Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

i duno this thread is pretty funny now. like why am i even here?

I thought they played kwassa kwassa - but maybe that would be too obvious.

Dudes I think they buy random compilations and go "that's a cool rhythm, we should put that in the chorus." Not trying to dis their listening -- who knows, maybe the know the stuff front to back -- but I can't imagine them shooting to know much about any particular style, as opposed to just picking up bits of ideas

what's their faces were kind of like this. that band i can't remember the name of that all the indie kids like in 2001 that made me go "uh?"

oh dismemberment plan

I don't think there's anything wrong with ska or having a ska sound (I have well-worn albums by Rancid and the English Beat in my collection) - but to me (and I'm far from being an expert) ska is basically just one beat, and the thing with Vampire Weekend is that they use lots of different beats, I think.

this is like dismemberment plan but new. and more ska. but pinback is pretty fucking ska if you ask me

anyway I like XTC more than any of this shit. because I'm old

and XTC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vampire Weekend

That's one that never occurred to me, actually -- I could hear something like "A-Punk" on Drums & Wires easy. Only a little more complicated, and with some sort of tricky bridge somewhere.

The Squeeze reference uptop was pretty on point.

Yup.

i <3 squeeze

Also the "four/five" years bit is weird -- the done thing in the 90s was to call out post-rock for being not THAT different from listening to jam bands or Medeski Martin & Wood or whatever, and the past four/five years have been well past the point where the indie masses turned off on all things Tortoise-like

I don't know many folks who had a problem w/MM&W in the 90s. Back then they weren't a part of the jam band scene, really. They had more in with that whole East Cost Rykodisc/fringe Knitting Factory scene: Morphine, Cul De Sac, Wayne Horvitz, etc.

I'm not talking about "all things Tortoise-like." I'm talking about the intersection of quirky indie pop, world music, reggae, and electronic dance music as epitomized by Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance, Aa, Akron/Family, etc. A lot of fans of these bands would scoff at comparisons to jam band culture, hippie drum cirlces, the quirkiness of TMBG (Yes, a lot of people think TMBG are totally bogus). But it's there and it has been addressed in more reviews (usually negative ones) than I can count. To AC's credit, they are pretty upfront about their days as Phish/HORDE fans. But a lot of their fans simply aren't, it seems to me.

I'm kind of seeing this thing first hand. I recently moved to Asheville, NC, which is a real Arthur town. Around here a lot of kinds who seem to dig indie music/"freak folk" can't stand the jam band culture that's dominated the city for years. Yet they all dress like straight up hippies!

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto>>>>>>>Black Sea>>>>>>>Congotronics>>>>>>>>>The Video For "You Can Call Me Al">>>>>>>>>>Macha>>>>>>>>>"Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard" Scene from The Royal Tennenbaums>>>>>>>>>>>Style Council's Clothes>>>>>>>>>>>>>A Certain Ratio>>>>>>>>>>>>>Vampire Weekend

Oh, sure, I'll get behind that, QN -- I guess the indie-hippies' protest would be something like "but no, don't you see, we're all MYSTICAL and MYSTERIOUS," because they want to be backwoods acid-damaged CRAZY hippies instead of feel-good jam-band bros

There is a geography thing going on there, I would say: that particular freak thing seems to have taken off in some places and not in others. I can't imagine seeing much of it in the Midwest, for instance. But NC, SF, LA, yes

u guys most contemporary jam bands are pretty awful tho

QN is correct about this, and that attitude isn't just about freak-folkers, it also crosses over to Brooklyn/Oakland noizers as well. And pretty much anyone who is into indie rock but would never see Juno.

Talk to strangers at shows sometimes.

u guys most contemporary jam bands are pretty awful tho

OTM. The contrarian in me wants to like jam-bands too, it's just that all the ones I've heard kind of suck.

brooklyn/ca noise = dude with beard who stares into the distance spiritually while playing 8 minute long guitar lines. it's deep and important man.

best served while stoned after 2:00 am.

catsup dude is gonna serve you on a platter.

I'm not even sure what falls into the jam-band category at this point, though -- I feel like I'm always just seeing bands coming out of that circuit who aren't really ... jam-bands. Half the time they seem more like crusty punks with one member who really likes klezmer music. And then conversely there are plenty of acts who'd have been considered jam bands by 90s standards that aren't now -- say, Gogol Bordello. (And maybe some Brazilian Girls.)

oh, I say it with love. Nothing better than seeing some drone out in a South Slope warehouse while toasted, nicely toasted

i think you guys are talking about yeasayer

Where is there shows in South Slope?!

also there have been 200 posts here this morning alone and no one's brought up that a dude from the band is on p4k today talking about the music he likes

There's a song by this African guitar player called Kakai Kilonzo, and the song is called "Mama Sofi, Pt. 1". And it has the most awesome guitar riff. I remember we listened to that in San Francisco when we were on tour, and it's just the most incredible riff. And it comes in the second half of the song, it's a song divided into two parts.

not that that proves anything, just saying

They have them; I saw a few in this place called Alladin's Factory on 25th and 5th... I fell out with the friends who invited me, though... it was like some guy's backyard.

this explains a lot because if anything is the antithesis of seeing some dude "drone out" at 2:00 am in someone's seedy backyard it's vampire weekend

NOW

someone plz authoritatively define the sound of da new song so i can identify what wave it shall be classified under

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5E1SlBN0jA

OMG AWESOME !

Re: "hippie" business, above. Quantum & Whiney OTM. This [edited down] from an article in The Stranger this week on local band The Fleet Foxes:

"I am not a hippie," says Pecknold, sitting in a coffee shop along with his four bandmates four days after they announced signing to Sub Pop. "I might look like a hippie, but I actually have much disdain for hippies."

"Hippies were cool, but cocaine destroyed them," Pecknold says, wrapping both hands around his warm cup of coffee. "Cocaine and Charles Manson. As soon as 1970 hit, everyone in L.A., instead of being all free love or whatever, they all moved into these big mansions, these big locked compounds. All the music became really inward focused; '70s music is way more self-centered. It's not bad; it's good to evaluate the self, or whatever..."

Note ignorance of what hippie means (or at least what it used to mean). Boils down to: "I am not a hippie because hippies are rich, reclusive, 70s coke freaks. I'm more into free love or whatever."

Oh definitely, I can vouch by address: Vampire Weekend is precisely what you'd come up with if you spent your time in Brooklyn but went back up to campus and felt like your music should be a little more Morningside Heights

lol parochialism

No, that's not NYC parochialism -- it's the split between loft party and sunny campus, a vibe I think potential purchasers will intuit pretty much across the country.

that's still parochial in a whole bunch of ways tho -- country and class above all.

uh and age obviously.

it's the split between loft party and sunny campus

Great description. I saw the Samples and Widespread Panic on that "sunny campus"!

Don't get "country" and disagree about age (as if soft spots for "sunny campus" music vanish upon graduation), but mostly I'm just ... are we supposed to be shocked and appalled here by indie releases appealing to market fragments that are not all that different from one another in the big picture???

(Beyond which I feel like that split is actually a huge one right now, indie-wise, and I've been bumping into it while writing for years now -- take indie as an overall market, and there's a huge tension/split shaping up between polite collegiate pop and basement noise/freaks/etc. Part of what first impressed me about VW is that they made the polite-collegiate camp not seem like a lost cause for a second; they're both totally committed to that side and yet somehow not boring or predictable about it. TO ME, obviously.)

oh hai i missed some posts

the drumming live is v different from that on the record

-- gabbneb, Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:49 AM (Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:49 AM) Bookmark Link

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better?

-- Jordan, Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:49 AM (Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:49 AM) Bookmark Link

harder faster stronger

does anyone else think theyre purposely needling w/all the waspy signifiers - i just watched a video of them riding around in a sailboat!

noooo, you don't say. how many of them are actually wasps again? rite. i have a t-shirt w/ a picture of a sailboat on it. i wear it 'ironically'.

They were connected to some of the richest and most powerful students and in the most exclusive clubs at Columbia--

-- burt_stanton, Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:15 PM (Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:15 PM) Bookmark Link

haha, burt did you go to columbia? they played a party at the club for the mostly-ignored boarding school kids, which they seem to have regarded from a mildly ironic distance, and the artsy kids' co-ed frat.

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto>>>>>>>Black Sea>>>>>>>Congotronics>>>>>>>>>The Video For "You Can Call Me Al">>>>>>>>>>Macha>>>>>>>>>"Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard" Scene from The Royal Tennenbaums>>>>>>>>>>>Style Council's Clothes>>>>>>>>>>>>>A Certain Ratio>>>>>>>>>>>>>Vampire Weekend

Congrats, you're a Rockist

if liking XTC more than vampire weekend is wrong, i don't wanna be right

and i am a rockist pretty much, at least i think i am. i like to rock out.

Yeah but if being better than XTC were required for bands like this to be worth talking about, a whole lot of the internet would have to be devoted to endless discussion and daily re-reviews of Drums & Wires

Wait, did I already do my thing on here? I have a thing! I wait for people to call VW "white guys with guitars" or use the acronym WASP and then I go "STOP CHANGING PEOPLE'S ETHNICITY / PROBABLE RELIGION TO SUIT YOUR ZINGS"

And then conversely there are plenty of acts who'd have been considered jam bands by 90s standards that aren't now -- say, Gogol Bordello.

hi dere, my other fave band of late. actual jam bands are pretty much for a specialist audience these days, while the larger audience and aesthetic has diffused into a pretty wide variety of acts/genres - jam is what you put it on/where you find it.

I have been waiting for him to be otm so I can drop "Fresh From Nabisco"

Judging by the names, only one of them has any being-a-WASP potential

Where do my poor underloved Brazilian Girls fit in?

yeah i dunno u guyses are so deep in2da game now i can't really hang w/r/t vampire weekend analysis

on the real tip: i don't even hate it, but the dude's voice reminds me of the decemberists dudes voice, which is kind of a seinfeld dealbreaker kinda deal for me....vocal "man hands" or "close talker" if you will

(also rockist or not, my more than/less than was right as rain)