As previously reported, both Jess and I think that the debut album by the buzzed-to-death New York band Vampire Weekend is perfectly fine. (Possibly of note: Every time I listen to their album, I experience an Orange Juice craving about six tracks in.) But coverage of the band–from its Rolling Stone accolades to all those blog posts–has been absolutely nauseating, to the point where it actually makes me kind of hate the idea of words being used to described music, or at least musicians. I hit some sort of breaking point yesterday, thanks to the “A Night Out With” profile of the band in the New York Times Sunday Styles. In its 489 words, it manages to hit on everything that drives me bonkers about the Columbia-bred band’s preppy-smarmy signifiers, and it spends more time talking about the band’s hype express than about the music that started that train a-rolling. After the jump, the four sentences that almost had me throwing my paper across the room!
4. Describing its sound as “Upper West Side Soweto”… OK, OK, I know that this is old. But any readers out there who thought that the above construction was courtesy of some hacky rock critic on a Robitussin bender, take note: They describe themselves this way. At least let Robert Christgau do the christening for you, dudes!
3. Mr. Koenig, who recently quit his day job as an English teacher, went on to explain that the place was formerly known as the Mill Luncheonette. “That’s why they call it the Mill Korean,” Mr. Batmanglij said. Such intellectual showmanship shouldn’t be surprising to anyone familiar with Vampire Weekend — and is anyone not these days? Sigh. Sigh. But wait, there’s more:
2. Mr. Koenig: “Did you know that New Jersey is the capital of the flavor industry?” Translation: Did you know that I finally finished Fast Food Nation this week?
1. Hardly keeping vampire hours, Mr. Koenig, the only member who still lives uptown, bade farewell to his Brooklyn-bound mates around 10 p.m. But not before reminding them of their plans for the following day: a field trip to Lacoste. But don’t get too used to seeing them in your store, Lacosties–once those Best New Music bucks start rolling in, they’re going to be all-Polo, all the time!
Know-It-Alls on a Riff [NYT]
Vampire Weekend – A-Punk [YouTube]
I do like this band, I will admit; however they tend to build themselves from this platform of overpriviliged stuffy liberal preppy multiculturalism and political correctness. It’s almost faux-indie in that the music feels like indie rock intended for the masses.
Jesus Christ.
What awful, awful music.
I’m with Maura. I really want to punch everyone associated with VW in the face now.
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: I’m wtih you also. I think I’ll be the only person at SxSW who will miss their showcase.
I want to hate this band but I don’t. I like their 3-song ep with “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” on it quite a bit. I will say, though, that they should definitely stop referring to African music in interviews, song titles, etc. It’s kind of cute how clunky their musicianship is, very punk in a safe, non-confrontational way (ahem) – the biggest signifier of privilege in their music is the hamhanded repetitiveness of their “African” guitar lines, which are really the only non-white hipster elements of their music. No self-respecting South African band could get away with that shit. A group of white yuppie hipsters, on the other hand…
Nice gimmick, anyway. Pretty good to better-than-pretty-good pop songs, too. If they drop the pretensions and cop to what they’re really doing, adding simple, African-sounding riffs to very Western pop songs rather than some East Coast-Soweto fusion, I will feel much less guilty about liking them.
This music is so utterly banal and gratingly white bread…#2 record of 2008 in the bag already then.
Terrible. Absolutely terrible.
@Loudersoft: Whatever “indie” means, this is P-O-P, or maybe “alternative” rock circa 1996. Even more than most hype bands, it seems to have an expiration date displayed prominently, as well.
I don’t know if their debut’s been ‘forked yet, but anybody want to guess the Pitchfork rating on their sophomore album, whenever that comes out? Do I hear 4.0 or under?
Enh. They still seem less hateable than the reactionary twerps in Times New Viking.
So if I make music that sounds like every other post-punk ripoff artist band out there…
…but TELL everybody that I’m “very influenced by Kaoru Abe and Masayuki Takayanagi/New Directions,” does that mean that people will refer to me as “a kind of Somerville Shinjuku?”
I’m calling these frauds out. They sound like every other band spilling over with spazzy Williamsburg bullshit. Total weak sauce Lacoste crap.
I don’t find them terrible, but once again, I don’t get the hype – to me, they sound like a hipster Bedouin Soundclash, perhaps one that also owns some Zutons records in addition to Graceland and a couple of Luaka Bop compilations.
@mhulot: 8.8 actually! i linked the review in the post.
Isn’t it possible to hate on music because it’s bad? Do we really need to fault a band for being hyped or having obvious influences?
Or would it be too much trouble to try and elevate the general dialogue on the internet? I haven’t heard this yet but seeing them called out as “frauds” just seems overly reactionary. Not everyone can be Bjork or whatever fill-in-the-blank front-edge of the avant-garde creative genius flavor-of-the-month that we seem to demand from anyone recieving critical praise.
I find the backlash funny. I think this is one of the most hater-proof bands to come around in a while! They might where their pretentions/prepiness/hearts/appreciation for african music on their sleeves, but they make such effortless, melodic, affecting pop.
I’m going to try not to read anyhting else about them for the remainder of the week!
@JudgeFudge: I think this is one of the most hater-proof bands to come around in a while!
Could you define ‘hater-proof’ plz.
@JudgeFudge: good luck
@The Notorious T: I enjoy that you use the term “flavor-of-the-month” in a statement DEFENDING a band that was handed their success by blogs.
The blogosphere giveth, the blogosphere taketh away. This band will be forgotten relatively quickly.
Also, Bjork? “Front-edge of the avant garde?” Really?
Sounds like Paul Simon backed by Luna. People like this?
Also, while we’re getting defintions, could someone do “hater”?
initially read: for 3 weeks late summer, I was really into their songs. Then they grew tiresome and tedious. Didn’t have much longevity for me. I understand why people are into it, but I don’t understand why Spin gave them the LEAD review, and rumor has it they are soon to grace their cover.
I sort of see them going the way of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, ie: nobody gives a shit anymore
but perhaps I’m wrong.
at this point, it’s the all too predictable backlash that is nauseating.
“Upper West Side Soweto”? Jesus fuck. I just got all the shots you need for a trip to South Africa, so I guess that means I’m safe if I punch one of these twerps in the face and they start bleeding.
i’m not anti, i just realized their songs don’t have staying power
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: “Also, Bjork? “Front-edge of the avant garde?” Really?”
Yet more press fueled mythology. It is as if Diamanda, Cathy Berberian,
Joan LaBarbara, Yoko, etc. never considerded using their voices as an
avant garde means of expression with acoustic and/or electronic
backing, or existed for that matter. Thank the stars above for Bjork
guiding us into the light.
The hipster-cred, anti-hype around here is laid on a bit thick, don’t you think? Which is worse: A really smart band that people are starting to catch on to, or a bunch of kids that are such media slaves that they’ll let over saturation, and over-coverage of that band, ruin a great record for them?
I like it, it’s disposable. It’s like a band doing nothing thematically but Rufus Wainwright’s “Millbrook” over and over. Which is fine.
And a band with prep-pretension is way overdue. “Pelican West” was 1982!
Also, for the 11 minutes anyone will care about them, the look/sound this is much more fresh than yet more college boys with beards, ballcaps and Les Pauls tryin’ to sound Southren [sic].
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: I was just grasping for some if any artist that wasn’t completely and publicly defined by their influences. I just pulled Bjork because she dresses funny — I’m not cool enough to have a legit example.
I’m just saying there are so many perfectly good reasons to hate something that resorting to “overhyped” and “sounds like ______” is lame.
When did this band form? Was it after that Sasha Frere-Jones article came out? And Talking Heads ‘Naked’ is one of my favourite records, but when it came out, Talking Heads took such a beating from the critics – people hated that record. Wasn’t there some cartoon of Paul Simon and David Byrne hiding in the African bushes eyeballing each other across a clearing whilst ‘observing the natives’? People hated it! And these are posh boys who look like posher Klaxons or something…any way what I’m saying is… There is nothing new here. The funniest thing about that Pitchfork review is the dude says they actually sound like the Strokes – which is true!
I have to say I’m annoyed by all the Idolator comment backlash. I expect it from Stereogum, but I thought we were a little above the fray. This is a very very good band. They write effortless, simple pop music presented in a unique and interesting way. That is no easy task, and everyone here knows it. Even if their preppy schtick is tiresome, let’s all collectively admit that this is an impressive debut.
I can’t say I *HATE* this band outright. They’re so inoffensive, with their sprightly melodies and dean’s-list vocab. Their album is pleasant background music, in an upbeat-Jack-Johnson-but-more-energetic vein. But I hate the HYPE. Hailing them as the Best Band of 2008 is just journalistic masturbation. Rock crits – please wait until something with more substance and complexity comes along before whipping out your bottles of hand cream – i mean, pens.
the most offensively vanilla claptrap to come down the pike since Barenaked Ladies. just utter rubbish.
@dog door: Stan, why you so mad?
@Jasonbob7: Inoffensive? Really? They seem to have sparked more online ire than any other contemporary band of recent memory. And comparing them to Jack Johnson is just dick. Srsly guys, I will defend this band against all comers. Bring it on. The only thing I can’t defend is the self-applied “Upper West Side Soweto” thing. Cuz yeah, that’s…yeah.
The nerve of these kids to buck trends in both fashion and music. Don’t they know all the other privileged kids hide their comfortable backgrounds with poor hygiene, unhealthy habits, and thrift store clothes? And where’s the VU, Pavement, and Sonic Youth influences? They’ve got it all so wrong, yet, they know how to write great pop melodies. That makes them all right in my book.
It sounds like background music, made for streaming underneath a party or going to the gym. I don’t think it’s rockist to note that pop can (I say should) reward close listening. I can see why people might like this, but this is the sort of toothless stuff I dislike.
You wanna know what it really makes me think of? Picture it. Oberlin, the early/mid 90′s. Several ladies rugby team players keep telling a younger me about an amazing artist called Ani DiFranco. I buy a ticket, and for the first 20-30 minutes, I’m thinking: this is fun! Then I begin to wonder if she knows any other strumming/rhythm patterns. Then I’m looking around, wondering if I’m the only person who’s thinking, “tasty but thin gruel.” Then I went outside to smoke cloves (it was the 90s).
I’m gonna be “glass is half-full” about this, and simply hope that this somehow leads to spillover success for the vastly superior Islands.
I’ve listened to the album stream on MTV.com a couple of times and it’s perfectly enjoyable. I’d never heard of them before Friday so maybe I’m not weary of the hype. It’s funny that Pfork mentioned the Strokes, another bunch of fortunate sons. At least VW seems to embrace their background.
at least paul simon had the decency to prop up african musicians behind him while he raped their music.
@gregcoff: Same annoyance with the commenter backlash here.
It seems like some of you guys spend waaaaay too much time worrying about the press-driven (including blogs here) narrative of a band (or music festival!) rather than actually listening to their music (or going to said festival!).
In other words, do you hate everything? If you look real quick it seems the string of hype, backlash, double-secret backlash, pre-hype, post-hype, whatever-hype bullshit is the topic du jour every f’ing day. In other, other words…spoken like true, too-cool-for-school snobby hipsters.
@Swankster: Whatever, but you should realize that you’re on a slippery slope that ends in a Dave Matthews Band concert. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Also, I pay for ALL of my music, so I have different standards than you might.
I haven’t heard the full length yet, but I will say that the EP struck me as competently vanilla bullshit. Basically, I’m waiting for them to blow over so that I can devote less mental real-estate to all the ways they offend my sensibilities and they can go back to analyzing the best way to “ironically” pop their collars.
Not sure what slippery slope you are referring to…
But I also don’t pay much attention to someone who assumes my purchasing patterns from blog/comment posts so you can take that ‘whatever’ and put it in your ‘standards’ pipe and smoke it.
@Swankster: I thought the album was catchy, but I won’t be listening to it in six months and I don’t feel at all bad for saying so. The music is cute but it’s thin. And if you make music that’s cute but thin then you can’t act like a nitwit and expect not to get dressed down for it. “Upper West Side Soweto?” That’s just plain nauseating.
I really think it’s funny how vitriolic the anti-anti-VW stuff is. Most of the people (including myself) who hate Vampire Weekend actually did LISTEN to it. In fact I for one have listened to it over and over again trying to make myself like it, since apparently everyone who knows how to work wordpress LOVES this stuff (the melody-less “A-Punk” is particularly ingratiating). I really don’t get why these bloggers weren’t trying to promote World Music all along, and instead waited for some rich white kids to start playing it before shouting its praises. Especially amusing are the reviews that say VW is original and invoke Paul Simon in the same sentence. It’s a sad state of affairs when a “unique sound” means music that is only a second-generation rip-off.
Honestly, to me, even more obnoxious than the myopic argument of “they use elements of African music so they’re cultural rapists” is this whole dismissive “their music is pleasant and cute but it’s poppy and shallow and in three weeks I’ll be listening to something meaningful again.” It’s just infuriatingly snobby…as if addictive melodies and great pop arrangements happen every day. They don’t.
@Swankster: I shouldn’t have said “you” I should have said “one,” but I meant that cute and catchy isn’t what I want in my music if it lacks staying power. I want “Maytag” albums that sound good for a long time.
So… wait. Afro-pop guitars, plus “Monkees”-style giddiness?
What’s the problem, again?
@jetblackturd: This band was a Pizza Hut, now it’s all covered with daisies. You got it? You got it.
But without myopic points we have no Internets!!! :) :)
Seriously though at what point does the insta-hating become exhausting? I’m not specifically referring to Vampire Weekend here, but to the negative reactions of other reactions.
Does anyone really care how “sick of the hype” someone else is? For us interweb-connected folks abreast of the latest music web-conversations, it seems weird to claim hype fatigue when a band’s album is not even out yet. To omit (purposefully or otherwise) the realization that 99.9% of the world has still not heard a damn thing about this bands to be sick of them yet is selfish at best, and totally drowned in the insider-y lack of perspective at worst. Step away..step away…
I’ll give them a fair shake once I hear the full album. I like the hookiness of what little I’ve heard so far, and yeah, the Times piece makes them sound pretentious, but who among us didn’t say stupid things at 23 years old? Thank God I never got further than playing some open mike nights at that age. I shudder to think what crap I spouted back then.
take your stereogum commenter to work day
And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention