Comments on: Vampire Weekend "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:53:00 +0000

sigh…nowadays one can attribute most music to being SWIPED from somewhere else…vampire weekend is just okay and good background music.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:41:00 +0000

also, vampire weekend…. booooooring.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:37:00 +0000

in regards to this “African Beat” that it seems everyone is discussing these days… i dont get it? i agree with the person who made the bongo’s comment. does using primitive droney beats make it “African”? i know that for years ive been sitting in my room making songs that use bongos and floor toms to drone out a ritualistic beat so I can play my songs along to them. does that make my music have an “African Beat”? Ive listened to as much African music as I have eaten feces. it seems like a natural step for one to pick up a drum and bang on it monotonously. I dont know what im getting at here… i guess I just hate how everything always needs to be put into a box, and because a few bands use bongos and droney beats they all get lumped into a new scene (animal collective, celebration, yeasayer, etc.).

anyways. sorry fr rambling about nothing.

By: brandon

brandon — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:19:00 +0000

I think we need to consider inter-textuality for this band. No one criticizes Stoppard for using direct block quotes from Hamlet in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” We are advanced too far as a race to concern ourselves with the source material and base our opinions off of the basic functional usage thereof. Rather, we should probably just consider how successful VW is at what it does; which, in my opinion, is “somewhat.”

By: jasonc

jasonc — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:42:00 +0000

This growing discussion about the influences and background of Vampire Weekend brings to mind something a friend of mine said back when The Strokes were breaking. In response to the characterization of The Strokes as a bunch of privileged scenesters ripping off the musical movements that happened before they were born, this friend said, “Yes! And that’s part of what makes them so great.” I took this to mean he liked their songs, and he appreciated everything that went into influencing how they were presented.

I agreed with the sentiment with regard to The Strokes and it rings true with Vampire Weekend as well. If one likes the songs (and I really do), I don’t see the validity in watering down the experience by challenging how/why they were created. In fact, I’d argue that critics have no business looking into whether motivations are pure or not, and that they only do so to protect themselves from being lumped into the judgements made by other critical folks–like enjoying music from a band with a motivation that one is opposed to somehow is a contradiction of one’s values. The motivation is irrelevant. The song/band can be a ripoff, AND the song/band can be good. The song/band could be made by a preppie, a thug, a Nazi or a psychopath, AND the song/band can also be good.

By: Clark

Clark — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:58:00 +0000

The key moment for me was the point that you share with Powell about cultural authenticity and genre gatekeeping. I feel awkward about arguing a point that supports Vampire Weekend, because I don’t really like them (like J says above – really fucking dull), but those who accuse them of indie-colonialism miss a big contradiction: that the entire history of rock is a process of appropriation and genre-mashing. Consequently, they seem to be cutting African musical traditions out of that history prior to Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel, even though the whole thing started because of the mixing of African and European music.

Anyway, loved your essay and even posted on it. Cheers.

By: pete

pete — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:43:00 +0000

Okay, Vampire Weekend is everywhere.

I don't get the whole "African Beat" thing. Is it because they use bongos?

Didn't Guster use bongos?

Just a thought.

By: pete

pete — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:29:00 +0000

my favorite part: typerly types

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:21:00 +0000

It’s just that I don’t think it’s giving a seeming purist like Koenig too much credit to infer that he thinks Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon watered down African music to fit within a Western pop template, and in the process made sappy pap that’s impossible to fuck to in your parents' beach house.

This is clutch.

By: J

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:22:00 +0000

Hey, stop looking through my months-old unfinished write-ups! (I’m starting to sound like a mix of Joe Gould and Valerie Solanas when talking about this band.)

The problem with this band, ultimately, is that for all the self-awareness and inherent cultural brouhaha they’re really fucking dull.