Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend

A Norman Records recommendation (24th January 2008)

This record left our Brian feeling ecstatic.

MUCH more in my bracket is this Vampire Weekend long playing disc. It's handily self titled too. You'll all have devoured 'Mansard Roof' by now, a whirling, spindly thing with trebly african guitars that makes you wanna twirl round and laugh with delight! The guitars really make them sound quirky, vibrant & stimulating. There's bits of ska in there, a celebratory mid period Clash crossed with Clap Your Hands style college pop. They call themselves "Upper West Side Soweto" but manage to avoid such irritating pitfalls that usually blight white western folks that hi-jack African rythyms. They even mildly dis Peter Gabriel in a song that I feel attacks the hypocrisy & complacency of "bleeding heart" types who are just fakers in the singers eyes. They don't sound very American, much more Larrikin Love in my eyes (ears!) but that Ezra Koenig needs to watch his voice as it does err on cringeworty territory a couple of times. You'll know when you hear it & who we mean! Good forward thinking breezy pop for the New Year! On XL, CD & vinyl to follow. Mingus accuses them of Cultural Tourism BTW. Anyone agree?

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What their label says...

You want ideas? Vampire Weekend have ideas. They’ve also got wit, imagination, an eye for lyrical detail and an ear for musical adventure. Most importantly Vampire Weekend have tunes. Oh yes, they’ve got tunes. Dealing in genres the band have dubbed ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ and ‘Upper West Side Soweto’, ‘Vampire Weekend’ is a breath of fresh air, both musically and lyrically, with this New York band endeavouring to make music that is anything but straight ahead rock. Straight ahead? As if. This is indie-rock that isn’t indie-rock, a joyously exuberant carnival of melody and rhythm. Strings. Organs. Afro-funk guitars. Courtly 18th century harpsichord. A bit of post-punk (maybe Franz Ferdinand crossed with the Bhundu Boys?). Lyrics about grammar and architecture and preferred bus routes and the British Imperial origins of American preppie fashion. With fleet-footed pizzazz Vampire Weekend deploy all these to craft a tinglingly refreshing sound. Anyone for brainy party music?Take Oxford Comma, a spartan funk charmer that references a piece of grammar (you can look it up). Then there’s the band’s debut, limited edition UK single, Mansard Roof. Said roof is an architectural style that offers extra living space in an attic. The lyrics then go on: “the Argentines collapse in defeat, the admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet”. You want world music? That is, music of the world? You want Vampire Weekend. You can throw yourself around the moshpit to Campus. You can imagine what happened to characters in forthcoming single A-Punk before they ended up in the song (“Johanna drove slowly across the city/the Hudson River all filled with snow/she spied the ring on his honour’s finger/oh-oh-oh”). You can shed a tear, then shed your clothes, at the hymnal-meets-tribal thunder of I Stand Corrected or the epic M79, which is named after a Manhatten bus route and forms the heart of the album.

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