Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

"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

one other thing that didnt get pointed out when we were all being snotty abt the 96-pt futura bombs lyric upthread is how funnily and gleefully it plays w/ signifiers--i really dig the way that couplet pops up in the song

it also feels a kind of snide little "fuck you" to m.i.a.

what is the m.i.a. reference?

neon design-y war shit

maybe "fuck you" is a little strong--a snide little wink at m.i.a.

is that an example of works being 'in dialogue' with each other

"fuck you" would be too down market

WASPs dont curse, except at the help

if they serve horchatas to contras.

I assumed that in the context of the song "contra" meant a kind of rebel-against-everything, someone who is consciously going about to contradict or oppose all of the received wisdoms they're surrounded by.

So the chorus accusation "I think you're a contra" is kind of saying "I think you're just doing this for its own sake and there's nothing deeper going on".

And then when he starts talking about wanting good schools etc. and says "you're not a contra" he means "in fact you weren't even doing that, not deep down. Ultimately you wanted everything that your parents wanted for you." The rock & roll / complete control couplet to me means "you want it both ways, really" and the "well I don't know" bit means "I don't think that's possible ultimately".

Then the final bit is maybe saying that (back then) the singer would have gone along with whatever position you wanted to take in order to be with you.

tim u r smart

yah tim otm, also all those parts add up to a pretty tite description of a type

It reminds me of what feels to me like a fairly common modern fiction scenario where the male hero is so impressed by his sharp opinionated girlfriend that he just glosses over the inconsistency/superficiality of her positions until she dumps him for some hot rich dude.

Or maybe I'm imagining that this is a common modern fiction scenario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bUFqcDOfiw

nice! the drums on that song are fuckin monstrous

awesome

'horchata' is a catchy song but I don't really like having it in my head

Threads like this make me terrified to write lyrics. You can play a weird chord and no-one will blink, but stick in a few obscure words when you're stuck for a rhyme, and people will ruminate on them and conclude that you like to club baby seals.

guys it's pretty obvious that VW titling their second album after a synonym for "versus" is a nod to Pearl Jam

Giving Up The Glorified G

dope album

do i really need to read this thread? again??

Big feature on VW in the new issue of Relix btw (which gets sent to me in the mail, for some reason, even though I've never written for them.) Not as big as the Drive-By Truckers cover story or Pavement feature, though. (The latter has a sidebar from Trey Anastasio, who says "Pavement was the soundtrack to the second half of the '90s for me.") Also, Jon Pareles's review of VW's New York show in this morning's Times says it was their longest show ever, yet still completely unimprovisatory. Phish fans wouldn't approve of that, right?

longest show ever at 80 minutes.

honestly, a lot more bands would do well to keep their sets that short. when i saw Monsters of Folk play in Boston last fall, they played for an interminable three hours

i think most bands should play about 40 minutes, 7 or 8 songs

i think you could leave after 40 minutes

not the same thing, plus i want to ruin it for you

although tbh half the reason the MoF show was interminable was because, for the most part, their songs aren't that good

there aren't a whole lotta bands that can carry off 3 hours IMO

MoF probably could've carried an enjoyable half hour at best

even shit i love would probably start to lose me in a super marathon set...

bruce springsteen fronting hawkwind could probably do it

there aren't a whole lotta bands that can carry off 3 hours IMO

not a lot of rock bands at least

btw seriously can't believe how many people on this thread have never drank horchata

I'm allergic to almonds/not a New England WASP

recent VW gig attendees: did they have strings with them?

Three hours of GBV on the "farewell tour" made me second-guess my fandom for the band.

xp could use an horchata right now

do they have taquerias in waspland?

there aren't a whole lotta bands that can carry off 3 hours IMO

not a lot of rock bands at least

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:53 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah jazz is a whole different thing

recent VW gig attendees: did they have strings with them?

― Freddy 'The Wonder Chicken' (Gukbe)

the Times article xhuxk mentioned said there were strings at that show

new england wasps do not drink horchata

they dont even know what it is until they go to columbia

or hear Vampire Weekend

The only three hour show I really enjoyed was a Smashing Pumpkins show in 1996 on the MCIS tour. Billy got pissed off that a bunch of people left immediately after they played "1979" and decided he wanted to "punish" them, going on to play a 20+ minute "Silverfuck" and an even longer version of "The Aeroplane Flies High". Both were epic and among my favorite versions ever.