2008 Woodie Awards
Vampire Weekend:
New York band looks to be one 2008's best new groups
By: Cy Wood
Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: Features
Already being hailed as the best new band of 2008, Vampire Weekend is quickly becoming a name common in the alternative and college rock scene. However, this is a dangerous claim for a number of reasons. First, let us not forget the Arctic Monkeys from a few years ago, who flew to popularity and then could not maintain it, losing their bassist after a short tour around England. Second, the staying power of the album alone could be no longer than a few months, and there is always a new band hoping to pop up and become the next new thing.
The four-piece group from Columbia University combines intelligent, often college-based lyrics with multi-cultural beats, flutes and strings to create their tunes. Aside from their multi-culturally influenced sound, the voice of the band's singer, Ezra Koenig, resonates with inflections of John Lennon from his post-Beatles work. It is most prominent on opening song "Mansard Roof" and the slower, dreamier "I Stand Corrected." The group as a whole harmonizes well, distinctly within the chamber pop "M79," singing, "No excuse to be so callous / dress yourself in bleeding madras / charm your way across the Khyber pass," and again repeating the chorus to "One (Blake's Got a New Face)," where they come off as a tribe chanting in the darkest uncharted jungles being filmed for National Geographic.
The music is a variety of surf-style guitars blended with over-driven leads, mixed together with both standard and hand drums, harpsichords, organs, chamberlins, pianos and various other orchestral strings, all over bass-lines that sound right at home in the Strokes' early work. Many songs work over a repetitive and catchy guitar hook, all the while filling in the few blank spots with drums, synth beats or shakers. There is so much put together on each song, every listen produces a new sound that is missed on the previous listen. Some high points in the music include the electric piano on the final song, "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance," which is reminiscent of the Beatles' "In My Life," and the main hook of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," which plays on two guitars through most of the song.
The four-piece group from Columbia University combines intelligent, often college-based lyrics with multi-cultural beats, flutes and strings to create their tunes. Aside from their multi-culturally influenced sound, the voice of the band's singer, Ezra Koenig, resonates with inflections of John Lennon from his post-Beatles work. It is most prominent on opening song "Mansard Roof" and the slower, dreamier "I Stand Corrected." The group as a whole harmonizes well, distinctly within the chamber pop "M79," singing, "No excuse to be so callous / dress yourself in bleeding madras / charm your way across the Khyber pass," and again repeating the chorus to "One (Blake's Got a New Face)," where they come off as a tribe chanting in the darkest uncharted jungles being filmed for National Geographic.
The music is a variety of surf-style guitars blended with over-driven leads, mixed together with both standard and hand drums, harpsichords, organs, chamberlins, pianos and various other orchestral strings, all over bass-lines that sound right at home in the Strokes' early work. Many songs work over a repetitive and catchy guitar hook, all the while filling in the few blank spots with drums, synth beats or shakers. There is so much put together on each song, every listen produces a new sound that is missed on the previous listen. Some high points in the music include the electric piano on the final song, "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance," which is reminiscent of the Beatles' "In My Life," and the main hook of "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," which plays on two guitars through most of the song.
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