Okay, gang. Here's the last set of photos from the festival, as well as, the last post I'll ever do on Vampire Weekend. I'm over them and their music after following their career for a year.
Never before I've seen a band polarize people. When we talk about the band in blog circles, it has to be noted that they were cool when they were unsigned and we can drop their name to look like we're in the know. Then seeing them at Cake Shop and Maxwell's made you feel that you had leg up on the casual indie music fan. Yup, it's the snobbery factor. Then somewhere along the way, they became popular, went on Saturday Night Live, their CD was on sale at Best Buy and Target the first week it was released, they started hanging out with celebrities and then teenagers, frat boys and moms and dads started going to their shows. Before you knew it, listening to them when you're a music snob isn't so fun anymore. The music seems stale and not edgy.
Yes, I whole heartedly admit it's superficial and hypocritical when you stop liking a band because they become popular. As I joke, I was going to name my radio show, I'm Not Playing Vampire Weekend.
When I first saw them at Bowery, Cake Shop and Maxwell's, I thought the music was catchy and different. More importantly, I thought the four of them played very well together. I found myself bopping along to "A-Punk" and "Mansard Roof" and was interested to hear the whole album. I looked around the crowd and saw guys and girls like me -- the people who know indie music inside and out.
On Saturday, I see a band that doesn't much resemble the group I saw last year at this time. I look around I see mall rats, dudes with popped polo shirt collars and screaming 13-year olds fawning overlead singer Ezra Koenig.
One of my commenter summed it up nicely, I think this band is playing up their preppy clothes wearing, Cape Cod party aesthetic too much. When I saw their ridiculous cover shot on SPIN, I rolled my eyes. Then during the set, Ezra looked like he was working to hard to be a rock star when he's trying to get into the music. The one thing that stood out for me is when they played "A-Punk," it sounded like some wedding cover band covering Vampire Weekend. It came off as slow and lazy.
When I saw some kid crowd surfing during the set, I decided that it was over for me. I was standing next to the Love Is All crew and I was tempted to ask if they could close the show instead, so that the day I could end on an up note.
Look, no one should deny a band or artist success and popularity, even at the sacrifice of indie cred. When people are downloading albums for free, Apple is taking a big chunk from song downloads and bands have to tour relentlessly to make money, it's a positive that new bands become successful without some corporate machine manufacturing them. For Vampire Weekend, it just seem that music doesn't warrant the attention. At first, what seemed to be catchy tunes ended up as anthems for Generation Abercrombie & Finch. The new tunes they trotted didn't inspire me at all, just more water-downed pseudo world music versions of basic pop songs.
Again, if you find them dreamy and awesome, more power to you and you are a better person than I am. I wish you many a happy time at their future shows. If you're going to write message of hate towards me because I trashed them, you better come with a decent argument.
On the other hand, I compare my reaction to the success of Vampire Weekend to the success of Kate Nash, Editors, Tings Tings and even Nicole Atkins. Those groups started out small and I was there from the beginning. Then, they became popular, ushering in new fans. You know what, I still love them and the music they create. It's a win-win situation. In the end, not everybody can be like you and me, passionate about the music we listen to and able to catch on to bands before they break though.
As I say, good music deserves to be heard by everyone, even the people we normally don't associate with. Vampire Weekend is just not good music to me.
That's it gang. Rant is now over.
grammar snob here. pllllllz proofread your posts at least once before posting. your shit never ever reads like it should. other than that, hasn't everyone been over vampire weekend for like a year, brah.
Posted by: | June 25, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Chandler Bing has a band?
Posted by: | June 25, 2008 at 01:11 PM
I suppose that all of the bands on your "Music" list will be replaced within the year, according to your logic. There is something to be said for staying current, but the way you allow the exposure and audience of an artist to dictate your preferences leads me to question your criteria for evaluation. You seem to be guided more heavily by forces outside of the music itself. Critique the music and not the scene and you can retain your credibility. Otherwise, you expose your use of music as a cultural marker (which I imagine places you in an elevated social stratum) than a cultural experience. In other words, please stop using music, which should be shared by all, as a mechanism to elevate yourself onto the high horse which you now appear to be mounted. (Or is it mounting you?)
Posted by: Brian Brown | June 25, 2008 at 01:18 PM
hey bud
just sayin....a pretty fair amount of the music you list on the left column is more popular than vampire weekend. come on, most of the shit on there is a bunch of oasis/blur clones that has so much less soul than one vampire weekend song. i dont even like the band anymore....im bored of them. i'm just saying your reasoning for hating them is really stupid...especially since you like such mainstream tripe like the ting tings. come on....they suck dick. and you suck too. you cant consider yourself "too indie" to like vampire weekend when you really dont listen to anything really unknown(at least according to your blog). so really, just shut the fuck up please. thanks
Posted by: joe | June 25, 2008 at 11:37 PM
Dude, Joe. What is your malfunction? For a guy who hates my site, you sure do love stopping by. You've left 15 comments total. If you think I suck, then why waste your time coming to my site? Stereogum, BrooklynVegan and My Old Kentucky Blog might be a better fit for you. I'm sorry you're a bitter lonely soul, but don't you think you can channel your anger into something useful?
Posted by: MusicSnobbery | June 26, 2008 at 05:34 PM
Sometimes a band just gets old. Vampire Weekend is one of those bands.
Posted by: Brian | June 26, 2008 at 09:26 PM
Dude, I love your blog. I think its hilarious. Anyway, referring to the blog thang above, I agree, Vampire Weekend is old. But then again, so is everything that comes out and then is fed to the masses. Its ok to be snob, a bit annoying, but if you listen to good music, its ok to be a bit pretentious. Anyway, keep bashing the terrible. I for one would advise you to quote Jay-Z and say to all those against you..."Either love me, or leave me alone." Word. ha.
Posted by: Melina | June 29, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Hiya, as usual I think you're calling this right - Vampire Weekend's "image" was fun at fitrst but they have overcooked it.
As for the music, I saw them live in Glasgow a few months back and was pretty disapppointed. They seemed to be churning out the tunes. My older pal, a guy who is almost 40, who knows music inside out, hit the nail on the head after the first song - "I have serious reservations about this gig already. The singer looks like Fred Savage"
Kepe up the good work! Your music taste is very similar to mine so this site is great for keeping me up to date.
D.
Posted by: John D. | June 30, 2008 at 06:50 AM
I never understood the hype about this band. I read blogs full of praise for Vampire Weekend then I listened to their music a couple of times and I was not convinced.
Posted by: Nere | July 02, 2008 at 11:04 PM
Hi everyone
I interest for more info my favourite band this moment Vampire Weekend and i Found this website >>> Discography: http://www.discoogle.com/wiki/Vampire_Weekend_Discography & Lyrics: http://www.discoogle.com/wiki/Vampire_Weekend_Lyrics
Great website and Nice Work!
See U!
Posted by: Arxarias | April 07, 2009 at 12:01 PM