Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

i never thought of the 'blakes got a new face's as a caribean/african/whatever thing, seemed more like a standard pop music vocal trick thing to me. there aren't (as m)any of those goofy amateurish moments on 'contra' and i kind of miss em. on s/t it was like they sent it off into the world before they had time to comb it over, this one's maybe been scrubbed a bit too clean.

Really? I don't think it's atrocious, or anything, but those group backing vocals on "Blake" feel to me like they're starting to replicate a kind of west-African harmony singing, which ... that's one point where certain sensors start triggering. Being a new-wave / indiepop group that learned a few neat tricks from elsewhere -- that's great. Trying to provide what "elsewhere" provides -- not so much. But yeah, that's sort of the last time -- maybe the only time -- I've felt like they stepped on that line.

yeah but those vocals are great on the little break near the end when there's the coughing noise so

to me it sounds like those chirpy bird-like doowop harmonies. haven't heard very much west african harmony singing though, so i'm probably just wrong. tbh i probably cringed first time i heard it, too, but now it's one of my favourite bits. i like it went bands make innocent little mistakes, or risk sounding silly.

ecuador with ac wher u from btw?

Waterford - home of Brendan Bowyer, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Val Doonican, and half of late 60's art-rock pioneers Nirvana.

ah ok i didn't know ur were irish and then u said some things

I just bought Contra because of this thread and I am very happy with it.

yeah a lot of lex's argument falls down for me here bc i like this album so much that it cant suck as much ass as he keeps tryna tell me?

Lex's argument is basically the inverse of that - I think basically a lot of this argument comes down to "ultimately all of the things you are saying are good/bad about this music can also be considered bad/good if you'd only share the same basic attitude towards it that I do."

There's no knock-out argument that is gonna make half the people here suddenly say, "woah, you are right, this was amazing/terrible all along, how could I be so blind and foolish??!?!"

yeah i meant exactly what u said i was just joshin tho

Yeah obv - i'm a bit humorless tho so like to spell things out.

u r awesome tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N7abHPqTgo

So these guys could use a stronger singer but they don't really need one. Not entirely convinced I want to hear some of these songs live (imagine missing that super-convoluted melody on "Horchata" and the trainwreck that would follow, yikes) but ultimately these guys are one of the few early-80s-thru-00s-prism bands I've heard that I've found instantly appealing.

Live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nPPAiDK_BA

btw I HATED this song in November, but live performances like this made me notice how well they handle the convoluted melody (and Koenig handles the shouty part well).

ha, I am more bothered by how out of tune the backup vocals get than I am by the lead singer

this dude isn't my favorite new vocalist or anything but he certainly knows how to write for his own voice

That SFJ article on Brighten the Corners is apt. Pavement did often deploy signifiers of upper-middle class privilege in their lyrics (which were at least as abstruse and literary as Vampire Weekend's). They made the class connection quite explicit in "You Are a Light", off their following album. Malkmus sings about a university exchange program: "Senior year abroad/I ripped the pea out of the pod/In store for three months of exile in Spain/Where was the danger?" and then rhapsodizes about a fast car: "I drive a stick. Gotta love it. Automatic/Everybody's gotta ride in something". That last line especially, with its languid wistfulness and self-aware irony, is proto-VW.

Have not read this yet, but there's an interview up on PopMatters:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/119497-the-kids-dont-stand-a-chance-an-interview-with-vampire-weekend/

The interview's with their drummer, actually.

Hearing them today (in the background at Borders) made me think that the Graceland comparisons weren't just facile, but that both really do contrast the average-white-guy voice with the instrumentation.

Well, I’d never played drums in a band before this (Laughs). That was because, the first couple of practices we had I was supposed to play guitar. But we kinda couldn’t find a drummer and I could kinda play, so I thought I’d try and do something.

I hope I play parts that are fairly unique. But at the same time ... I don’t really know what I’m doing, in some respects.

Awesome!

drumming for me in general is like... a huge plus if it's AMAZING (like say, on the first bloc party album) but otherwise rudimentary drumming doesn't bother me at all. i guess i think of spoon who doesn't have a great drummer but mics their drums well and gets great sounds, which is cool.

that live version is great -- & ezra is wearing sneakers

a lot of people and drummers think jim eno is an excellent drummer though

i probably don't know shit about drumming idk -- i can't think of any spoon song where i'm like "holy shit the drumming!"

i think a lot of it is how well he blends into the songs and how he really lives by the band's commitment to minimalism and economy in his drum parts. like there's nothing "complicated" about the drum part on "the way we get by" for example but i can remember every single fill he plays in that song.

i think spoon's drumming is impressive to me because the band as a whole seems so drilled-down. britt daniel doesn't do much on guitar either but they do a lot of rhythmic interplay with simple elements. it's a more-than-sum thing

i guess when i said "not great" i meant "very economic and tight"

actually i think "trouble comes running" from the new one is kind of remarkable because he's actually going kinda nuts for most of it, i guess because it was intended to just be a demo?

that live version is great -- & ezra is wearing sneakers

lol'n

even people who think they don't care much about drumming would notice the difference if vw had a really good drummer, imo.

(but i think there's been a general devaluation of drumming in general in a lot of indie rock. there are good drummers out there, but an awful lot of bands seem to see it as sort of an afterthought. or that's how it sounds to me, anyway. bass playing too, for that matter. devaluation of the rhythm section. o god i'm rewriting that sfj essay...)

this thread made me think i might like spoon who i had never gotten before and based on a couple of youtubes i could be more into them than i thought i would be, i mean are they something i would like?

ehhh, i don't think so?

no one really dislikes spoon, per se

(i know that's not actually true but)

some people like "don't see what the big deal is" but spoon are deliberately low key so it follows or something

even people who think they don't care much about drumming would notice the difference if vw had a really good drummer, imo.

― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, February 2, 2010 6:43 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is 100% true for their first album and like 10% true at best for their 2nd i think

¿r u saying no then?

try

"paper tiger" or "you got yr cherry bomb" or "the way we get by" or "i summon you" or "the beast and dragon adored" or "1020 AM" or

drumming is better on the new one, but ... well why go into it all again. i just think they'd be a better band if they had a really good drummer. but i still wouldn't like them probably, so who cares what i think?

who indeed

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)

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:41 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

spoon are safe and unremarkable and there are a lot of people who take comfort in that sort of thing. they are good snuggie listening.

http://bobbeckstead.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/SnuggieGreen.jpg

hmm i kinda maybe need a little more novelty to get hooked tbh

The ghost of my snuggie still lingers.

who indeed

― plaxico (I know, right?), Tuesday, February 2, 2010 11:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol

If you want to get into Spoon, check out Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which is quite excellent, and only about 36 minutes long.