The buzz band of the moment is Vampire Weekend, and their unique sound is a mix of indie rock and afro-pop. The band calls their music 'Upper Westside Soweto', which is a pretty accurate description, like an edgy version of Paul Simon's album Graceland. It's different and catchy stuff, so there's substance to go with the hype. You'll find yourself bobbing along to 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' and its offbeat lyrics "But this feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too".
The members met while attending Columbia university, and their Ivy League pedigree seems most apparent in the lyrics. I had to consult Wikipedia to find out what was a Mansard Roof or Oxford Comma, but I learned some neat things. For instance, a mansard roof has two slopes, with the lower slope steeper and the upper slope shallower. One example is the roof of a typical McDonald's restaurant. And an Oxford comma refers to the specifics of comma use before a conjunction in a list of three or more things (like in me, myself, and I).
Below are a few songs and videos from their self-titled album, which comes out January 29.
Interview and In-Studio Performance on KEXP
World Cafe Feature- Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa and Mansard Roof
In this clip for "Mansard Roof", Vampire Weekend seems to play up its Ivy League stigma with footage of the band lounging on a yacht:
The band doesn't miss a beat in the jittery stop-action video for "A-Punk":
And on "Oxford Comma", Vampire Weekend shares their greatest wisdom- "Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth."
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3 comments:
Can't wait to check them out.
And man, those Oxford commas can be tricky. There was a lawsuit of a disputed will where they had to consult a linguist (my brilliant W&M professor!!!) to figure out the true intentions of the will. You see, the dead father wanted to leave his inheritance "to be split evenly between A, B and C." Well, because that Oxford comma was missing, A got 50% and B and C split the other 50%.
I would have assumed that most dads would want his kids to split the inheritance evenly, but we'll never know his true intentions and, in a court of law, commas can't lie...
Be careful with your commas!!!!
I'm interested to see how these guys translate live at sxsw. Although I have a feeling the buzz-factor is going to make it totally obnoxious to get into their shows.
Really great songs Roy, they've been caught in my head all week. I'm psyched about this blog, it's something new to look forward to.
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