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
― uptown churl, Sunday, 27 January 2008 21:45 (sixteen years ago) link
ok, is it a youthful, quirky/not quirky andersonian innocence that causes people to enjoy them? nostalgia for one's college days?
― uptown churl, Sunday, 27 January 2008 21:49 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― burt_stanton, Sunday, 27 January 2008 21:50 (sixteen years ago) link
there's a pretty big element of escapism involved w/ their music that i like
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 27 January 2008 21:52 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 27 January 2008 21:55 (sixteen years ago) link
"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.
― gabbneb, Sunday, 27 January 2008 22:11 (sixteen years ago) link
lol "hueg"
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 27 January 2008 22:13 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah idk "boston" was just what i had it labeled as on their cd-r
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 27 January 2008 22:13 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― sean gramophone, Sunday, 27 January 2008 22:16 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:06 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck these motherfuckers
― da croupier, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:09 (sixteen years ago) link
fucking fuckers are guarandamnteeing a Northern Exposure revival or some such shit
― da croupier, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:10 (sixteen years ago) link
"oh, if only paul simon would YELP."
― da croupier, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:15 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― burt_stanton, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:24 (sixteen years ago) link
ILM should learn how to have fun.
― brightscreamer, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:47 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― burt_stanton, Sunday, 27 January 2008 23:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
remember when vampire weekend drove all the good bands and writers out of new york??
― s1ocki, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:14 (sixteen years ago) link
do not let vampire weekend into your city.
― gr8080, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:17 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― burt_stanton, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:31 (sixteen years ago) link
the album is good, but i wish there was no hype for this,cause it's ruin it.
― Zeno, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:50 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Williamsburgh to be specific
― Zeno, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:52 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― burt_stanton, Monday, 28 January 2008 00:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Mr. Stanton, you have convinced me to stop listening to Vampire Weekend.
― gr8080, Monday, 28 January 2008 01:06 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― call all destroyer, Monday, 28 January 2008 01:19 (sixteen years ago) link
the chicago days were nice..
― Zeno, Monday, 28 January 2008 01:22 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― jaxon, Monday, 28 January 2008 01:32 (sixteen years ago) link
*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, 28 January 2008 01:56 (sixteen years ago) link
stop talking about this shit and talk more about how Vampire Weekend suck
― da croupier, Monday, 28 January 2008 02:02 (sixteen years ago) link
why do people say they sound like the feelies when they mean they dress like the feelies
― da croupier, Monday, 28 January 2008 02:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Hot Hot Heat coulda totally stole their thunder if they'd released a cover of "Day-O" last year
― da croupier, Monday, 28 January 2008 02:07 (sixteen years ago) link
haha keep 'em coming
― gr8080, Monday, 28 January 2008 02:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Ivy League indie rock with unfashionable influences T/S: Vampire Weekend vs. Bishop Allen?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 28 January 2008 03:16 (sixteen years ago) link
burt santond etc it shouldnt really be so hard to trash this band - shape up!
― jhøshea, Monday, 28 January 2008 04:14 (sixteen years ago) link
i have heard better insults coming out of modesto!
all the good hating has moved to portland!
― jhøshea, Monday, 28 January 2008 04:16 (sixteen years ago) link
-- brightscreamer, Monday, January 28, 2008 1:56 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link
lol
― s1ocki, Monday, 28 January 2008 04:26 (sixteen years ago) link
you think they'll ever achieve the heights of say, "Nothing But Flowers"?
― da croupier, Monday, 28 January 2008 04:40 (sixteen years ago) link
new york is so uncool. im' totally moving to berlidelphia, maryland
― burt_stanton, Monday, 28 January 2008 04:46 (sixteen years ago) link
my favorite is M79, even if it's a shameless "This Must Be the Place" rip
― gabbneb, Monday, 28 January 2008 05:02 (sixteen years ago) link
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!!
― trashthumb, Monday, 28 January 2008 06:01 (sixteen years ago) link
arcade fire were the first successfully blog hyped bland, no? and we have the arctic monkeys. who else?
― jhøshea, Monday, 28 January 2008 12:50 (sixteen years ago) link
nabisco's review v. cheekily invokes the sfj piece re: palpable basslines a bit of empty space. i lol'd.
― fukasaku tollbooth, Monday, 28 January 2008 13:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I will bake fresh, delicious cookies for the first reviewer that mentions Lizzy Mercier Descloux instead of <i>Graceland</i>.
― Telephone thing, Monday, 28 January 2008 13:22 (sixteen years ago) link
...and some day I will remember which boards use HTML and which use BBCode.
― Telephone thing, Monday, 28 January 2008 13:23 (sixteen years ago) link
pitchfork are joining the party big time (8.8)
― Zeno, Monday, 28 January 2008 13:50 (sixteen years ago) link
ah this promises to tun into one of the all-stars classic ILM threads
― baaderonixx, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:06 (sixteen years ago) link
FFS, I even read an enthusiastic review of this album in yesterday's Financial Times week-end supplement.
― baaderonixx, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link
worst party ever
xpost
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, it's the most instantly appealing album I've heard in a very long time, so it's entirely possible that I might be sick of them in 6 months' time. Best make the most of them while I can, then.
They could be the Arctic Monkeys of 2008 in terms of "Butbutbut they happened WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!" outraged bluster - but that's a strictly localised phenomenon, right?
― mike t-diva, Monday, 28 January 2008 14:10 (sixteen years ago) link
new thread?
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 February 2013 15:35 (eleven years ago) link
10 Ya Hey
― Mark G, Monday, 4 February 2013 15:44 (eleven years ago) link
Ho
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 4 February 2013 15:46 (eleven years ago) link
Lets go
― Mark G, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
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
― you are my capitalism (spazzmatazz), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:22 (eleven years ago) link
I'm hoping for a Contra 2 there. Really loved Contra.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 4 February 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
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 little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
The new album is FIRE
― Raymond Cummings, Monday, 11 March 2013 11:56 (eleven years ago) link
So many religious allusions in play
― Raymond Cummings, Monday, 11 March 2013 11:57 (eleven years ago) link
Ok done writing my review, this goes on my shortlist for 2013
― Raymond Cummings, Friday, 15 March 2013 05:16 (eleven years ago) link
yessssss
― yellow jacket (spazzmatazz), Friday, 15 March 2013 06:15 (eleven years ago) link
there is a dedicated thread for this album, which it deserves: Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
― 2010 and 2012 World Champions San Francisco Giants (Bee OK), Friday, 15 March 2013 06:28 (eleven years ago) link
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!
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, 15 May 2019 21:09 (four years ago) link