tried

should have used "debbie downer" instead IMO

jam bands are kind of boring and vanilla; that is the thing about them. also they don't have "songs" per se, they have "jams"

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:36 AM (1 second ago) Bookmark

so like uh, balearic then?

max i would like to hear your theory

tons of bands that don't have "songs" are rad as shit

lol like balearic + 15 years of guitar lessons

IKR u should move to NYC so we can start a band

― max, Tuesday, January 19, 2010 2:35 AM (2 minutes ago)

nobody ever says "i shud move to the west of ireland so we can start a band"

"Contra" also rhymes with "horchata" in the kind of Dickinson-esque slant rhyme that college grad Ezra Koenig would have studied.

i know matt not having songs was not part of the value judgement

You wanted good schools
And friends with pools
You're not a Contra
You wanted Rock' n' Roll,
Complete control
Well, I don't know

Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you
Never pick sides
Never choose between two
But I just wanted you

eh i dont really have a theory im just interested in these lyrics w/r/t some of the things being bandied about in this thread--class signifiers, privilege, contrarianism/"trolling", "indie rock"

this band would be better if they didn't have songs IMO like were more jammy and didn't have lyrics or singing and had more horns and thumb pianos and buzzy synth shit and had a rad rhythm section and horns and were like super funky and trippy.

like if they were Nomo and not Vampire Weekend.

but Nomo is just band geeks from Michigan and wouldn't be that cool to breakdown on threads like these.

CONTRArianism/"trolling"

It's threads like these that make me wish...Momus was still here. ;_;

nomo has no class signifiers iirc