Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

oh they're total rushmore music. total wes anderson soundtrack. but im ok with that

i find it much harder to argue for vampire weekend's brilliance than for their awfulness -- the music is quite deliberately free of jagged edges or anything that may offend the ear (save for the singer's occasional yelping, which he really doesn't need to do because his voice is actually pretty good!), which is what i suppose people are finding 'refreshing' about it, but i am finding it hard to get excited about. it's certainly not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, just ... why is this supposed to be SOOO GOOD? do i really have to experience it 'in context' and listen to a thousand other bands that dont sound like VWE and dont have clean production? why can't i just put it on my stereo and like it? nb obviously context is important blah blah blah it just seems like people keep praising them negatively -- "i like them because they DONT sound like other stuff that's been released in the last 5 years in NYC!" it's not like there's a bunch of layers waiting to be uncovered on this record, so what am i missing that makes them so revolutionary? is the fact that they dont sound like they're from aughts NYC the only thing they have going for them? if they are to be appreciated on their own merits (and i agree that the 'african sound' hype is a red herring) then what exactly are they, besides not sounding cluttered?

i am asking these questions honestly and not trying to sound like a douche

ok, is it a youthful, quirky/not quirky andersonian innocence that causes people to enjoy them? nostalgia for one's college days?

the music scene in NYC has been so desperately dead since 2002 or so that I think people are grasping at whatever they can get. All the former big NYC bands this decade have moved to Philly, Berlin, etc; even small shitty towns in CA are kicking NYC's ass creativity wise.

In correlation to NYC's butt-raping rents? Perhaps.

there's a pretty big element of escapism involved w/ their music that i like

and beyond all the graceland stuff, the drummer and bassist are pretty good and way better than you'd expect from these dudes (best evidenced on "boston"). if anything i get annoyed by the singer/plinking keyboards, but when i'm in the mood i think they're pretty exceptional

as for other people liking them, it seems pretty clear to me: they sound kinda like the strokes, are pretty indie-pop but with enough unknown influences (for mtv-type listeners) to get ppl excited

"boston" = "ladies of cambridge" - maybe they used the former title in the UK?

sorry if you don't get them, hate fun, etc. lol, they're gonna be hueg.

lol "hueg"

yeah idk "boston" was just what i had it labeled as on their cd-r

i hear a big spoon influence in the band, certainly the biggest indie-rock touchstone. love the way their restraint means that moments of splendid harmony or rhyme shine just doubly triply quadruply, the smallest flourishes gleaming so glow.

You know as much as these guys aren't a great band, I'm glad to have someone this omnipresent doing something a little interesting than another four guys pretending to be Pavement or Talking Heads.

fuck these motherfuckers

fucking fuckers are guarandamnteeing a Northern Exposure revival or some such shit

"oh, if only paul simon would YELP."

blurhgg. the more I hear this album the more I realize how boring and bland it is. It makes my blood turn into lukewarm oatmeal. I listen to it and I suddenly own a condo walking distance to Park Slope and I drive a Volvo.

It's a pretty sad testament to the state of NYC. 99% of the interesting bands have already bailed out of here, so this is what we've got left.

ILM should learn how to have fun.

sex, drugs, new, weird sensations and experiences, upsetting challenging ideas... that's fun. listening to the drywall-flavored music made by the blandoids who've come to dominate NYC and drive out all the really good bands/artists/writers/etc. isn't my idea of fun.

There are like two big x factors with these guys. First, the singer may be a pretty great pithy lyricist at a time when a lot lyrics are wordy and overwrought. Second, I have no idea how seriously they take themselves and I kind of like that about them. They way they make being in a band seem really easy is kind of obnoxious-but-charming. I think I may want to like them more than I actually like them.

Anyways, what good bands have left NYC? All I can think of is Liars, but a ton of bands that put out well regarded albums in the last two years are still there.

remember when vampire weekend drove all the good bands and writers out of new york??

do not let vampire weekend into your city.

Liars, Animal Collective, Enon (well, a few years ago they were good), etc. Think of a really cool NYC band in the past few years, look 'em up, and chances are they're probably now based in Baltimore, Philly, Berlin, or the West Coast.

I hear better stuff coming out of Sacramento these days than New York.

the album is good, but i wish there was no hype for this,cause it's ruin it.

I dunno, Dirty Projectors, Battles, The Hold Steady, LCD Soundsystem, Oxford Collapse, Mahogany, some portion of !!!....TVOTR, Lansing-Dreiden. We could argue about the merits of particular bands but that's all stuff I enjoyed in the last two years that's still NYC-based.

Williamsburgh to be specific

Nah, the Dirty Projectors dude is in Bed-Stuy.

but yeah, that'd be my counter argument. I mean, what's next after these bands, though ... kids moving to Brownsville and East New York for the cheap rents? It just feels like the new exciting stuff is skewing to the cheaper cities and suburbs, just like over the past few years its gone to the cheaper neighborhoods in the outer boroughs.

Mr. Stanton, you have convinced me to stop listening to Vampire Weekend.

Yeah I agree with you on the next wave....NYC's had a pretty great run over the last 6-7 years but these things are always cyclical. American indie rock seems like it's sort of in a state of flux everywhere and it's hard to say where the next big geographic center will be...LA maybe?

the chicago days were nice..

but yeah, that'd be my counter argument. I mean, what's next after these bands, though ... kids moving to Brownsville and East New York for the cheap rents? It just feels like the new exciting stuff is skewing to the cheaper cities and suburbs, just like over the past few years its gone to the cheaper neighborhoods in the outer boroughs.

http://www.blinne.org/photos/uncategorized/siren.gif This just in! Artists and band members can't afford to live in high rent areas. Move to cheaper areas http://www.blinne.org/photos/uncategorized/siren.gif

*BREAKING* New York, NY- Notorious indie upstarts Vampire Weekend put the sum total of New York's cool artists on a train to Auschwitz, says angry music fan Burt Stanton.

stop talking about this shit and talk more about how Vampire Weekend suck

why do people say they sound like the feelies when they mean they dress like the feelies

Hot Hot Heat coulda totally stole their thunder if they'd released a cover of "Day-O" last year

haha keep 'em coming

Ivy League indie rock with unfashionable influences T/S: Vampire Weekend vs. Bishop Allen?

burt santond etc it shouldnt really be so hard to trash this band - shape up!

i have heard better insults coming out of modesto!

all the good hating has moved to portland!

*BREAKING* New York, NY- Notorious indie upstarts Vampire Weekend put the sum total of New York's cool artists on a train to Auschwitz, says angry music fan Burt Stanton.

-- brightscreamer, Monday, January 28, 2008 1:56 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

lol

you think they'll ever achieve the heights of say, "Nothing But Flowers"?

new york is so uncool. im' totally moving to berlidelphia, maryland

my favorite is M79, even if it's a shameless "This Must Be the Place" rip

this band is boring but i haven't listened to them enough to really say anything other than that but to all haters distill your haterade to victory-ol and triumph!!

arcade fire were the first successfully blog hyped bland, no? and we have the arctic monkeys. who else?

nabisco's review v. cheekily invokes the sfj piece re: palpable basslines a bit of empty space. i lol'd.

I will bake fresh, delicious cookies for the first reviewer that mentions Lizzy Mercier Descloux instead of <i>Graceland</i>.

...and some day I will remember which boards use HTML and which use BBCode.

pitchfork are joining the party big time (8.8)

ah this promises to tun into one of the all-stars classic ILM threads

FFS, I even read an enthusiastic review of this album in yesterday's Financial Times week-end supplement.

worst party ever

xpost

I can't wait for their Vampires Tour where they play vampirically while dressed as vampires, who vamp.

new thread?

10 Ya Hey

Ho

Lets go

you know, I really love this band. Those two records and the first especially are just astonishing pop collections. Their sound is so spare and carefully refined, and the melodies are outrageous. the whole affected prep thing is whatever. I really love this band and through the course of typing this have convinced myself I must have all three on vinyl ASAP. hope this one holds up

I'm hoping for a Contra 2 there. Really loved Contra.

Listening to Contra yesterday for the first time since god knows when was like having drinks with a great bro you haven't seen in months and you have all afternoon

The new album is FIRE

So many religious allusions in play

Ok done writing my review, this goes on my shortlist for 2013

yessssss

there is a dedicated thread for this album, which it deserves: Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

I saw them and they sucked. There was one good part but it was really bland. Real thin sound especially juxtaposed with animal collective

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Saturday, January 26, 2008 11:01 PM (eleven years ago)

I saw them open for AC at that same webster hall show . I'll be seeing Vampire Weekend headline MSG later this year . I don't even know the last time i wanted to listen to AC. crazy!