Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

xpost to gabbneb

Well, to clarify, I don't mean "anemic" in terms of pure sonic qualities. I mean rather that I as a listener I get the impression that people are holding themselves back in some way, such that there is vitality lacking in their final product. Again, it brings to mind trying to have a conversation with someone who is forever holding back important stuff. I don't by any means expect or want every artist to have an early U2-style of earnestness; plenty of my favorite music is on a silly spectrum of things...but, in the best of that "silly" stuff, there is a commitment that I don't find in much of the stuff that I am taking issue with here.

So, yeah, I maybe am some crypto-(or not so crypto)rockist or something?

But, I don't think so...

U GUISE I REALIZEDVAMPIRE WEEKEND ARE NOT AS GOOD AS SADE

WHAT SHOULD I DOOO?

I LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT STUFF SOMETIMES.

I, yeah...

man i dont want everyone to get really into peter gabriel

i love the dude but hes MINE and i dont want to be that asshole saying 'i was into peter gabriel before everyone else was'

...how old are you again?

"everyone" = "everyone ages 18 - 25"

Take a stand.

LCD Soundsystem should totally go for a Sledgehammer/Big Time on album number three

-- da croupier, Monday, January 28, 2008 3:43 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

QFT

but yeah i would def listen to james murphy doing a gabriel record

apparently the other dudes are not so into the phish, shocker

To backtrack up the thread, Arctic Monkeys comparisons are INSANE. They sound nothing alike and will be nowhere near as big. And have been nowhere near as hyped. Ridiculous. I think they're much better (at the moment) too.

Also someone up top says they sounded really "thin" compared to Animal Collective (I think in a live context) - well I literally can't listen to Animal Collective. Their records give me a headache inside seconds, but from abstracted descriptions I ought to enjoy them. It's just that no one ever says "yeah and their records sound fucking horrible and hurt your head" after spiel about Beach Boys and drums and masks and shouting and campfires and techno and loops and melodies.

After years - might be five or six, might be ten or twelve (Oasis kick-starting the aesthetic for ambitious guitar bands to be BIG and LOUD and INDISTINCT) - of huge, messy, maximalist bands, Vampire Weekend do sound kind of quietly radical. Same as Guillemots did (to me at least) a couple of years ago. Refreshing. Musical.

How are the names similar?!

their name makes me think of 'werewolf bar mitzvah', every time.

Their name makes me think of a Projekt fan's spring break.

their name makes me think of 'werewolf bar mitzvah', every time.

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:05 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

yeah me too.

At the risk of coming over all Geir (ew, what a thought) Vampire Weekend score over Animal Collective by virtue of having discernible tunes.

Animal Collective and Guillemots are guilt indie for Wire readers.

Still it is refreshing that after banging on in my blogs for the last two years about Apostle of Hustle and other Canadian worthies fusing indie and world music that someone outside Canada's latched onto the idea.

somebody finally listened!

Blame Canada

WTF IS UP W/THE CHANGE SITUATION IN CANADA $2 COINS WTF IM STARTING A THREAD AS SOOOOO N AS I GET HOME THIS IS AN OUTRAGE WHY IS NO ONE STORMING THE CAPITOL !!!?1!!!????/

Still it is refreshing that after banging on in my blogs for the last two years about Apostle of Hustle and other Canadian worthies fusing indie and world music that someone outside Canada's latched onto the idea.

Are you saying Apostle of Hustle and company came up with the idea of fusing indie and world music? I guess it depends on how you define "indie."

I was cheered that MattDC is into this, but was all wtf at his finding 'irish' influences. Then I realized maybe he means the pre-chorus keys in 'A-Punk'? They sound Zep-ripped to me.

I assumed he was thinking of the violin at the start of "Bryn," actually.

yeah, I suppose. I think that comes out of compositional study.

Bryn's an Irish name, isn't it?

Welsh.

http://www.higheredjobs.com/images/ProfileLogos/ProfileImg_353_020013.gif

I think that comes out of compositional study.

is this code for "classical music"?

well, that's where you start when you study composition, but it's not necessarily where you end, especially at columbia

"Composition" is a good way to refer to contemporary classical without using that oxymoronic term.

Has anyone heard the House Of Blondes album? Mastered by the same people. Similar NYC literate indie pop. Very interesting.

This is great though. Just so... enjoyable.

They remind me a little of Spoon.

vampire weekend = trying to fuck a week after you had your balls cut off.

I think people in the NYC area are reasonable in hating them. If you know how things work here, you know a band like VKWW shooting to the tops out of nowhere usually means they had some ... assistance.(ala the STrokes). Doesn't put their merit in question necessarily, but a little resentment is natural.

voice is on the case:

Vampire Weekend: Meant for Joy, Not Rage, By Mike Powell

Vampire Weekend: Please Ignore This Band

vampire weekend = trying to fuck a week after you had your balls cut off.

what does that even mean?

vampire hands is like trying to mow the lawn with a english muffin a day after it rained!

Re their outfits: Dockers and deck shoes are indeed questionable

That's from the latter article. Ugh, it depresses me that someone is criticizing them based on what they are wearing at a given moment.

I'm no doubt obtuse, but I can't understand Shepherd's politics or rockcrit: VW's music, with its immaculate construction, its high-collared violin solos, its boy's-choir croonery, is claustrophobically ordered—the sound of a band lulling itself into complacency. Whether they are truly bluebloods is beside the point: They embrace and exalt the accoutrements of a privileged Mo' Money/No Problems lifestyle.

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY TECHNICAL COMPETENCE DENOTES AN EMBRACE OF REAGAN-ERA VALUES.

plus i hate all the sex-music metaphors ppl say all the time...like "the decemberists is like having a wank in the hall closet, the meters are like fucking in a cheap hotel room"...it just seems lazy anyway and the whole thing is just a way for dudes to suggest that they are real freaky cats in teh sack, check it out ladeez...

also a big fan of: "shit like this can't rock a dance floor" by dudes that sit in front of computers all the time and never go out.

i forgot to mention the last one is by julianne shepherd ftr

We have blog house now, we don't need to go out.

xp

powell predictably otm he might be my fave critic around right now

people who think this music is joyful must have some easy-flow seratonin. it sounds like sonic drywall

The last line of "One"—"Oh, your collegiate grief has left you dowdy in sweatshirts/Absolute horror!"—is as bitterly mocking as Evelyn Waugh or Whit Stillman

That line actually reminds of aFrenzal Rhomb lyric (Australians are prob the only people who know who they are)not Evelyn Waugh.

music is made for metaphor. but not vice versa. g'night.

xxp

more xxxxxxps than that actually.
who cares.

sorry about yr mental problems, burt

Ha, my biggest bone to pick with Dr. Shep would be the contention that they are out to whitewash African music, as opposed to the more plausible claim that they've just grabbed a pinch of it to flavor their indie/pop.

This seems symptomatic of that thing where, once someone's successful, it becomes tempting to read all their decisions as canny, cynical, and pitched at the context of the whole world. It seems a million times more plausible to me -- it seems flat-out self-evident to me -- that these were nerdy collegiate pop players who listened to some African pop and copped a couple rhythms and guitar sounds. Calling this a conscious whitewash of African music is like saying marinara sauce is an attempt to water down basil.

(xpost!! Burt is awesome on this thread, it's like there was a horrible car accident where Waldorf died and now all we have is a brain-injured Statler)

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY TECHNICAL COMPETENCE DENOTES AN EMBRACE OF REAGAN-ERA VALUES.

hey johnny rotten defaced that pink floyd shirt for YOU, man. never forget.