Vampire Weekend

[jebreject]

I've never listened to Vampire Weekend, but their name rules.

[martin_van_buren]

I actually wasn't making any value judgments on the name "Vampire Weekend", but was really just pointing out that I find it more than somewhat evocative of "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah". Whether that's bad or good is entirely your call.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

The name isn't bad, so much as misleading. It's like if you saw a movie called Vampire Weekend, but it was actually a super awesome party film!

[ellaguru]

I would totally listen to a band called Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.

[hannah]

The name isn't bad, so much as misleading. It's like if you saw a movie called Vampire Weekend, but it was actually a super awesome party film!

I thought that's what the name means -- i.e., "stay up for 48 hours straight having a super awesome party."

[Thermofusion]

I've been listening to Vampire Weekend for a couple days now and, man, am I in love.  It's so refreshing to hear a band make breezy, melodic indie pop without coming across as earnest and cloyingly asexual.  AND it's refreshing how they combine the afrobeat influences with a generic indie/Talking Heads-type sound without coming across as self-conscious or postmodern about it.

But mainly, they're just catchy and awesome. 

[crystalcakes]

1) lptj was way the fuck ahead of this curve

hmmm, i heard it on another board long before this one. 

also, i find it endearing that they're nyc rich kids who sing about being nyc rich kids.  which is weird because i have a general distaste for nyc rich kids. 

[Lucy]

ive not heard them at all, but apparently i'm gonna go see them next saturday in oxford, UK

[dieblucasdie]

1) lptj was way the fuck ahead of this curve

hmmm, i heard it on another board long before this one. 

also, i find it endearing that they're nyc rich kids who sing about being nyc rich kids.  which is weird because i have a general distaste for nyc rich kids. 

To be fair, they also sing about being MASS rich kids. 

Also Lucy listen to their album. 

[Almanzo]

Just for the record, we're going to have to work out afropop ≠ afrobeat.

 

[ellaguru]

The name isn't bad, so much as misleading. It's like if you saw a movie called Vampire Weekend, but it was actually a super awesome party film!

I thought that's what the name means -- i.e., "stay up for 48 hours straight having a super awesome party."

That wasn't at all my interpretation when I first heard of them, but since I read your post a month or so ago, hannah, it's totally what I think now when I hear the name.

[dieblucasdie]

Actually I'm pretty sure it would mean staying up all night and sleeping all day over a weekend.  Like a vampire!

[theothermike]

I have tried to listen to this band a few times and they make me really bored.

[Cowboy Dan]

that's cool

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

We don't judge here

[Wally]

Actually I'm going to judge this band without listening to them, 'cause they look like a bunch of over privileged snotty nosed tossers. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. I don't suppose I'll ever find out.

[dieblucasdie]

also, i find it endearing that they're nyc rich kids who sing about being nyc rich kids.  which is weird because i have a general distaste for nyc rich kids. 

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

Actually I'm going to judge this band without listening to them, 'cause they look like a bunch of over privileged snotty nosed tossers. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. I don't suppose I'll ever find out.

So's Kanye West, but i still play "Stronger" fifty times a day.

[alistarr*]

Actually I'm going to judge this band without listening to them, 'cause they look like a bunch of over privileged snotty nosed tossers. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. I don't suppose I'll ever find out.

just to clarify, we don't have a problem with judging people here, we do that all the time. it's just their musical tastes that we're careful not to judge.

[DCDave]

Esquire or GQ had a two page thing on why they're the best band right now.  Whaddup, John.

[elpollodiablo]

Actually I'm going to judge this band without listening to them, 'cause they look like a bunch of over privileged snotty nosed tossers. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right. I don't suppose I'll ever find out.

QFagreement, if not truth

[theothermike]

Well, I got really stoned and listened to them and enjoyed them a little more and one of the songs got stuck  in my head. I guess they may not be terrible, and though I may end up liking them, I don't think I'll love them.

[Thermofusion]

I've listened to this record a lot, still really enjoy it, etc. 

I was playing it in the car the other day for a friend who'd read all of the blogosphere/P-fork/etc. hype over this band and was dying to hear it themselves.  The reaction?  "Eh, it's good, but it's not mind-blowing like I thought it would be."

I know the hype vs. reality debate is pretty old and tired, and it's absolutely ridiculous to inflict a sense of collective responsibility on an unorganized blogosphere.  But that said, I think that some bands are well-built to withstand massive hyping ("epic"-minded bands with organs, two drummers, six keyboardists and lots of deeply serious lyrics with allusions to the cold war howled over steady 4/4 beats by an Issac Brock soundalike inflicting pure emotional catharsis, man, into every throaty rasp)...and then there are bands like Vampire Weekend, who are slightly quirky, uncomplicated and low key.  Bands like this really don't have a shot at withstanding their inevitable post-Blogosphere hype backlash, when everyone checking them out for the first time expects something grave and epic like the Arcade Fire and instead gets breezy, Carribean-inflected indie pop.  And honestly, a little bit of internal auditing by individual bloggers could solve this: dial back the hyperbole, for once, and just let the mp3 speak for itself.

(I know, that was an incredibly poor, disjointed argument, but it just sickens me to see a good band about to get smacked by a hard, bitter backlash)

[Andrew_TSKS]

i don't thnk it's so much "let the mp3 speak for itself" as "be more accurate in your descriptions instead of showering every single new band you like in melodramatic hyperbole". but other than that, i totally agree with you.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, it's easy to question someone else's intentions.  If anything, I think there's more sincerity to be found in someone getting overexcited about a new band he likes than someone rushing to listen to every new band so he can go say, "Eh, it's just OK" on internet message boards.  But really, can't we just give each other the benefit of the doubt?