Vampire Weekend; Arctic Monkeys of 2008?

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I really like that track! Can't wait for this album

Ottoman is from the Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist soundtrack, but I agree... it's a great song.

new song on vampireweekend.com

curious to hear thoughts.

Love it. I've already listened to it 10 times or so. Also, I've never had horchata, and now I'm going looking for some.

Vampire Weekend: stimulating the local economy.

Music's . . . okay, tho unmemorable. But I hate this group's cod-rock vibe.

"In December, drinkin' hawtchowddddaaaaa . . . " Blech.

Oh, sorry. It's "drinkin' Horchata," not "drinkin' hot chowda."

The facts may change, but my opinion never will.

ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggh

lol

"In December drinking horchata/ I look psychotic in a balaclava,

ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggh

― Mr. Que, Monday, October 5, 2009 9:19 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm indebted enough with these guys to like this song a lot but i can't help but think that they are explicitly trolling with these lyrics

In December, drinking horchata/I’d look psychotic in a balaclava. Winter’s cold is too much to handle/Pincher crabs that pinch in your sandals.

In December, drinking horchata/Look down your glasses at that aranciata/With lips and teeth to ask how my day went/Boots and fists to pound on the pavement.

Here comes a feeling you thought you’d forgotten/Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on.

You’d remember drinking horchata/You’d still enjoy it with your foot on Masada.

Vampire Weekend Secures Place As The Jimmy Buffet Of The Oughts.

the thing is, the rhyming and phrasing is really pleasant, which is something that is def carried over from the first album but there's no way that the imagery isn't two big middle fingers to their haters

also i think it's important to note that ezra is kind of a goofy guy (cf his fake horror film that is the original 'vampire weekend', his jokey rapping in college) and i think rhyming shit like horchata and balaclava is his way of writing 'fun' carefree music. certainly i think that he uses his lyrics to play around with language moreso than try and rouse the listener's emotions (in this sense it's not that far from a lot of rap music)

Indie schmindie.

And I like indie.

"(in this sense it's not that far from a lot of rap music)." Somewhere, the Wu-Tang Clan is groaning with disbelief.

nah i mean, if you look at a lot of lil wayne's mixtape stuff or late 90s/early 2000s jay-z or 08/09 gucci mane, you see guys who are mostly writing lyrics where rhyming and phrasing and creating images that are evocative but not necessarily meaningful or connected are more important than conveying like concrete feelings which is obv what a lot of indie rock is about

(it's easy too to draw a connection between like some of ghostface's solo work and craig finn)

It is a natural comparison:

Lil Wayne: F--k The World

Look, look, look
A young nigga screaming fuck the world and let 'em die
Behind tints, tryna' duck the world and smoking rie
Got my bandanna 'round my head and pants to my feet
And got my eyes fire red and glock on my seat
I'm tryna' stay under intoxication
'Cause I lost my father, and got a daughter, plus I'm on probation
I'm drinking liquor like it's water, getting pissy drunk
And staying away from them lil' broads that trying to give me some
I keep a chopper in the trunk and my heat on my wasteline
Ducking the law, 'cause I ain't tryna' do no FED time
Sometimes I just wish I could be away
But I gotta take care of Reginae and keep macita straight
So I just maintain the struggle and I keep trying
But how can I when my closest people keep dyin'
I ain't lying that the law tryna' bust my clique
But I scream fuck the world man, I'm too young for this

Vampire Weekend: Horchata

In December, drinking horchata/I’d look psychotic in a balaclava. Winter’s cold is too much to handle/Pincher crabs that pinch in your sandals.
In December, drinking horchata/Look down your glasses at that aranciata/With lips and teeth to ask how my day went/Boots and fists to pound on the pavement.
Here comes a feeling you thought you’d forgotten/Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on.
You’d remember drinking horchata/You’d still enjoy it with your foot on Masada.

(Okay, okay, I assume you meant the people on Lil Wayne's mixtapes, not Lil Wayne himself.)

I think what he means is just "liking fun/interesting rhymes for their own sake"

Yes, but you're killing my buzz with "reasoned argument."

(j/k . . . I get J0rdan's point)

and like, i would be willing to believe that ezra 'freestyles' a lot of his lyrics. the opening line of "horchata" flows so smoothly & easily is & is so tied to that tinkling melody that it sounds like to me he came up with it in almost one take

anyway i think this song is fantastic

I dunno how I feel about the song yet, but I like that a song about horchata now exists.

i really liked the guitar a lot on the first album, probably the thing i liked best about most of their songs. this definitely has an AC/panda bear thing going on with that break down with the steel drum-ish synths and "OOOHHHHHHHs". obviously there's a bunch more shit going on at the end...still kinda disappointing

I don't see the similarities with AC. Musically if not lyrically I think this song is great, and the complexity and subtlety of their musical arrangements is always underrated, because the focus is always on what they represent.

to me this sounds like potentially their best song

i really liked the guitar a lot on the first album

Me too, but I also like its non-presence on this track in favor of some cheapo synthy sounds. I'll never be a VW apologist and won't defend them if it takes more than a minute of my time, but I really like what they do.

omg this is worse than when he spilled kefir on his keffiyah

song is pretty good though

I like the bass line a lot; it's the string stuff that's more annoying this time -- it's cloying when set against Koenig's voice.

there is nothing "indie schmindie" about this song or vampire weekend

this is pretty good, i like ottoman a bit more. most annoying thing is that he sounds the "h" in horchata. death vessel did it right on their first record fyi.

VW is one indie band that i think can grow sonically for as long as they want and still make music that is interesting & good. rostam and ezra are just really great musicians, i think that def got lost in the fervor over their choice of college and brand of button up

true--it doesn't get mentioned much but tons of the first album was pretty much home-recorded. dudes have some untapped potential still.

How sublime! I hope this weekend never ends.

This song is really good, so here are my reasons for not liking this band:

i assume that is a picture of them wearing nice clothes that is blocked at my work?

Jody Rosen and Jonah Weiner discuss "Horchata":

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2009/10/07/track-of-the-week-vampire-weekend-s-horchata.aspx

This song is really good, so here are my reasons for not liking this band:

― sleepingbag, Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Yes yes, go on.

glad we'll be covering the exact same critical ground again when this album drops

Awesome, let's poll this.

Faust Arp

some good stuff in that slate bit

J.R.: I like Koenig, too. Good songwriter. I can't quite fathom the criticism leveled at Vampire Weekend for being, you know, too Ivy League, too effete. That's the point! They're owning it. And I think there's more intentional self-parody in Vampire Weekend's songs than they're given credit for. There's an ironic distance between the well-heeled, hyper-verbal post-collegiates who populate VW songs and Koenig himself. Although, of course, he fits that description. Come to think of it, there's a bit of Whit Stillman in the posture—the lovingly detailed, amused depiction of, as the Metropolitan director would have it, the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie. In any case, what I really like about this band are the hooks and the nifty arrangements.

this is super otm imo

yeah i dunno how you could hear a line like "spilled kefir on your keffiyah" and not get a strong stillman/allen vibe off the whole thing.

I guess they're just not made for my ears, tho I like them enough to have downloaded the debut (and I'll probably download the new disc, too). I like some of the influences I hear rumbling around the music. It's the final product that somehow leaves me cold or -- with respect to some of the lyrics -- makes me wince. You can see them as "writing lyrics where rhyming and phrasing and creating images that are evocative but not necessarily meaningful," à la Lil Wayne. I see them as "writing lyrics where rhyming and phrasing and creating images that are evocative but not necessarily meaningful," à la Barenaked Ladies.

Not trying to be a jackass, tho. De gustibus non est disputandum.

I'm glad they've decided to embrace their inner Haircut 100 and busted out the marimba.

seriously, I've always felt like "Love Plus One" is surely the biggest historical precedent for them in general

i can't help but think that they are explicitly trolling with these lyrics

― autogoon delight (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 5, 2009 5:54 PM (3 days ago)

this is a great way of putting it, and i think/hope it may even be more true than "self-parody"