Vampire Weekend

[andronicus]

Still haven't heard a note.  At this point, I have kind of an emotional attachment to not having heard them, not because I think I would hate them (though I probably would) but out of a sense that, once you've lost touch with the zeitgeist to a certain degree, your best bet is to adjust your ascot, check your pocket watch and wait for it to come back to you.

[elpollodiablo]

If my attempts to get back in touch with it are any indication, it never comes back. One day everything's cool, the next day people are listening to Lil Wayne records

[ellaguru]

Oh, it can come back. In the nineties I never even heard of Pavement, and now I listen to Lil Wayne records.

[andronicus]

I know you guys all wanted Almanzo's children to die of cancer, but I dunno, I found him kind of hilarious at the time.

[Good Intentions]

I know you guys all wanted Almanzo's children to die of cancer

No, because then he'd start a thread on how his kids' cancer could objectively be seen to be infinitely greater and more significant than anybody else's, ever. Then he'd call all of us nearsighted and bizarrely incompetent judges of cancer-significance.

[clare]

Also: "why I am soft in the middle, the rest of my life is so hard". I mean, c'mon, how is that not great?

The MTV albums series (whatever the hell it's called, my brain is completley dried out in the this heat) on Graceland was pretty good - there's a bit where PS is analysing that song line-by-line and he's really pleased with it (except one line that he dismissed as "too wordy" but I can't remember which line it was)

edit:
no, wait it was this bit:

Bonedigger, Bonedigger,
Dogs in the moonlight.
Far away, my well-lit door.

[andronicus]

I know you guys all wanted Almanzo's children to die of cancer

No, because then he'd start a thread on how his kids' cancer could objectively be seen to be infinitely greater and more significant than anybody else's, ever. Then he'd call all of us nearsighted and bizarrely incompetent judges of cancer-significance.

That was the funny part.

I think it's really fascinating to go back and read the posts about this band before they got huge, but it's even more interesting to see people sort of trying to flaccidly keep up the hype like, "yeah, a year later and it's still pretty good, bro" even though we all know that that band is the rock version of Asher Roth - always has been, always will be. Bought and sold North Eastern Ivynose.

You know what's really amazing, though, looking back on this whole "embarrassment core" tip? That the Black Kids single "Hurricane Jane" is still, even after their epochal and brutal sacrifice at the hands of the critical elite that created them, one of the finest pop songs of this decade. That's something that can never be said of "Jewish 'Chusetts" or whatever the big Vampire Weekend single was.

See?

Come back, Almanzo!

[Greg Nog]

I liked Almanzo, but I couldn't figure out how to express that without eating watermelon and singing "Mammy".  Traditional white words like "enjoy" just couldn't suffice when I read those umber posts, daddy-o.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Also: "why I am soft in the middle, the rest of my life is so hard". I mean, c'mon, how is that not great?

Oh, the lyrics to that song are pretty good. If it were a poem, I'd like it. Unfortunately, there's all that crappy music there fucking it up.

[clare]

But, it was the 80s, man, and he was _trying_ to do something different, he just wasn't all that good at the 'different' bit.

[Thermofusion]

"roly-poly little bat-faced girl" is possibly one of my favorite combinations of words in popular music

and Graceland rules, I don't know what some of you are smoking

[jm]

Heh!  I love that this has spiraled off into a discussion about Graceland, just because I (and others) heard some similarities in the music. 

TSKS et al. - is it the actual music you hate, or just the instrumentation?  Because it's the actual music that I see the similarities in, rather than the instrumentation (which I have agreed sounds silly as hell at times).

(Gotta mention this - I always sort of felt like All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints could basically be a They Might Be Giants song, right down to the shitty electro drums.  And I'm kind of down with that.)

[elpollodiablo]

"roly-poly little bat-faced girl" is possibly one of my favorite combinations of words in popular music

Haha, awesome! I had that snippet of lyrics running through my head as I was getting ready this morning. Truly wonderful.

[jm]

In related news, I've had You Can Call Me Al stuck in my head for the last two days thanks to you jerxx.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Re: the music or the instrumentation--Of course the instrumentation is the big flagrant part that drives me nuts, but there's definitely some stuff in the actual music that annoys me too. And it's interesting that we're talking about Vampire Weekend at the same time, because in the two of their songs that I've heard (one being "Oxford Comma," the other I don't know the name of) I heard pretty conventional indie instrumentation but some of the same annoyingly catchy aspects of the music that annoys me in "Graceland" (I think I botched subject-verb agreement in that sentence, but I can't figure out how to fix it, my bad). So like, where "Graceland" actively annoys me, I don't find Vampire Weekend that awful but still have no enthusiasm for them and pretty much don't care if I never hear them again.

I don't like it when music sounds too happy. Even the melodic stuff I listen to (emo, power-pop, etc) all tends to be of a forlorn, melancholy, or angst-ridden mood, rather than happy. The happy sound of a lot of it is what also bugs me about most pop punk. And, by the way, They Might Be Giants. So yeah, I think even if "Graceland" were re-recorded right now with less lame instrumentation, I still wouldn't be that enthused about it.

[jm]

Cool, that's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks!

[lastclearchance]

First time I heard them they just sounded like a C86 band, The Chesterf!elds or something, diluting a bit of that Bhundu Boys/Shalawambe vibe, and yet somehow simultaneously completely 21st century, overproduced and uninterestingly bland.

which is why simon reynolds likes them so much 

[Ah_Pook]

man ive been listening to contra pretty much on repeat since it came out. i never heard their first album, but im really digging this one.

[alexandra]

In related news, I've had You Can Call Me Al stuck in my head for the last two days thanks to you jerxx.

This song tortured me throughout my childhood

[kyle]

Graceland rules, I don't know what some of you are smoking

[simonfox]

To me, really, Graceland is pretty sweet.  I mean, hit and miss definitely... I think the instrumentation actually works sometimes, but mostly fails.  But overall, it's pretty solid Paul Simon... mostly really good lyrics and hell if I don't think it's a lot of fun.

As for Vampire Weekend... catchy as hell.  I feel like I could dig them and then when I listen a few times I just get kind of bored.  I don't think they are worthy of either the praise or the pissing on I often see them getting.

[heather]

fucking FUCK a vampire weekend. FUCK.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

THIS THREAD NEVER DIES

[Daniel]

N*T*E*R*D