Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I climbed to Dharamsala too
I did
I met the highest lama
His accent sounded fine
to me, to me

I mean, how great is that?

Not very.

well I done bin told

I think it's pretty good for a kid of modest pretension. So's the kumbaya of "No excuse to be so callous; Dress yourself in bleeding madras; Charm your way across the Khyber Pass."

dress yourself in bleeding madras?????????

This is what I've been saying forever: lost in the hyperbole of message-boarding is the fact that not everything is going to be the best thing ever or the worst thing ever. It should still be OK for people to form bands and write some songs without being microanalyzed for their background, influences, and agenda. The PFork review captures this sentiment perfectly.

I donwloaded this off Derek ages ago but have only just, prompted, vanity-style, by Matt DC's mention of me in his post way up where, got around to listening to it. And I like it. Nicely organised! Haha, it is very sweet, and spacious, and gentle. It's just... music? I wouldn't listen to it for the sake of it being "afropop". I'd listen to it because it's got some great sounds and melodies and rhythms and vocals. Nice strings, too. (Looking at it in Audacity, there's shitloads of space. Niiiiiice.) I'm gonna go and buy a real copy of this, and without fear. The brevity of the songs stops it veering full-on into Paul Simon / Peter Gabriel / Sting wankywank. I think. It's just good odd-pop, aye? The lightness of touch is what confirms it to me as pop.

Low expectation havin' motherfuckers.

Actually, to be fair to Whiney, I should note that the one clear indie "intellectual" streak to Koenig's writing is that he definitely exists in a collegiate space of references to history and geography and information about the world, as much as information about the life that's right in front of you: serial commas, the Khyber Pass, the Mansard roof and the admiralty, kefir on keffiyehs, etc. Which is totally natural for someone recently out of college, and a natural match for a collegiate audience well beyond pricey Ivy League campuses.

I donwloaded this off Derek ages ago

Psst, this isn't the Stylus board.

I've only heard the EP, which is good to very good. The Graceland comparisons aren't exactly right; the band borrows the spirit without stealing riffs or motifs wholesale. Which is just fine. It makes more sense for a crew of preps to know about "Afropop" via their parents' Paul Simon collection than attempting a grotesque King Sunny Ade thing on their own.

i think the word "natural" was my favourite part of yr review, nabisco. yes.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b106/g_karalexis/image.gif

what happened was someone fucking w/nabisco or something?

-- jhøshea, Monday, January 28, 2008 5:25 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I wasn't the proto-Jagger: that thread get revived, and someone (Heave Ho?) kept pasting in my name, and at some point I think mods decided it was easier to just put on the Jagger-filter than keep coming back and snipping it out. At this point it would probably be safe to remove the filter and just go back and clean up the thread.

-- nabisco, Monday, January 28, 2008 7:15 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

lets cyberfuck

I wanted to go to the show tomorrow night (at Bowery) but apparently those 15$ tickets sold out really quickly. :(

do people actually like the singer's voice? do they wish more generic indie yelpers would put a little "tally me banana" in the mix?

i mean i get why people like the IDEA of this band, "breath of fresh air" and all, its the execution i'm like why god why over.

I don't like his voice. But I don't mind it. I just find the music very catchy.

I say it's one of the most refreshing and replayable records of the year.

why didn't voxtrot have this much hype.....they seem very similar to me....thats just me though....voxtrot got recognition but VW is kind of in another league with the fast exposure

Take it back to late 2006/early 2007--every piece of media in NYC had started hyping Vampire Weekend. It seriously reminds me of the Strokes.

This is really a great band. And saying there the Artic Monkeys of 2008 is so true. Both really great bands.
I think the Vamp Weeks and the Wombats album will be the true highlights of 2008.

yeah, I mean wtf. I like the Arctic Monkeys a lot! If VW can record two albums as good as AM's, they're in good shape.

And, um, what the fuck doesm"angular" mean?)

yeah.

I like how we keep going through this same shit over and over again.

They will be hyped until their next album, then slowly forgotten. Or not so slowly (are Arctic Monkeys still alive?).

Why can't we hype artists that are continually making solid releases and/or artists who actually take CHANCES and you can listen to it without having to be in some context?

i haven't really heard these guys one of the videos i watched reminded me of the video for "just got lucky" by the joboxers

The lightness of touch is what confirms it to me as pop.

shit like this (which is so so common in indie webzines) reminds me of Xgau's crack about the macca: "I've finally figured out what people mean when they call Paulie pop--they mean he's not rock."

how many afropop combos are a three piece? Anybody else think they could do with a second percussionist or something?

or wait the singer plays guitar too, right? four piece.

if you had a better singer, bigger hooks and a better groove, these guys would really be something. namely "nothing but flowers."

i can kinda get into these guys, y'know.

And, um, what the fuck doesm"angular" mean?)

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 28 January 2008 22:44 (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Wire-Chairs_Missing_%28album_cover%29.jpg

I think they could do with a better drummer.

I mean, how great is that?

-- gabbneb, Monday, January 28, 2008 1:22 PM

Not very.

-- Ned Raggett, Monday, January 28, 2008 1:26 PM

ZING

anyone else want white boys doing afro pop, but with some authenticity in the form of omg actual african's?
http://www.myspace.com/extragolden

i feel kind of weirdly proud of not having an opinion about this band. maybe i'm gonna make it after all.

I feel this burning need to do a poll on who does and does not like "Love Plus One" by Haircut 100

Hahahaha I've been meaning to reference that song on here eventually.

along the lines of "wake me when they record something as good as Love Plus One."

I don't know why but "Hourglass" by Squeeze keeps coming to mind.

THEY'RE SOPHISTI-POP

http://static.flickr.com/90/235126080_19de696493.jpg

man, where ARE the young new wave dorks making pop songs as good as Love Plus One? I mean, shit, the late 90s had LOTS more goofy awesome new wave hits than today, and yet NOW is when we're allegedly resurrecting the 80s and going "ahh yes I see some folks in NYC have discovered Johnny Hates Jazz."

really alternapop, that time between the first Tibetan Freedom Concert and Woodstock III, by way of being really gaudy and ACTUALLY SUCCESSFUL and incorporating newfangled concepts like record scratching and whatnot, was more truly in the spirit of new wave than just regurgitating the ZE catalog for bloggers.

What are you talking about? Len? Smashmouth? Lit?

all that shit between the woodstocks! it was a nutty time.

honestly, Anthony, I'd love a group now who could record a song as good as "Shattered Dreams."

well who wouldn't? too bad we just got indie dicks mumbling/mewling over some sonic signifiers of the era.

Alfred otm.

Depends how important Graceland signifiers are to you. I forgot who said upthread that VW cops the sensibility of "I Know What I Know." Which is at least an honest secondhand appropriation. Besides, are you telling me that Paul Simon-as-vocalist can't be as fey as Ezra Keonig?

(xpost)

steal my sunshine is the bomb