where can I buy a pair of those fancy pants?
― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 January 2010 20:07 (fourteen years ago) link
I can see that you pulled the trigger on your quip gun, but I think you'll find that the chamber was empty.
― Dr. Algernod Goon (some dude), Thursday, 28 January 2010 20:11 (fourteen years ago) link
The Original Mr. Fancy-Pants
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Guybrush_Threepwood.png/240px-Guybrush_Threepwood.png
― Mordy, Thursday, 28 January 2010 20:12 (fourteen years ago) link
just for the record, heres the full article hopper was drawing those quotes from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/07/vampire-weekend-contra
Koenig, however, is generous in understanding how the band have come to be perceived in the way they have. "Because we favour certain ways of dressing and don't shy away from using obscure words and we went to Columbia University, people have put all the elements together and prejudged us as privileged white kids, even using the word 'Wasp', which immediately implies privilege," he says. "Those things, juxtaposed with our interest in world music, have made it very easy for people to raise the flag of colonialism or imperialism. But the two main writers in the band are Jewish and Persian, which is a pretty broad definition of 'whiteness'. We're certainly not all fresh off the Mayflower."
― max, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:08 (fourteen years ago) link
goole, cher was 17 when "i got you, babe" was a hit...only formal post-secondary education was from the University of Street Knowledge, Los Angeles campus
Wiki sez she was dyslexic.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:10 (fourteen years ago) link
I thought she was American.
― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:12 (fourteen years ago) link
half-breed gypsy-american
― velko, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:15 (fourteen years ago) link
give me your gypsies, your tramps, your poor huddled theives
― goole, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:20 (fourteen years ago) link
do people have the same reservations about yeasayer or it's 'okay' because they sing songs about believing in yourself and being sad about the modern world? or are we just used to it cuz they have scraggly beards and wear dirty wife beaters?
― Goon's Anatomy (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:27 (fourteen years ago) link
I guess it's some kind of achievement that in 2010 we're still having arguments about what bands "deserve" success, and the importance of Paying Dues.
― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:47 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark
btw this post was from whiney g weingarten -- take w grain of salt
Oh I know. I'm just puttin' it out there.
― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:30 (fourteen years ago) link
This boring stuff about colonialism again? These guys have been bringing up the subject (only to coyly deny it) since the first record. Same w/ the WASP thing. The whole Vampire concept is too effete and contrived, just don`t overexplain yourself and focus on the music, which is pretty enough but a little too precious.
― Now, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:32 (fourteen years ago) link
and the thing about VW is like, there is obv a compelling interest in them moving up the ladder or whatever. they just went #1 in the US. they shouldn't have been playing the cake shop or whatever the fuck because more people care about them. i could see the argument in retrospect with blog/p4k pushed bands like CYHSY or tapes n tapes that flamed out, but it's a stupid thing to say about vampire weekend.
― Goon's Anatomy (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:33 (fourteen years ago) link
i thought there were black people in yeasayer, but maybe that's just the expanded live band.
btw the one time i saw yeasayer it was perfect...i was back behind the drums & only getting the live sound + monitor mix, so it was all rhythm section and no frontline.
― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:35 (fourteen years ago) link
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:10 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
cher actually invented autotune software for believe because she wanted the listener to "feel" what being dyslexic is like, she felt that sound sort of communicated the "fluttery", transient aspect that words take on to someone who is dyslexic
― Dr. Goon Medicine Woman (M@tt He1ges0n), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:50 (fourteen years ago) link
haven't really been reading this thread, but I'm glad this is the turn it has taken.
― tylerw, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Not enough Cher threads imo.
― Blue Fucks Like Ben Nelson (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:58 (fourteen years ago) link
what do you guys think it means that cher has armenian heritage?
― tylerw, Friday, 29 January 2010 00:01 (fourteen years ago) link
unruly bush
― Dr. Goon Medicine Woman (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 29 January 2010 00:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Man, Scott nails so much of what's problematic about this article. The two main things I'd underline:
1. It's another piece of writing trying to skewer the band based on the issues that all their songs are already about, which is odd -- it's as if we're all so critically accustomed to running this class/race/privilege analysis on bands that we don't know how to respond when a band is talking about that stuff from the get-go
2. It does something SUPER shitty and mean and intellectually dishonest, which is that she calls them a "white" band, but then -- referring to a quote where Koenig explains that they're not actually WASPs and one of them is Persian -- she dismissively says he "bandies around" their ethnicity, and then she makes a judgment call that, you know, being Persian isn't enough? For something or other? In other words, a plain statement of this guy's ethnicity can only function to her as part of some game of oneupsmanship about who's too "white" or adequately non-"white," so she decides to characterize a statement of someone's ethnicity as some form of bragging or defensiveness that she's going to debunk. Completely apart from what you think of VW, this is just incredibly lazy, shitty, and mean, and it's extremely galling to me coming from a critic who is (so far as I can tell) white.
Normally I love Hopper's energy and distinct point of view, but sometimes the point of view gets so strong that it starts being a dick about reality.
― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Friday, 29 January 2010 00:28 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i agree but i thinks she gets at something w/ the unrepentant rich girl bashing. i mean if you're gonna write songs about this whole set then it seems weak to get all judgmental about em.
― Moreno, Friday, 29 January 2010 01:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Do you think "unrepentant rich girl bashing" is really what's going on in these songs?
― Mark, Friday, 29 January 2010 01:45 (fourteen years ago) link
well maybe just the whole "never seen the words bombs" bit from holiday and some parts of ur a contra
― Moreno, Friday, 29 January 2010 02:01 (fourteen years ago) link
scottpl is otm in this thread; people are mad at VW for turning the mirror onto them
― you want it to be some dude, but it's the other dude (dyao), Friday, 29 January 2010 04:50 (fourteen years ago) link
p.s. guys that guy from the dirty projectors went to yale so it's not okay to like them either
― you want it to be some dude, but it's the other dude (dyao), Friday, 29 January 2010 04:54 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm nominating the next Vampire Weekend album as a contender for a ILX group "let's release the album before the real band does" project like No Line On The Horizon.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 29 January 2010 05:01 (fourteen years ago) link
the best part of the jessica hopper review is when she actually talks about the music. she's got the drummer dead to rights, and the camper van beethoven zing is close enough. i wish more of the review, and this thread, and discussions of the band in general, said more about the music than all this other who-cares piffle. the obsession with their "privilege" from either attackers or defenders is pretty drab and dull and has almost nothing to do with why they have (had?) the #1 record. for better or worse, people like their tunes and their beats. (just checked billboard btw, their run at the top is done.)
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Friday, 29 January 2010 05:01 (fourteen years ago) link
(also, apparently spoon has a #4 record. huh.)
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Friday, 29 January 2010 05:03 (fourteen years ago) link
i gotta say, i think people who are all OH WELL THEIR DRUMMER REALLY SUCKS are just fishing for reasons to dislike this band, and it's a pretty weak one
― Goon's Anatomy (J0rdan S.), Friday, 29 January 2010 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link
huge gap between being shitty and being competent imo. on this record, the drumming is competent, and it works.
― kshighway (ksh), Friday, 29 January 2010 05:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, there are not-excellent drummers throughout rock music, and it's been that way for decades. Shitty drummers are a rarer breed, maybe not on the live circuit, but definitely where records are concerned. Hell, even Meg White made The White Stripes more charming than they would've been otherwise.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 29 January 2010 05:29 (fourteen years ago) link
i dunno, compare these guys to the attractions, police, heads, etc and a clumsy, grooveless rhythm section seems reason enough to find them wanting.
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 05:36 (fourteen years ago) link
a clumsy rhythm section is a completely valid reason to find any band wanting, imo. unless, right, the clumsiness is part of the charm, which it can be. and i don't think vw's rhythm section is awful, it's just not really up to what it's trying to do. (as opposed to, say, chris frantz and tina weymouth, neither of them virtuosos but a completely solid groove unit.) it's just, like i've said elsewhere in this thread, there's a tendency of vw fans to think people who don't like them are all hung up on their sweaters and syllables, when for some of us at least there are a lot more basic musical reasons to not be a fan.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Friday, 29 January 2010 05:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm not even swearing i'd get off on the guy slapping class signifiers to "day-o" if the back-up was in the pocket, but it might at least make for better new wave
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 05:44 (fourteen years ago) link
ive never really come to rock music to hear deft drumming
except for like the police/who/zep
― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Friday, 29 January 2010 07:18 (fourteen years ago) link
i think i listed the group's in a similar vein that could keep a steady beat but if you like i could do it again
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 07:40 (fourteen years ago) link
yes 'could keep a steady beat' is basic function & doesnt really appeal to me in & of itself. i mean if u want to be wowed by drums why not listen to jazz?
― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Friday, 29 January 2010 07:44 (fourteen years ago) link
rhythmically speaking, rock is pretty low on the totem poll of innovative arts
lol at "man for afro-carribean-influenced new wave these guys sure are clumsy" getting a "WADDYA WANT NEIL PEART?"
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 07:45 (fourteen years ago) link
the continual oversell of 'afro-carribean influenced' is totally the problem here
― average gangsta rap from average gangstas (deej), Friday, 29 January 2010 07:46 (fourteen years ago) link
i thought it was our demand for complex drum technique
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 07:47 (fourteen years ago) link
would you prefer "new wave with an afro-carribean lilt"?
i could just say "clumsy costello" or "shitty police," if we want to reinstall the middlemen
― da croupier, Friday, 29 January 2010 07:50 (fourteen years ago) link
dudes, the drumming is perfectly fine on this record.
― samosa gibreel, Friday, 29 January 2010 08:30 (fourteen years ago) link
on both of them, really
― tza nicholas ii (The Reverend), Friday, 29 January 2010 09:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Some of these tracks sound like Paul Simon.
One does sound like the Arctics, actually.
― Mark G, Friday, 29 January 2010 09:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Peter Gabriel, too.
― tza nicholas ii (The Reverend), Friday, 29 January 2010 09:40 (fourteen years ago) link
(sorry, I just wanted to say that)
"rhythmically speaking, rock is pretty low on the totem poll of innovative arts"
unless 'rock' includes mathrock, metalcore, prog, zeuhl, etc.
― m the g, Friday, 29 January 2010 11:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, I thought that was a VW lyric!
― Mark G, Friday, 29 January 2010 11:42 (fourteen years ago) link