Oops. I searched for threads and thought this was ILE. My apologies. Please ignore the post above.
― youn, Thursday, 6 March 2008 01:44 (sixteen years ago) link
They're getting more push from MTV again this week. Between videos in the early morning hours (between 6 a.m. and 8 Eastern time) see them in short clips, riding bikes, singing, and chatting about their fave songs on their album, etc.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 March 2008 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.subterraneanblog.com/2008/03/04/mtv-artist-of-the-week-vampire-weekend/
― tramp steamer, Thursday, 6 March 2008 23:22 (sixteen years ago) link
O! I wish I had a television at times.
― youn, Friday, 7 March 2008 01:26 (sixteen years ago) link
The best thing in that was the gesture.
― youn, Friday, 7 March 2008 01:43 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1582660&vid=213890
John Jay and ButlerStax!
― gabbneb, Friday, 7 March 2008 06:10 (sixteen years ago) link
one of those videos features an appearance by an Official Columbia Squirrel (or possibly an Official Columbia Squirrat)
― gabbneb, Friday, 7 March 2008 06:17 (sixteen years ago) link
i dont really care about this band but im just dropping in to say jshepard's vv article was awful
kthnxbye
― deej, Saturday, 8 March 2008 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link
First off, this Friday's FADER radio was one of my favorites ever, because we played all music related to our Africa issue (mostly hiplife from Ghana, lest any deans and/or peens deem it necessary to take my specificity to task and/or publicly renounce our friendship - LO mfin L!). JShep, now working at Fader, on her blog
Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live tonight
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 8 March 2008 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Good lord, it's like they're constitutionally or contractually unable to do any sort of press more than four blocks from the corner of 114th and Amsterdam.
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 March 2008 20:54 (sixteen years ago) link
i think it's like the boy in the plastic bubble...the air would kill them
― latebloomer, Saturday, 8 March 2008 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Actually I think it's more like they've figured out how to use the neighborhood as an image and marketing angle, which -- considering it's in Manhattan -- is kinda something.
Columbia should really give them a kickback on any increase in applications this fall.
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 March 2008 21:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Additional public-safety note: Koenig is surely being a little perverse by suggesting that a "late-night picnic in Morningside Park" is a good date idea.
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 March 2008 21:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Additional additional note: I'd have given this a 3.2 if I'd known Koenig honestly doesn't use serial commas. Can't we reconvene the PMRC and do something about this nonsense?
― nabisco, Saturday, 8 March 2008 21:19 (sixteen years ago) link
These VW dudes seem like the kind-of dorkissimos who wear baggy pleated Eddie Bauer khakis and chunky brown leather moccasins out in public; how they got anywhere is thanks purely to the magic of zeitgeist ... and being incredibly well-connected in aristocratic 2008 NYC.
― burt_stanton, Saturday, 8 March 2008 23:38 (sixteen years ago) link
why would they be worried about how much coal someone said they had? is it a reverse coke ref?
― whatever, Saturday, 8 March 2008 23:44 (sixteen years ago) link
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Burt Stanton.
― nabisco, Sunday, 9 March 2008 00:11 (sixteen years ago) link
burt swear off this thread for your own health dude
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 9 March 2008 00:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Nah. Despising mediocrity and American worship of bland non-creativity is my raison d'être. A million brilliant artists and musicians live and die i nothingness, yet here we have ... another pile of oatmeal dogshit people can't shovel into their mouths fast enough.
― burt_stanton, Sunday, 9 March 2008 00:37 (sixteen years ago) link
burt_magill
― J0rdan S., Sunday, 9 March 2008 00:39 (sixteen years ago) link
FFFFF Ffff AAGGGOT BALLZ
― OskarM, Sunday, 9 March 2008 00:40 (sixteen years ago) link
12 boxes of frozen Morningstar vegan breakfast burritos fell on my head today, so pardon my uncontrolalble outbursts
― burt_stanton, Sunday, 9 March 2008 01:07 (sixteen years ago) link
They're included in the article on Brooklyn bands in the Sunday March 9th New York Times because, according to the article 3/4 of the band now live in that borough. If you care about sales figures--from that article- LCD Soundsystem 'Sound of Silver' sold 103,000 copies,MGMT 21,000 so far, and Yeasayer 15,000. No numbers for VW, which may get a boost from the Saturday Night Live appearance (I was just awake for "A Punk" whose vocals lacked the spirit of earlier renditions)
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 9 March 2008 18:49 (sixteen years ago) link
after last week, VW had sold 86k. (I don't have soundscan but I saw the figures reported somewhere - same place says MGMT are now up to 26k.)
also, wow, that's a great figure for yeasayer.
― scottpl, Sunday, 9 March 2008 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I LOL'd
― gabbneb, Sunday, 9 March 2008 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link
yes
LOL at them having a fansite called OXFORD COMMA RIDDIM. Jesus.
― Matt DC, Monday, 10 March 2008 12:19 (sixteen years ago) link
I found it hard not to wish some form of backalley justice on vampire weekend while watching their snl appearance. can it really be called a backlash when it's just a larger segment of the population discovering that a band is eye-gougingly irritating? even my wife, who loves the arctic monkeys, likes the vampire weekend single, and generally refuses to indulge my curmudgeonly observations, agreed they were insufferable.
this band is shaping up to be a wonderful lightning rod as the economy slides into the floodwaters.
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 14:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I have no idea what that last sentence is supposed to mean.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 10 March 2008 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Easy harmless target for all his ire, I presume?
― Matt DC, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno about you, Edward, but, even if people gave a flying fuck about the relationship between the U.S. economy and the background of band members, I like watching (and listening) to people enjoy themselves. You'll probably next advise us to burn our copies of Scott Fitzgerald novels to protest the collapse of the housing boom.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
It might provide a cheaper substitute for oil.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link
guys, even his wife agreed
― gabbneb, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:30 (sixteen years ago) link
discovering that a band is eye-gougingly irritating
I wish they were at least mildly irritating. At best, they're as exciting as that wet piece of Wonder Bread I saw on the sidewalk this morning. And the Wonder Bread held my attention longer.
― Sara Sara Sara, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
its exciting to learn that gabbneb enjoys a type of music.
― chaki, Monday, 10 March 2008 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link
No numbers for VW, which may get a boost from the Saturday Night Live appearance
While watching them play "M79" on SNL (I missed the first song), I surmised that they're more likely to get an SNL boost than 90% of the bands that have been on the show in the last 10 years. Overhyped in blogger circles, sure, but this was probably the first time thousands of people had heard of them.
― jaymc, Monday, 10 March 2008 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link
i have watched the snl clips - guy does a weird thing w/his eyes
― jhøshea, Monday, 10 March 2008 16:09 (sixteen years ago) link
I was a little surprised at them picking "M79" for the second song, I was thinking that something like "Campus" or "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance" would have been a better choice.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 10 March 2008 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
They got to show off the string quartet, though.
― jaymc, Monday, 10 March 2008 16:26 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, March 10, 2008 10:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
just that there hasn't been as perfect a band for both the rock populi and social critics to centralize their hate around for a long time. vw's timing is perfect. they're like the knack for a new millenium.
and to preempt further miscategorization, what irritated me about them wasn't that they were having fun. I like fun, I like seeing people having fun. one of my favorite records is unrest's perfect teeth fer crissakes. and the ivory tower privilege shit doesn't bug me -- note that I am ilm's resident joanna newsom apologist. but there's a smugness and sense of entitlement that comes off vampire weekend like a heat mirage (and that was my perception before I, god help me, read this entire thread).
people can try to reduce this to "they just made a poppy record that people like to dance to" but the bonfire of the vanities stuff these guys trade in is just too delicious to ignore. I'm glad they're around, they make recent flash-in-the-pan whipping dogs like arcade fire and the strokes look positively unassailable.
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Right, because ILM hates money.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:04 (sixteen years ago) link
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:05 (sixteen years ago) link
flash-in-the-pan whipping dogs like arcade fire and the strokes
i wouldn't exactly call these bands flash in the pan nor would i assume that vw are gonna have a more successful career than either. i mean af sold almost 100,000 copies in its first week, which i guess vw could and probably will do, but still.
― J0rdan S., Monday, 10 March 2008 17:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Right, I just don't think that songs plays to their strengths.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:06 (sixteen years ago) link
a flash in the pan whipping dog must be a scary sight on a dark evening, even for a mixed metaphor.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:07 (sixteen years ago) link
mixed metaphors are my stock-in-trade mise-en-place!
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
As a friend who got dumped last week but has already gone on a couple of dates since then said, "There's plenty of fish in the barrel."
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Bonfire of the Vanities! Good effort.
I imagine they did M79 - which I discounted a bit because it's my favorite - in part because they're (or Rostam is) proud of it. And also because it's probably their best poster-child for fuck you, we don't care about rocking as hard as you think we should.
Also, chaki, I will attend your pep rally if it's that important to you. I may even bring pom-poms.
― gabbneb, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link
anyway I like the arcade fire and strokes, calling them "flash-in-the-pan whipping dogs" speaks more to their status as backlash contenders than to my actual opinions on them.
"there's plenty of fish in the barrel" is zenlike confusion.
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:32 (sixteen years ago) link
here is the point where I observe that even their fans are condescending... this is like shooting fish in the sea.
― Edward III, Monday, 10 March 2008 17:39 (sixteen years ago) link