Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

(also, apparently spoon has a #4 record. huh.)

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

huge gap between being shitty and being competent imo. on this record, the drumming is competent, and it works.

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.

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

i dunno, compare these guys to the attractions, police, heads, etc and a clumsy, grooveless rhythm section seems reason enough to find them wanting.

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.

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

ive never really come to rock music to hear deft drumming

except for like the police/who/zep

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

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?

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?"

the continual oversell of 'afro-carribean influenced' is totally the problem here

i thought it was our demand for complex drum technique

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

dudes, the drumming is perfectly fine on this record.

on both of them, really

Some of these tracks sound like Paul Simon.

One does sound like the Arctics, actually.

Peter Gabriel, too.

(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.

Oh, I thought that was a VW lyric!

I said in my own review that the drumming doesn't matter so much with this band: they care more about shaping an electro/acoustic sound, in which live percussion may or may not play a part.

I read something which implied "White Sky" was the only track using a drum machine on the new album, which surprised me. The rhythms sound fine to me. They're an attraction, even.

funny thing is, while i think there's a rushed, swing-reducing, slapdash quality to the grooves compared to 80s new wave acts like police/heads/beat/etc (tipsy's "my problem with the hooks and grooves and appropriations is mostly that (like the vocals and lyrics) they just seem awfully glib" resonates), one that effects even my favorite tracks - the drummer seems totally off when he comes in at the end of "oxford comma," I don't hate this band. One of the most popular (both here and commercially) sophisto-pop bands not too long ago was Fall Out Boy, and I think you can make a much better case for these guys actually having some wit. But the irony of the "there's no reason to find these guys' cultural approprations offensive" argument is that, by the same tack, you could ask why we're supposed to find it so interesting. And if you don't thrill to it, you're left with a sloppy, slightly updated take on Sting Costello shit.

^^^^ This is circular and unpersuasive.

The people who like VW aren't saying that the band's "cultural appropriations" are the only reason to like the band.

You're implying that the choice is between VW being borderline-offensive and VW being bland.

But lots of music is neither borderline-offensive nor bad.

I dunno that I'm really offering a choice - I'm saying that when you take out the part of VW that risks offense (an act I really don't think is a bad thing in bands) you've got slapdash new wave

and slapdash new wave ain't that bad! i think its the just the drudge siren hype around these guys that forces everybody to take sides

But lots of music is neither borderline-offensive nor bad.

VW hit the sour spot of making music that is both

i mean the borderline offensive stuff is a red herring, i guess: with more substantial sounds or better hooks or better singing or just, you know, better everything, it wouldn't matter a jot; but since they provide nothing worthwhile elsewhere it magnifies the annoying cultural appropriation stuff

i'm dissatisfied using adjectives like "slapdash" to describe weekend's sound. They obviously put a lot of care and thought into arrangements, esp on the new album, but the performances just feel hurried and off in a way that makes their accomplishments more theoretical and less satisfying to listen to compared to the chops-havin' british reggae fans of yore.

i'll be as harsh on bad drumming as anybody and i see where you guys are coming from on that point, but i don't know how constructive it is to compare them to really chops-y bands from 20 years ago. there's something much smaller-scale and homemade about their music because, at the end of the day, as i've said 5,000 times, they're an indie pop band.

yeah, i mean, they're contemporary indie pop, it pretty much goes w/o saying they don't have half the chops of their 70s/80s equivalents, and one reason i rarely write or post about those kinds of bands is i'd just harp on that point over and over myself

i dunno about "constructive" (though, if they're listening, it does suggest a way they could improve, however sardonically the critique is offered) but I think it's a valid criticism to explain why these guys don't satisfy as a band with a #1 album and critical raves, whether or not they have the saving grace of amateurity implied by "indie-pop"

yeah i just think it changes the starting point from "why don't they GROOVE like the police" or something to "they fit within this musical tradition which may or may not be for you"

i mean i'll definitely agree that there is a slightness to their music that could make the #1 and a lot of the positive press tough to swallow, but these are strange times we live in

yeah i mean it's worth bringing up, at least once. i wonder if the band would be really appreciative of a negative review that talked just about their performances and said nothing about the cultural subtext. (xpost)

it would lead to the tragic demise of the phish-loving drummer and who would want to be responsible for that

these are strange times we live in

I really do think a lot of the hype factor comes from the lack of competition they have in the Sting Costello smarty-pop sweepstakes (plus they're Duran cute enough for MTV). I mean, again, Fall Out Boy.

didn't the Shins just fire their drummer for sucking? could start a new trend.

if all these bands start bringing in Kenny Aronoff maybe Chuck Eddy can begin to respect indie rock

hey, The National have a decent drummer. Or VW can ask the old dude from Interpol to moonlight.

i would lol if indie bands started showing up at gigs with some weird old fat session drummer

this is going to be the 2nd time this week that I reference the failed Rainn Wilson vehicle The Rocker

still kind of convinced the national are getting larry mullen in the studio for their albums

getting a session dude sure worked for these guys, didn't it?

http://lyricsmusic.name/img/posters/134/RS711.jpg

(god, what a buttnasty cover)

haha wow

Besides writing catchy drum parts, I don't understand why EVERYONE seems to think The National drummer is so incredible.