Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

right, and hopper doesn't think they're an okay band

there's a big difference between college and Ivy League in NYC though

nah not really

Like his distractors.

You know, I like this a LOT more than 'detractors!' I think you just coined a neologism, Scott.

so the thing is you're wrong, they're not a good band, you should download some fugazi

kind of think the only reason anyone cares is because theyre a pretty good band

they're settling becuz Koenig's a better Sting Costello than Patrick Stump reading Pete Wentz journals.

The band's Afropopisms are flourishes, no more central to the music than its whiffs of late-80s electro

why is this a criticism?

they're no style council

i mean, i don't think Hopper is really saying "indie rockers are supposed to be grubby proles," but is saying that's the common line of thinking

ha, of course ned, thx...I should stop firing this crap off w/o a second look

what university did haircut 100 go to?

ok but since she doesn't reject that position it seems like she supports it?

there's a big difference between college and Ivy League in NYC though

nah not really

― call all destroyer, Thursday, January 28, 2010 6:02 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

okay.

i literally have never heard anyone claim in any capacity that indie rock is grubby prole music

How is "Ivy League" a bad thing to some people? Do you guys sneering at it use the phrase "real America" too?

what university did haircut 100 go to?

Vidal Sassoon?

I was pissed when bands stopped dressing like ex-GBV members around the time Belle & Sebastian got big but man, that was a while ago

i mean hoppers coming from a whole different world of what "indie" meant than vamp week

totally

btw i really hope you will all help me spread "vamp week" as kinda a "BOC" or "the nuge" type foreshortening of this band's name

more like vamp weak

or would "the weekend" be better?

more like this band is weak

i'm ready to forgive yay-much muddled talk about class in any review that notes the drummer sucks

whether they're upper class or not, a #1 band can afford to lose the phish fan dorm buddy

i mean, scott, lets get real. to anyone who's actually PLAYED MUSIC IN NYC, yes it was real fucking annoying that a bunch of rich kids got super famous in 9 months when everyone else was working on year-six of doing web design, so they could trying to raise enough money to pay the retarded, prohibitive $500 a month it costs to rent a practice space in this town. That's why its annoying that they went to Columbia, not because they read Foucoult's Pendulum for homework or whatever

for a band whose ivy league-ness seems so central, one wishes they actually showed any intelligence or smarts about how they go about their business - precious, privileged kids "playing" w/class signifiers isn't necessarily bad, obv, but VW are so bloody lazy at it - it's not about disliking long words, it's about the fact that they don't go beyond just using long words. basically nellie mckay's debut album did everything VW's boosters claim they do, except stylistically she leans towards the musical and jazz traditions more than biting paul simon.

"africa" seems to be much more of a totemic object to hopper than it does to VW. i really doubt a continent's worth of musicians are all that pissed at what this band is up to, or would be, if they heard them. maybe some would be, and i'd love to read their take on it. but being offended on their behalf is ahem "problematic," as college kids like to say.

the realness-to-fake-import supply chain goes in a bunch of difft direction anyway. if VW claim that their auto-tune is supposed to be 'third world' and not t-pain, i guess that's kind of stupid. but i remember reading a bunch of stuff about autotune taking off in various african musics (rai maybe?) post t-pain. or maybe post-cher, heh.

where did cher go to college?

lol do people understand that there are no special classes that u can only take at an ivy league school

How is "Ivy League" a bad thing to some people?

does this really even need to be discussed

i am torn on how to answer that

I think there's another explanation for whatever class resentment you see against VW, and even moreso against The Strokes. Popular music, in its ideal, mythological sense, at least, is something many people have traditionally liked to think of as the sphere of the working classes, a sphere where people from poor or modest means rise to the top on their grit and energy and honesty and fire-in-the-belly.

If VW aren't rich rich, they're certainly privileged and they certainly come off as privileged. And somehow success appears to come so quickly and easily to them, almost to the extent that you'd think one of them had a well-connected parent like the Strokes did. And they may have no such connections, but that's how they come off. And to make things worse, they actually sing about stuff we associate with privilege, and if there's an irony to it, it's not the biting irony of satire, but a more gentle, almost blank irony. So even if there's a bit of tongue in cheek, the overriding message is still "We are privileged, life is easy for us, and thus we have easily become successful even in what was once for people of other classes."

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:51 PM (1 year ago)

best post

ppl so bitter about the success of others

call all destroyer and scottpl generally OTM in this thread

I'm less bitter about the success of others when they aren't constantly reminding me of it. I'd probably like these guys just fine if they had the strokes write lyrics for them.

Oh Hopper, why must you breaked my <3? I never saw you complain when a hundred privileged, white, upper-middle-class ska bands stole music from Jamaica.

"Globe-trotting sons of distinguished men, clumsily exploring distant cultures despite only being passively, naively invested."

tried to find a jpeg of buster playing drum in arrested development, failed.

i mean, scott, lets get real. to anyone who's actually PLAYED MUSIC IN NYC, yes it was real fucking annoying that a bunch of rich kids got super famous in 9 months when everyone else was working on year-six of doing web design, so they could trying to raise enough money to pay the retarded, prohibitive $500 a month it costs to rent a practice space in this town. That's why its annoying that they went to Columbia, not because they read Foucoult's Pendulum for homework or whatever

well, you are being up front and refreshingly honest, but most people aren't. I don't hear a lot of "that sucks these preppy kids are doing better than we are" or "they had it easier on the way up" etc. That's an honest set of terms in which to talk to about class, and it's up front about how you're personalizing it (tho in a way that doesn't matter to most listeners, but hell that's why it's "personal")

But "I am struggling and it sucks that these people with a more leisurely life are succeeding" is a lot of different than "poor Africa being appropriated by a rich white kid." That conclusion disguises that the real class problem isn't between VW and "Africa" (which like goole said is problematic as a "thing" in this discussion anyway) because to Hopper's Africa the person paying $500 a month for a practice space is wealthy as fuck too. The problem then is between VW and some listeners; those listeners are trying to remove the object associations related to being white and educated and Western and middle-class.

Jessica Hopper vs. Ryan Pitchfork FITE!!!

I do believe there's a lot of confusing Hopper's detailing the already-running discourse on Vampire Weekend and her staking a claim in it.

Because she's not really doing the latter.

she doesn't write about all that much else, does she? except to say that their drummer is crap, true enough

lol @ my drunken thread

Globe-trotting sons of distinguished men, clumsily exploring distant cultures despite only being passively, naively invested.

yeah this quote is amazing

they do a really great job of compensating for a mediocre drummer on this record (great drum sounds, lots of cut-up live drums mixed with lots of programmed beats, hardly any straight live playing)

(assuming he is mediocre; i wouldn't know since i couldn't sit through their first album or any live clips)

Jesus christ, why do people hate money?

i don't hate money i hate boring bands that sound like Sesame Street

Sesame Street was started by fatcat liberals weaned on the public teat, you know.

thanks Mr. Hannitty

what is the matter with sesame street

nothing wrong with it, just don't want to listen to music that sounds like it was written for it