“A-Punk” — Vampire Weekend

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 If you had to pick just one album to define the 21st century so far, what would it be?

spk_0 I'm Cole Kushner from Disect.

spk_0 And I'm Charles Holmes from The Midnight Boys and on Tuesday, July 29th, Colin Iron

spk_0 watching season 4 of Last Song Standing.

spk_0 But this year, we're mixing things up.

spk_0 Instead of searching for an artist's greatest song, we're asking an even bigger question.

spk_0 What is the greatest album of the 21st century so far?

spk_0 Listen to Last Song Standing on the Disect Podcast Feed or the Disect YouTube channel

spk_0 starting Tuesday, July 29th.

spk_0 Hello, friends.

spk_0 Just a quick announcement before we kick off today.

spk_0 The announcement is that 60 songs is going on break for a period of two months or so.

spk_0 Two months or less, I'm pretty sure.

spk_0 This is our regularly scheduled time off every 15 episodes just to give everyone a quick

spk_0 respite to give our producers, especially a much needed break from my whole thing.

spk_0 You can find me on Instagram, Blue Sky, and less often Twitter, and I will update you there

spk_0 with specifics as we get them.

spk_0 But just know that we will miss you all terribly and we will return rejuvenated very shortly.

spk_0 See you soon.

spk_0 Thanks.

spk_0 We don't talk enough about how cool I used to be.

spk_0 So now we've come to the part of the night where the dirty projectors and York perform.

spk_0 That was me just now going, woo, in the background there.

spk_0 No, it wasn't.

spk_0 Of course that wasn't me.

spk_0 I would never go, woo, at such a rare and prestigious event.

spk_0 That's not cool, but I was there.

spk_0 The night of May 8th, 2009 at Housing Works, that's a cool bookstore in Soho, that's

spk_0 a cool neighborhood in Manhattan.

spk_0 When the dirty projectors, that's a cool rock band, performed live with Bjork, that's

spk_0 Bjork on a suite of extremely cool tunes about whale watching from a mountain in Northern

spk_0 California.

spk_0 The guy handling the introductions here.

spk_0 That's author and show promoter and cool website grew Brandon Stozy.

spk_0 He also published a great book about crying and public.

spk_0 Brandon's really cool.

spk_0 These tunes were eventually released in 2011 on a dirty projectors and Bjork studio EP called

spk_0 Mount Wittenberg Orca.

spk_0 But to paraphrase Peewee Herman, I don't have to listen to it.

spk_0 And Dottie, I lived it.

spk_0 And I'll say, first of all, that the experience of standing physically, what, 70 feet from Bjork

spk_0 on stage when she hits one of those patented incomprehensibly rad Super Bjork vocal swoops,

spk_0 like on the word wear just now, the curve and nose where you all got that is an absurdly

spk_0 life changingly cool moment.

spk_0 That is a thunderbolt straight down your spine.

spk_0 Second of all, is this fucking guy going to go with the whole time?

spk_0 Like is he going to be carrying on in this matter?

spk_0 The whole time Bjork is singing 70 feet away from us on stage in a bookstore.

spk_0 He better not matter.

spk_0 A fact, no, he ain't.

spk_0 And I'll tell you why the coolest thing about live recordings is a little nuances, right?

spk_0 The ambient noises, the shuffling, the muttering, the imperfections, the sense of reverent

spk_0 people gathered in a room together.

spk_0 And so halfway through this song, if you listen very closely, you can hear me personally,

spk_0 grab the woo guy and DDT him into the housing works cookbook section.

spk_0 A DDT is a devastating pro wrestling move that I can definitely do.

spk_0 And I certainly can describe it to you like logistically.

spk_0 I just choose not to do that.

spk_0 It's very low in the mix.

spk_0 But if you concentrate, you can hear a faint boom right here as I heroically wheylay this

spk_0 clown.

spk_0 Shut up.

spk_0 It's in there somewhere.

spk_0 Trust me.

spk_0 I'm just kidding.

spk_0 Obviously, housing works is way too cool to have a cookbook section.

spk_0 Hey, did I ever tell you that I lived in New York City in the mid to late 2000s?

spk_0 And I got to be the uncoolest person in the room for some cool stuff.

spk_0 There's me skulking around the extreme periphery of housing works, pressed up against the bookshelves

spk_0 way in the back because I am tall and I am deathly afraid of blocking somebody's view of Bjork

spk_0 and getting clonked on the head with a cookbook.

spk_0 You know what I'm doing back there?

spk_0 Actually, I remember this.

spk_0 The joint is packed, right?

spk_0 And so I'm pressed up against the back wall of the bookstore.

spk_0 And I'm in the fiction section shelved alphabetically.

spk_0 And I'm standing near the seas, all the letter C authors.

spk_0 And I start pulling out Tom Clancy books and reading just the last few sentences in

spk_0 every Tom Clancy book.

spk_0 I don't know why I'm doing this.

spk_0 You know, Tom Clancy, he wrote the hunt for red October and several dozen other like

spk_0 Uber dad books, Reagan era, military thrillers, Jack Ryan.

spk_0 That's Tom Clancy's famous character.

spk_0 Jack Ryan, who knows a lot about World War II and gets to beat up a bunch of terrorists,

spk_0 like patriotically.

spk_0 There's a Jack Ryan TV show on Amazon Prime now where John Krizenski plays Jack Ryan.

spk_0 And in season two, he personally punches the president of Venezuela in the face.

spk_0 If that's not exactly true, I don't care.

spk_0 I just start pulling out Tom Clancy books, flipping to the last page and reading the endings

spk_0 allowed.

spk_0 I'm doing this as a bit, I guess, to amuse my rock critic friends between opening acts

spk_0 to burn off some nervous energy.

spk_0 I was young.

spk_0 Okay.

spk_0 I was 30.

spk_0 We sure seemed all at the time, but it sure seems young now.

spk_0 Tom Clancy, the cardinal of the Kremlin, 1988 last page quote.

spk_0 One way or another, we all fight for the things we believe in.

spk_0 Doesn't that give us some common ground?

spk_0 Jack asked.

spk_0 He walked off to his car, leaving dolmatol with the thought.

spk_0 Meanwhile.

spk_0 Apparently, everybody at this dirty projectors and Bjork show is whooping the whole time.

spk_0 Ridiculous.

spk_0 What kind of way is that to behave act like you've been there before.

spk_0 David burn is in this room.

spk_0 MIA is in this room.

spk_0 Haley Joel Osment, star of the sixth sense and later happy Gilmore to that guy, that kid,

spk_0 whatever, he's apparently in this room.

spk_0 Bjork is on that stage.

spk_0 Am I the only person in this room who truly grasps the importance, the solemnity, the

spk_0 gravity of this event?

spk_0 Tom Clancy.

spk_0 The sum of all fears, 1990 last page quote, killed enough?

spk_0 Ryan slid the sword back into its sheath and let it fall to his side.

spk_0 Yes, your highness, I think we all have.

spk_0 My one remotely concrete rock critic type thought as I watch this show is that I like

spk_0 to imagine that the dirty projectors are singing in binary code.

spk_0 Like they're exceedingly cool staccato, coral, yelping, complimentary sounds like binary

spk_0 code, except instead of zeros and ones, it's a a a a a a a a a a that's all I got in terms

spk_0 of like analysis.

spk_0 Did I blog this show?

spk_0 I bet I did.

spk_0 I am afraid to go find out if I blog this.

spk_0 Never mind.

spk_0 Forget I asked Tom Clancy executive orders, 1999 last page quote.

spk_0 Thank you, Mr. President.

spk_0 We looked out across the long horizon.

spk_0 We're building up to the huge cataclysmic emotional climax here.

spk_0 We're Bjork in the whale lock eyes and intensely vibe with each other and come to a profound

spk_0 metaphysical understanding.

spk_0 Meanwhile, why am I still doing this Tom Clancy the bear in the dragon 2000 last page quote

spk_0 for one particular person in Beijing that changes meant that her job would change somewhat

spk_0 in importance if not in actual duties.

spk_0 Ming went out to dinner.

spk_0 The restaurant's hadn't closed with her foreign lover gushing over drinks and noodles

spk_0 with the extraordinary events of the day and walked off to his apartment for a dessert

spk_0 of Japanese sausage and quote yo.

spk_0 We looked in each other's eyes and realized that we only.

spk_0 Sings Bjork to the whale or Bjork sings that about the whale to us.

spk_0 So occasionally in this era, I get to go to these cool shows in New York City shows that

spk_0 radiate a palpable cultural significance shows that will be blogged possibly by me and

spk_0 definitely by others shows that will be attended by people you may have heard of and perhaps

spk_0 even admire.

spk_0 Maybe it's me blocking your view of Bjork or maybe it's quest love blocking your view

spk_0 or tie on day Braxton the dude from that cool rock band battles.

spk_0 I love that band.

spk_0 Maybe it's him blocking your view.

spk_0 He's tall in my experience.

spk_0 Anyway, going to these shows you just get a vague satisfying but also weirdly intimidating

spk_0 sense that you're in the thick of it.

spk_0 You are present physically for an occasion of moderate societal impact.

spk_0 There is Brooklyn the idea, right?

spk_0 The amorphous fantastical cliched, deified and or derided quote unquote indy rockin

spk_0 quote unquote hipster playground that exists primarily on the internet and there is Brooklyn

spk_0 the physical location where one might live and walk dogs and drink coffee and attend concerts.

spk_0 And sometimes you find yourself at a show so radiant with greatness and coolness that it

spk_0 feels like you're in the real Brooklyn and the internet Brooklyn simultaneously.

spk_0 Actually we're in so.

spk_0 Bjorks and so we're all watching Bjork and so hope.

spk_0 But this feels spiritually like a Brooklyn thing and a major topic here today is Manhattan's

spk_0 valiant attempt to rest the crown of zeitgeist defining coolness back from Brooklyn.

spk_0 Listen, I got a lot of my mind and I never seen Bjork live before in a venue of any size

spk_0 and I'm freaking out a little bit and we all got our weird defense mechanisms.

spk_0 Tom Clancy.

spk_0 The hunt for red October 1984 quote Ryan missed the dawn.

spk_0 He boarded a TWA 747 that left dullest on time at 7.05 a.m.

spk_0 The sky was overcast and when the aircraft burst through the cloud layer into sunlight Ryan

spk_0 did something he had never done before.

spk_0 For the first time in his life Jack Ryan a fella sleep on an airplane.

spk_0 And then we all whoop that Bjork and the dirty projector some more and then it was over.

spk_0 Hey great news everybody I did blog this show.

spk_0 Oh thank god I blogged about this show for the village voice and apparently I got paid

spk_0 by the adjective.

spk_0 Sheesh that's a weird payment system.

spk_0 I mentioned Haley Joel Osmond in this blog and I honestly can't tell if I'm joking.

spk_0 I don't know if I physically saw him there or if I'm just using Haley Joel Osmond as

spk_0 an example of the sort of celebrity you might have seen there.

spk_0 That's a good sign right when you blog a blog so oblique that even you can't tell if you're

spk_0 joking that's fantastic you may be asking how did I find time to be fully present and maintain

spk_0 a rock critic type laser focus and take careful lucid insightful handwritten notes for my little

spk_0 blog during this Bjork and dirty projectors deal.

spk_0 If I'm also way in the back flipping through the hunt for red October how could I possibly

spk_0 goof around the whole time but later generate an attentive and decisive piece of online music

spk_0 criticism.

spk_0 Well I'm afraid you somehow both under and overestimated my professionalism hell yeah I can multitask hell

spk_0 yeah I can read excerpts from the cardinal of the Kremlin allowed to my rock critic buddies during

spk_0 all the opening acts and then later when I'm writing I can be like after a hushed plaintive

spk_0 opening set from Google Google Google Google this blog of mine does remind me that after the

spk_0 housing work show I went to the Bjork and dirty projectors after party which took place at Cooper

spk_0 Square hotel a super fancy hotel in the East Village either this hotel is called the standard

spk_0 now or it was always called the standard and I misidentified it as the Cooper Square hotel I'm

spk_0 getting paid by the adjective I'm not getting paid by the fact all right I'll I can tell you

spk_0 about this hotel according to my blog is that it's absurdly oversized over extravagant lovely

spk_0 and vertiginous that'll be four dollars anyway Bjork DJ the after party and played trail by the clips

spk_0 I'm trail only me don't pitch up so trail okay and this also is a surreal absurd life changing thunderbolt

spk_0 type moment watching Bjork behind the decks or whatever and she's bouncing around joyously and

spk_0 going bitch I'm trail bitch I'm so trail everybody was into the clips in 2009 trust me even the

spk_0 whales were blogging about the clips in 2009 in my little blog from this event I wrote that Bjork

spk_0 DJed this after party but I put DJed in scare quotes that's rude what hey calm down lester bangs but

spk_0 I was there I spent nearly five years being there I spent nearly five years living in both Brooklyn

spk_0 the mythical sociocultural internet idea and Brooklyn the literal physical place I arrived there

spk_0 in 2006 proudly and skittishly serving as music editor at the village voice of the Leved Cultural

spk_0 Institution recently acquired by a polarizing national chain of alt weeklies as part of a

spk_0 spiritual hostile corporate takeover in the out of town dickish spiritual hostile takeover

spk_0 guys had fired the previous beloved village voice music editor and hired me instead we didn't

spk_0 even live in New York yet they installed me there in the beloved guys place so at first anyway

spk_0 everyone at the paper justifiably hated me I arrived in New York City in 2006 and I'd missed it

spk_0 I was so worried I'd missed it New York City was so cool for so long but by 2006 it wasn't cool

spk_0 anymore and I'd missed it that's what you do when you moved to New York you move there you move all

spk_0 your shit in your place and you wake up that first morning do you even have a bed yet there's just a

spk_0 mattress on the floor and you walk out your front door or you climb out of your manhole or whatever your

spk_0 real estate situation is and there it is New York City the place you live now and you take a deep breath

spk_0 new exhale and you say out loud I missed it because you did everyone thinks they missed it and

spk_0 everyone's right but also everyone's wrong so when the early 2000s I'm living in Ohio and I'm

spk_0 reading about how rock is back in New York City is back I'm reading about the strokes and the yay

spk_0 yas and interpol and LCD sound system and TV on the radio and it all sounds so amazing so revolutionary

spk_0 so paralyzingly cool so legitimately life changing and I finally get to New York City in 2006 and

spk_0 it's over I missed it I can still see the strokes and the yay yas and interpol and LCD sound system

spk_0 and TV on the radio and I do but I see them now at say a huge famous uptown venue like Radio City

spk_0 Music Hall and not at a tiny cool underground dish of venue like say the Mercury Lounge on the

spk_0 Lower East Side I missed the exhilarating ascent the underground cool years the our little secret

spk_0 because we live in New York years these bands are still great but they're not mine to the extent that

spk_0 any art generated in this city can ever be said to be mine I missed it if you ever moved to New York

spk_0 you missed it even if you were born there you missed it babies born in New York City the baby you

spk_0 know comes out of the womb the baby says I missed it out loud audibly and then the baby starts crying

spk_0 and doesn't talk again for months everyone from anywhere at any time missed it but you take that

spk_0 first deep breath is a person living in New York City and you say I missed it out loud and then

spk_0 you get on with it whatever you're doing or trying to do and inevitably a cool new band will emerge

spk_0 to provide the soundtrack to you trying to do whatever you're doing and to the extent that you can

spk_0 say this about any art generated in New York City ever maybe right now this cool new band can be yours

spk_0 and nation business some modern piece of glass work down on the corner that you walk each day in passing

spk_0 the elderly says club won't ask wins suspicion the whole of motor corporations giving it

spk_0 in January 2010 the New York City Rock Band vampire weekend released their second album

spk_0 called Contra it will debut at number one on the billboard album chart this song is called

spk_0 White Sky and first of all to me this song beautifully evokes just the feeling of walking around New

spk_0 York City the awe but also the intimidation but also the palpable studied indifference of a person

spk_0 who walks around New York City all the time because they live in New York City and it's not cool

spk_0 anymore so play it cool so the first line there an ancient business a modern piece of glass work

spk_0 down on the corner that you walk each day in passing you are living and working and walking in day

spk_0 dreaming and perhaps blogging in the city that created culturally both the past as you understand it

spk_0 and the future as you imagine it in the sheer happiness of this particular vampire weekend song

spk_0 and also pretty much every other vampire weekend song the quick lift little afro pop bounce

spk_0 to white sky personifies both the spring and my step as i walk the streets of New York

spk_0 i'm not very cool and the chaotic manic way too fast stream of consciousness semi-intrusive thoughts

spk_0 bashing around my skull at all times as i walk the streets of New York alas i have no outlet

spk_0 for these random chaotic thoughts in 2010 because the podcast hasn't been invented yet to accommodate me

spk_0 little piece of carpet a pair of mirrors that are facing one another out in both directions

spk_0 thousand litre of julia's that come together in the middle of men at 10

spk_0 the podcast had for sure been invented by 2010 i assume my published blogs aren't necessarily

spk_0 accurate what makes you think my racing intrusive thoughts are accurate living in New York City

spk_0 and watching yourself as you live in New York City tending to the pointless internal monologue one

spk_0 generates whilst living in New York City these lines encapsulate that for me a little stairway

spk_0 a little piece of carpet a pair of mirrors that are facing one another out in both direction

spk_0 it's a thousand little julias that come together in the middle of man hat there are eight million

spk_0 stories in the naked city and if you're narcissistic enough all of them can be about you

spk_0 man hatten can be populated exclusively by eight million reflections of you hey did i mention

spk_0 that i saw a vampire weekend live the week the contra album came out at the united palace theater

spk_0 and washington heights that's a cool neighborhood in man hatten

spk_0 in my only concrete memory of this show really is vampire weekend bassist chris bello bouncing around

spk_0 on stage as the band opened with this song white sky i thought to myself the bassist is having so

spk_0 much fun up there good for him also the contra album cover was blown up real huge and projected behind

spk_0 the band the blonde lady with the polo shirt staring intriguingly at the camera the polo logo almost

spk_0 looks like a superfluous apostrophe between the r and the a in the word contra that lady would later

spk_0 sue vampire weekend claiming they didn't get permission to use that photograph and they'd

spk_0 settle out a court there's a whole fiasco that i probably blogged about several times but nonetheless

spk_0 fantastic album cover truly meanwhile lyrically white sky is still really really really doing it for me

spk_0 around the corner the house that modern art built a house for modern art to keep it out the

spk_0 closets the people who might own it the sins of pride and envy and on the second floor the

spk_0 Richard Sarah skate park vampire weekend will spend at least the first several years of their

spk_0 career serving as a weird intense flashpoint in various internet born rock critic debates about

spk_0 race and class debates about privilege and appropriation debates about rich people poisoning art

spk_0 debates about how one even defines the term rich people or the word poisoning or the word art

spk_0 but part of what's maddening about vampire weekend to the critics who find this band maddening

spk_0 is that vampire weekend are themselves constantly having that debate this band is constantly

spk_0 thoughtfully working through those ideas both in their interviews and in their songs

spk_0 and so super rich people owning priceless works of art owning and scare quotes and owning

spk_0 literally that plain fact that abstract idea that moral atrocity of anyone owning art at this

spk_0 scale that's all part of this song white sky as well the people who might own it the sins of

spk_0 pride and envy in the last line there and on the second floor the Richard Sarah skate park you

spk_0 fall down the rabbit hole of what that means precisely Richard Sarah the extremely famous sculptor

spk_0 famous for these huge installations these giant gorgeous awe inspiring intimidating and vaguely

spk_0 ridiculous monoliths of steel etc did Richard Sarah open a skate park or did trespassing punk

spk_0 skate borders turn one of his installations into a skate park why is it on the second floor you

spk_0 can spend a couple hours mulling all that over or you can just vibe man to the melodiousness

spk_0 of this song the jovial charisma the perfect pop song for quality of it all because whether you

spk_0 love vampire weekend or hate them any depth you project onto these songs will be equaled will be

spk_0 countered by the care and the thought and yes the depth that vampire weekend used to create these

spk_0 songs in the first place look up at the buildings imagine who might live there imagining your

spk_0 wallfords and a ball upon the sink there there's that awe and the intimidation and the pedestrian day

spk_0 dreaming again also do you know what wallfords are I didn't their tits apparently I thought they were

spk_0 shoes I just assumed they were shoes because anytime I encounter an unfamiliar proper noun in a

spk_0 vampire weekend song I just assume they're singing about shoes because sometimes they are this

spk_0 band is mine I'm claiming this band as mine because they emerged from New York City whilst I

spk_0 personally was living in New York City that's how the city works if you recently moved in New York

spk_0 City congratulations and also I'm sorry to inform you that you missed it but I was there a couple

spk_0 months ago I was at another show in Columbus Ohio I live in Ohio again Ohio is cool now I took my sons

spk_0 14 and 11 years old I took my sons to their first big concert I bought them pizza and gatorade

spk_0 this is an outdoor show in amphitheater with a big open lawn section we got there too late to get

spk_0 decent seats with some kindhearted friends the squeeze does in but even then my kids are a little

spk_0 too short to have clear sight lines so my 11 year old is sneaking into the aisle periodically

spk_0 because he can't quite see over the dude standing in front of them the concert starts my kids are

spk_0 surviving I make the kids wear earplugs and they don't want to but then when they find out how loud

spk_0 the music is they're grateful for the earplugs because I know what I'm talking about dad knows what

spk_0 he's doing and halfway through the show my younger sons got to use the bathroom so we walk up the

spk_0 lawn to the bathroom at the back of the venue and as we reemerge right at the moment when we can

spk_0 once again see the stage see the band on stage as we walk back down to our spots the band launches into

spk_0 one of their first big hit songs and my son and I get to have this nice little entrance music hero

spk_0 moment because my kids are carrying on a proud family tradition now my kids can say I was there too

spk_0 my name is Rob Harvilla this is the 30th episode of 60 Songs that explain the 90s Cole in the

spk_0 2000s and this week we are discussing a punk by Vampire Weekend from the first Vampire Weekend

spk_0 album released in 2008 and called Vampire Weekend a hyphen punk this song soundtrack this song

spk_0 has appeared in advertisements for HP printers and more recently dicks sporting goods I don't mean

spk_0 that as a criticism personally I got no problem with advertising see I love advertising can I

spk_0 please play you my all-time favorite song by the cool Brooklyn rock band grizzly bear

spk_0 this band is mine also from their third album released in 2009 and called Becca to Mist this is a

spk_0 grizzly bear song called foreground last song on the album grizzly bear specialize in elegant and

spk_0 achingly beautiful coral art rock type jams they sound like the whales with whom Bjork is vibing I

spk_0 remember so vividly hearing this song live but this memory is somehow both tremendously vivid and

spk_0 incredibly vague I don't know where they show us or when or who else was there or what else happened I

spk_0 just remember this song foreground performed in near darkness an absolute reverent silence I vaguely

spk_0 recall four long poles vertical poles on stage with a lamps on them in those lights were super dim

spk_0 for this whole song and possibly extinguished altogether but I could be imagining this googling

spk_0 like grizzly bear stage lighting or really anything grizzly bear related only brings up photos of actual

spk_0 grizzly bears like the animals it's a suboptimal band name grizzly bear SEO wise you got to name your

spk_0 band something totally random and silly and unforgettable and un-googleable for any other purpose

spk_0 like a vampire weekend but so grizzly bears doing this song foreground and the lights are way down

spk_0 the crowds absolutely silent time and standing still every hair on my arms is standing up and we're

spk_0 just locked in to grizzly bear singer eddroced ease voice even in this version of this song the studio

spk_0 version the studio version you are hearing in 10 second clips on some guy's podcast it's still so

spk_0 startling right the tremendous intimacy the opulent vehement of his voice we're all you know I'm

spk_0 still getting paid by the adjective it does not matter to me one iota what eddroced

spk_0 is singing here by the way like the words I don't know any of the lyrics to the song and I don't

spk_0 and I hope ed would understand and it would take that as the enormous compliment I intend it to be

spk_0 it's all in the bracing tone and atmosphere here the super simple piano recital piano riff the stark

spk_0 sumptuousness of edd's voice the overwhelming quiet the overwhelming calm of foreground it is

spk_0 translike it is transsportive it is a universe unto itself it is a brooklyn of the mind and of the

spk_0 soul grizzly bears got a ton of great songs but only one of them is this one

spk_0 i love that simple drumbeat starting to kick in right there

spk_0 this song is phenomenal but beautifully and patiently sung chamber pop of this gravity and density

spk_0 this would not appear to be party music little own pool party music but our friends jazzy and

spk_0 watching grizzly bear play a giant free outdoor show a pool party spiritually if not literally

spk_0 at the Williamsburg waterfront in 2009 grizzly bear playing another song from their

spk_0 veckid to mist album called ready able ready comma able this is the most blogged video

spk_0 in music blog history it is a 46 second amateur creep shot video and it is without

spk_0 question the ugliest visual composition of our young century go look at this thing again

spk_0 sometime it's disturbing it's hilarious jazzy and biancé are standing in the VIP section

spk_0 near this grubby little VIP tent just a little tarp roof sort of deal they're surrounded by lots of

spk_0 people remarkably they don't have like a pot mobile or anything and this video is shot

spk_0 serpitiously from just a few people behind them and you see the back of jazzy's head he's wearing

spk_0 sunglasses and you see him turning to his right to talk to biancé who's holding a plastic cup of wine

spk_0 and she's standing a few steps higher than him so her head is cut off by the VIP tent and beyond

spk_0 them you see the band you see grizzly bear on stage also mostly with their heads cut off by the VIP

spk_0 tent it's surreal it's macabre every time I go back to this video it takes me 10 full seconds

spk_0 to even figure out what I'm looking at I understand that this footage is shot like this because

spk_0 if the camera person were to attempt to get a decent and unobstructed angle of jazzy and biancé

spk_0 that camera person would immediately be shot with a bow and arrow or perhaps a cannon ball or whatever

spk_0 jazzy and biancé's security deal is working with nonetheless this video looks ridiculous and yet

spk_0 is of tremendous cultural importance here's the grizzly bear song that probably convinced them to come

spk_0 check they shit out in the first place

spk_0 I forgot how weird this song's video is this song is called two weeks it's off grizzly bear is

spk_0 a veka to mist record this is the band signature song and biggest hit and I am mildly surprised to

spk_0 learn that two weeks didn't shart on the hot 100 but the veka to mist record hit number eight on

spk_0 the billboard album chart this is a top 10 pop album but improbably and impressively it's pop

spk_0 on grizzly bears terms grizzly bears music is a lavish cathedral surrounded by modest uh yurts

spk_0 and grizzly bears uncompromising ascent is indicative if I may be so bold of a legit

spk_0 indie rock movement so in 2006 a scrappy local promotion outfit called jelly NYC starts doing free

spk_0 outdoor summer concerts at McHaren Park pool in the abandoned and drained Olympic-sized pool there

spk_0 in 2009 they move over to the Williamsburg waterfront and that venue is less cool and by 2010 it's

spk_0 all over but you know nothing gold can stay featured artists include the dirty projectors the hold

spk_0 steady beach house mgmt super chunk etc etc we're talking 5,000 people officially and possibly way

spk_0 more than that unofficially uh we're talking dodgeball we're talking basketball we're talking giant

spk_0 slip-in slides we're talking many pancakes for sale for five dollars we're talking every hipster joke

spk_0 you've ever heard in your life made flesh I just read a great oral history of these parties on a

spk_0 sub-stack called will have to pass and apparently at the mgmt show somebody found a purse that

spk_0 somebody else had pooped in make of that what you will I think it's gross I saw fucked up and

spk_0 mission of Burma at the Williamsburg waterfront two fantastic punk adjacent bands who started up in

spk_0 two different decades another time I saw DMC as in run DMC I don't do slip-in slides though that

spk_0 is both beneath my dignity and beyond my physical ability but yeah Jay Z and Beyonce and Salonge

spk_0 went and saw grizzly bear and the footage became the Zapruder film of the late 2000s music

spk_0 blogosphere and the next day Jay Z does an interview with MTV and they ask him about grizzly bear

spk_0 and Jay Z says quote what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring and quote and

spk_0 usually I just leave it at that because that's honestly very funny to me Jay Z saying what the

spk_0 indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring that's objectively amusing but I just

spk_0 went back and reread his full quote and it would appear not for the first time and probably not

spk_0 for the last time either it appears that I have done Jay Z a disservice because what he says in full

spk_0 is really perceptive and fascinating Jay Z calls grizzly bear an incredible band then he says quote

spk_0 the thing I want to say to everyone I hope this happens because it will push rap it will push hip-hop

spk_0 to go even further what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring it felt like us

spk_0 in the beginning these concerts they're not on the radio no one hears about them and there's 12

spk_0 thousand people in attendance and the music that they're making and the connection they're making to

spk_0 people is really inspiring so I hope that they have a run where they push hip-hop back a little bit

spk_0 so it will force hip-hop to fight to make better music because it can happen because that's what

spk_0 rap did to rock when rock was the dominant force in music rap came and said y'all got to sit down

spk_0 for a minute this is our time and we've had a stranglehold on music since then so I hope indie

spk_0 rock pushes rap back a bit because it will force people to make great music for the sake of making

spk_0 great music and quote what Jay Z wants is a worthy adversary genre wise Jay Z has observed

spk_0 correctly that here in 2009 hip-hop broadly has dominated popular music both chart wise and

spk_0 influence wise for a solid decade now two solid decades when's the last time rock of any sort was

spk_0 the consistently commercially and culturally dominant style of popular music Nirvana's never

spk_0 mind in 1991 green days dukey in 1994 Lincoln Park let's not get into it but deep into the 2000s

spk_0 certainly there's no contest even when the strokes are at their absolute apex even when rock is back

spk_0 and New York is back and rock and roll is cool again the strokes do not have a number one record

spk_0 the strokes do not have a number one song the strokes in fact have exactly one song that ever charted

spk_0 on the billboard hot 100 and that would be their 2005 song juice box which charted for exactly one

spk_0 week at number 98 but now Jay Z standing in the Williamsburg waterfront VIP tent in 2009 vibing

spk_0 intensely to grizzly bear amongst many thousands of young people who are rollicking down slip in

spk_0 and pooping in one another's handbags and so forth and Jay Z wonders if Indy Rock quote unquote

spk_0 can finally challenge hip-hop's cultural supremacy if only to give hip-hop some fresh motivation

spk_0 and that ain't gonna happen honestly or it ain't gonna happen at Jay Z's preferred scale grizzly bear

spk_0 dirty projectors animal collective etc this late 2000s era of huge Brooklyn diaspora bands

spk_0 these are beloved groundbreaking important enduring artists but they're not cover of spin magazine

spk_0 bands they're not number one album bands they're not Saturday night live bands but who is anymore

spk_0 and here we have vampire weekend a spry young quartet from Columbia University day viewing in 2007

spk_0 with a handful of bizarrely and instantly phenomenal iv league afro pop songs available on the

spk_0 internet most notably this one called Oxford comma vampire weekend all right we got Ezra

spk_0 Canig on lead vocals and guitar primarily we got rostum botmongles on various keyboards and drums

spk_0 and whatnot plus he's the producer we got Chris Bayo on bass we got Chris Thompson on drums

spk_0 rostum will exit after the band's third album 2013's modern vampires of the city to focus on his

spk_0 own solo and production work though he'll still contribute to vampire weekend occasionally otherwise

spk_0 vampire weekends core lineup will hold forgive me but the who gives a fuck in the opening line

spk_0 who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma is tremendously important the crudeness amidst the

spk_0 sophistication the swagger amidst the stylish stuffiness the who gives a fuck is like when the

spk_0 cool substitute teacher flips their chair around and sits on it backward right except it's the actual

spk_0 cool version of that if you love this song you love this song instantly you love this song within

spk_0 30 seconds if you are the disposition to hate this song too peppy too jauntty too clever too

spk_0 too too money if you hate this song you hate it within 30 seconds but Oxford comma imprints itself

spk_0 on you instantly all of vampire weekends songs do from the beginning there is a rampant

spk_0 brazen relentless catchiness to these songs that you can accept or reject but you cannot ignore

spk_0 in 2019 I wrote a long feature for the ringer looking back at vampire weekends early years

spk_0 talking to fellow rock critics who love them and fellow rock critics who kind of maybe hated them

spk_0 and the great Charles Aaron who has been magazine's music editor at the time Charles says quote

spk_0 people I know who don't follow new bands they would hear one vampire weekend song and just be like

spk_0 what's that that's catchy as shit who are those guys and then they'd hear who they were and they'd be

spk_0 annoyed

spk_0 like that

spk_0 Charles Aaron was one of my absolute favorite people I met in New York City and I hope he as well

spk_0 and what you hear on this song Oxford comma the jolly little keyboard riff the compact and charming

spk_0 little crescendo of the chorus here the jovial class warfare of lines like why would you lie

spk_0 about how much coal you have what you hear on this song harmonizes alarmingly well with what you

spk_0 don't hear you don't hear guitar distortion you don't hear angst self-loathing or even melancholy

spk_0 you don't hear an iota of 90s type underground concern about selling out or getting too big too fast

spk_0 or winding up on the wrong sort of TV shows or ad campaigns or magazine covers you don't hear a concern

spk_0 with cool the way cool usually manifests itself in hot new rock bands the sort of cool synonymous

spk_0 with aggression or danger or reticence you don't hear hesitation you don't hear philosophical

spk_0 hesitation and you don't hear musical or lyrical hesitation let me refer you here to a post from

spk_0 azirakanax prevampire weekend era blog which was called internet vibes

spk_0 internet vibes dot blog spot.com it's still up let me refer you here to a post from

spk_0 azirakanax prevampire weekend era blog which was called internet vibes

spk_0 InternetVibes.blogspot.com is still up.

spk_0 Let me refer you to an Internet Vibes post from Saturday, February 11, 2006, in which Ezra

spk_0 talks about his fascination with preppy clothes and grapples with a broader idea of authenticity.

spk_0 Or really, he valiantly refuses to waste any time grappling with the idea of authenticity.

spk_0 Quote, What is Authentic for a Guy Like Me?

spk_0 Fourth Generation Ivy League, de-rassinated American Jew born on the Upper West side,

spk_0 raised in New Jersey to middle-class post-hippy parents with semi-anglophilic tendencies

spk_0 and a propensity to put on Eastern European accents and use obscure Yiddish phrases.

spk_0 The obvious answer is that I, like all of us, should be a truly post-modern consumer,

spk_0 taking the bits and pieces I like from various traditions and cultures, letting my aesthetic

spk_0 instincts be my only guide. In fact, all of my friends, even the children of immigrants,

spk_0 seem to be in the same boat. We are both disconnected from and connected to everything.

spk_0 Now we've transcended mere clothes. End quote. He also says,

spk_0 and yeah, wow, this is a much more succinct way to put it, quote,

spk_0 do not pop your collar if you don't sail. End quote. Ezra Canning is about to sing the line,

spk_0 Lil John, he always tells the truth. And whatever your personal need, your reaction to that might be,

spk_0 you're going to remember that reaction for the rest of your life.

spk_0 And this is Vampire Weekend's most remarkable quality. This band's super power.

spk_0 Or the terrible source of this band's super villainy. They will shout out anybody. They will

spk_0 openly and confidently be inspired by anybody. They will let their aesthetic instincts be their guide.

spk_0 They will name their songs any old thing. This song, for example, and may the Lord not strike me down,

spk_0 please. This song is called Cape Cod Quassa Quassa.

spk_0 Like no, I do.

spk_0 Yeah, forgive me again, but the disconcertingly charming jauntiness with which Ezra Canning sings the line,

spk_0 do you want to fuck like you know, I do the way the F bomb as a verb flies out of his mouth.

spk_0 Do you want to fly off some poor guy's head while he's walking along the Hudson River and a stiff

spk_0 breeze. This guy singing, do you want to fly in that fashion is really something. Imagine any other

spk_0 popular rock band in history singing those words in that order. It sounds a lot different when you

spk_0 imagine like stone temple pilots singing it. The Jonas Brothers. I pick the Jonas Brothers at random.

spk_0 I don't know, dude. Cape Cod is a popular vacation spot in Massachusetts. Quassa Quassa is a dance

spk_0 style and a musical style originating in the democratic republic of the Congo, the phrase, the

spk_0 song title Cape Cod Quassa Quassa. That's what a joke and a front, a provocation with early vampire

spk_0 weekend, especially. I keep wanting to say and then I stop myself from saying that early vampire

spk_0 weekend songs are trolling. These four dudes from Columbia University describing their sound

spk_0 as upper west side Soweto on my space. One might reasonably characterize that as trolling.

spk_0 Soweto, that's in a historically musically vital township in South Africa. The upper west side,

spk_0 that's a semi cool neighborhood in Manhattan, but trolling implies insincereity.

spk_0 Trolling implies saying things you don't mean just to antagonize people. But when vampire weekend

spk_0 used the phrase upper west side Soweto, it's not that they don't mean it because the phrase itself

spk_0 doesn't actually mean anything. It's just two places in two different countries on two different

spk_0 continents getting bonked together the way a child might bonk two action figures together. But

spk_0 nonetheless, you get vampire weekends intent in bonking these two locations. These two cultures

spk_0 together. You can imagine the sound of upper west side Soweto in your head even if you don't want to.

spk_0 Or really, you don't even have to imagine it because this band unquestionably sounds like what that

spk_0 would sound like.

spk_0 This feels so natural.

spk_0 This is so natural.

spk_0 Meanwhile, that's the other thing. Speaking of provocations that are too sincere to qualify as

spk_0 trolling, it feels so unnatural. Peter Gabriel too. Even before vampire weekend starts getting tons

spk_0 of press and that happens pretty much immediately, even before that vampire weekend are clearly

spk_0 fully aware of how they will be described and to whom they will be compared. This band sound is

spk_0 very 80s, very upbeat, very mass appeal, pop, very thoughtful, very worldly. Think sincere of a

spk_0 little touristy rock stars dabbling in global sounds. This means Peter Gabriel. This means sting,

spk_0 perhaps in stings, interminable loot phase. And this means, yes, Paul Simon. I can't explain this,

spk_0 but even on the very first publicly available vampire weekend songs, as Ricanig sings like a guy who

spk_0 knows his band's debut album is going to be compared to Paul Simon's Graceland like 500,000 times.

spk_0 And that Graceland comparison will be apt. Each of those 500,000 times. But that don't make it not

spk_0 funny. Vampire weekend blows up immediately. Vampire weekends getting glowing reviews in the

spk_0 New York Times. A live review written by the great critic and friend of the podcast, Kellefacene,

spk_0 before the bands played more than a handful of prominent shows. Vampire weekends on the cover of

spk_0 Spin magazine before they even put a full album out. That cover story is written by the ringer's

spk_0 own Andy Greenwald. And here is the funniest line in that story while Andy is interviewing

spk_0 Rostam, quote, he requests that a discussion about his love for Wes Anderson be kept off the record.

spk_0 End quote, holy shit, vampire weekend perform on Saturday Night Live just a couple months

spk_0 after their self-titled debut album comes out in January 2008. The way Spin magazine's Charles

spk_0 Aaron put it to me was quote, things really broke right for them, but they're the kind of kids

spk_0 that things break right for. I like this song just fine, but I'm going to level with you and say

spk_0 that eight punk has never been my favorite vampire weekend song. And maybe that's because I literally

spk_0 don't know any of these words. Or because this is not my favorite vampire weekend song, I've never

spk_0 bothered to learn any of the words. Or both. Joanna drove slowly into the city. The Hudson River

spk_0 all filled with snow. She spied the ring on his honors finger. Oh, oh, oh, that is a nifty first

spk_0 verse. If I do say so myself, you get a vivid sense of place and a vivid sense of character.

spk_0 Multiple characters in four lines and the fourth line is just oh, oh, oh, oh. And while I maintain

spk_0 that oh, oh, oh is the most important and really only necessary part of a punk,

spk_0 lyrically, especially the hyperconfident good cheer with which Ezra sings oh, oh, oh, here

spk_0 on Saturday Night Live, having been introduced by Amy Adams. I do nonetheless greatly respect this song

spk_0 and the non oh, oh, oh, parts of this song. But I still got no idea what he's singing right here.

spk_0 Other than it's something about a lily white hand. Let's just assume he's singing about shoes.

spk_0 I'm telling you, it won't be so serious. You could be from it. Yeah, I am.

spk_0 Shut off this sheet. She's nothing in the young men's way. So good.

spk_0 Oh, right. That's the other other thing. The shoes, the clothes, the fashion, the preppiness,

spk_0 the button down shirts, the sweaters, the suits, the staunch refusal to be a t-shirt and jeans band.

spk_0 Rostum on SNL is wearing a genuinely majestic scarf. This scarf is glorious and also ginormous.

spk_0 It is a Lenny Kravitz scale scarf. If that means anything to you and I hope it does.

spk_0 In Lizzie Goodman's 2017 book Meet Me in the Bathroom, rebirth in a rock and roll in New York City,

spk_0 2001 to 2011. Ezra says quote, when we first started getting press, I felt the most excited when I'd

spk_0 see people describe the music as preppy because I loved the fact that we were getting people to have

spk_0 synesthesia. It doesn't actually make any sense to describe music as preppy, but suddenly people

spk_0 were describing it as if preppy had been a genre for the past 40 years. I especially loved it when

spk_0 people would describe us on stage and misidentify what we were wearing. They'd be like taking the stage

spk_0 in sweaters and polo shirts on a night where nobody is wearing a sweater or polo shirt.

spk_0 I started to feel like, damn, we're really building something. We're getting people to see things.

spk_0 End quote, I am not hallucinating Rostum's Lenny Kravitz scarf. I assure you, I do get why A-Ponk is

spk_0 the song from the first self titled Vampire Weekend Record that hit the hardest. That opening guitar

spk_0 riff is extra immediately super catchy. That guitar sounds like a house party. Like the kind of modest

spk_0 run of the mill collegiate house party Vampire Weekend were presumably playing at like 15 minutes

spk_0 ago before everything broke right for them. A-Ponk is ostensibly a punk song. It is two minutes and 17

spk_0 seconds long. It is suitable for pogoing or allying. It sounds like the earworm jingle for the ubiquitous

spk_0 TV ads for the Richard Sarah skate park. But on SNL at least it's a punk song with an honest

spk_0 of God's string quartet breakdown in the middle of it.

spk_0 And even here, in the first Vampire Weekend Records, shortest and sweetest and simplest and

spk_0 least sociologically and musically freighted pop song, there is a breezy mix of high and low culture,

spk_0 a sense of styles, eras, worldviews, lifestyles, clashing. It is wild to me now. Truly,

spk_0 to think about how much discourse this band generated in 2008, Ivy League discourse,

spk_0 cultural appropriation discourse, a racial discourse talking to the telegraph in 2010,

spk_0 Ezra says, quote, when Obama came to power, there was a lot of talk about a post-racial America.

spk_0 It's something that we've had to think and talk about a lot. Even when people define us,

spk_0 as one writer did, as the whitest band in the world, despite the specific ethnicities of our band.

spk_0 End quote, Rostem is Iranian-American, Ezra's of Hungarian Jewish descent. And I personally read

spk_0 tens of thousands of words of that discourse, and I have contributed, directly or indirectly,

spk_0 many thousands of words myself, these words included. And yet even when I'm deeply,

spk_0 happily mired in that discourse, my favorite part of A Punk is still when they go AAAA.

spk_0 AAAA.

spk_0 But yeah, this band drove some people up the wall. As the music editor at the Village Voice at the

spk_0 time, I made the bizarre and unnecessary, but also kind of heroic and sexy decision to publish

spk_0 two reviews of the first vampire weekend record, one generally positive review written by the great

spk_0 Mike Powell, and one generally negative review written by the great Julianne Escobito Shepard.

spk_0 Just to clarify, I am extremely pro vampire weekend, and pro this first record especially.

spk_0 And my argument for the greatness of this record boils down to one line on a one song.

spk_0 The song is called Campus. Of course it is. And this is the line.

spk_0 Look, I understand genuinely why someone, why anyone would find this sort of thing annoying,

spk_0 just the ease, the exceedingly collegiate and succience of walk to class in front of YAH,

spk_0 spill kefir on your kefir. The way he pronounces in front of YAH, the way he bonks the words

spk_0 kefir and kefir together, like more toys he just pulled out of the toy box. But in my experience,

spk_0 it makes you want to root for this guy. Even if he carries himself with the self assurance of

spk_0 someone who doesn't need anybody else rooting for him. And maybe it's just a thrill I get from

spk_0 rooting for a winner. Because vampire weekend comes the closest to embodying Jay Z's ideal

spk_0 of the indie rock movement. I would not quite say vampire weekend pushes back against hip hop

spk_0 writ large or that indie rock threatens hip hop supremacy in any concrete way. But vampire

spk_0 weekend second album, Contra comes out in 2010 and hits number one on the billboard album chart.

spk_0 And gives this band what a lot of indie rock buzz bands never quite get. A sustainable career.

spk_0 A career varied and sustainable enough that I can take my teenage sons to see vampire weekend,

spk_0 almost 20 years into that career. And my sons and Bob along politely to all the old stuff,

spk_0 when really all they want to hear is one song.

spk_0 And the butter with the wood and mine never fucking inside.

spk_0 My kids want to hear the vampire weekend song Harmony Hall from their 2019 album,

spk_0 Father of the Bride. This is now my favorite vampire weekend song too. And what a relief it is to

spk_0 me. Truly that all my old vampire weekend knowledge, all the discourse, all the I was there are

spk_0 can of my youth, my New York city years, all of that is kind of obsolete now. Or at least

spk_0 besides the point to them. To my boys, this is a great song by a band they'd previously never heard of

spk_0 and their lack of context doesn't matter. Harmony Hall as a song seems to describe surviving

spk_0 in a world I am not exactly psyched to be leaving for my children. If you catch my drift,

spk_0 but this song's fundamental sweetness, its bounciness, its hard-fought optimism,

spk_0 that is familiar to me. And even more useful to me now than it was back when this band was brand new

spk_0 and I thought 30 was old.

spk_0 We get snakes inside a place you thought was dignified. I don't want to live like this, but I don't want to die.

spk_0 Ezra doesn't sound as confidently lately. I've noticed, but at my kids' behest I have played

spk_0 Harmony Hall in the car 500,000 times or so. In that line, I don't want to live like this,

spk_0 but I don't want to die. It hits me every time. All I want now is for my kids to get to go off

spk_0 somewhere and revel in their own coolness and go somewhere where they can say I missed it,

spk_0 but also I was there 20, 30, 40, 50 years later. And in this hopefully not too idealistic fantasy of mine,

spk_0 I cannot think of a better band to provide the soundtrack as I watch my kids hop their collars

spk_0 and set sail.

spk_0 We are delighted to welcome Chris Deville, a great Ohioan. He is the long time managing editor at

spk_0 StereoGum and the author of the fantastic new book Such Great Heights, Colin, the complete cultural

spk_0 history of the Indy Rock explosion. Out this coming Tuesday, I believe Chris, welcome.

spk_0 Rob, I'm so excited to get bleeped out for saying

spk_0 you can call me.

spk_0 You would be the first guest to ever get bleeped out. And that would be a great honor and I would be

spk_0 delighted for you to receive that honor. It had never occurred to me that that might happen,

spk_0 but I'm glad it's you. I'm so glad it's you. It makes a lot of sense.

spk_0 Congratulations on the book. I would not read the colon into the title of just anyone's book.

spk_0 So I hope you take that as the honor that I intended to be.

spk_0 Yeah, I feel very honored. Yes, thank you.

spk_0 You don't have to say that. Okay, your book starts out in the 90s. I would say it spends most

spk_0 of its time in the 2000s, but it pushes deep into the 2010s as well. And so just to start off,

spk_0 where do you see vampire weekends into the overall arc of the Indy Rock explosion?

spk_0 Like, is it overstating it to see these guys as one of the high points, both commercially and

spk_0 critically? I don't think that's overstating it at all. To me, their body of work is one of the

spk_0 strongest of their generation. And I like if you listen back to some music from the late 2000s,

spk_0 early 2010s, you can just kind of cringe, but their car ride holds up. And then in terms of a

spk_0 commercial breakthrough, they were really in the culture. You know, their albums were debuting at

spk_0 number one. They had celebrities in their music videos. And I always remember they presented

spk_0 an award to one direction at the VMAs on the same night as the Miley Cyrus, Robin Thick,

spk_0 foam finger incident. That's right. Yeah. Trapped Lord in stores now.

spk_0 Yeah. So I think that just speaks to how they speak to how they fit into the book and the

spk_0 Indy Rock explosion that was really reaching its peak around the time they were blowing up.

spk_0 I feel like they were kind of the perfect band to capitalize on the blogs and the whole blog

spk_0 star making system. Because, you know, they were like, they were kind of pandering to hipsters in

spk_0 some ways. But at the same like the first song they ever released was a cover of Exit Music for

spk_0 StereoGums OK Computer Tribute album. The fact that we at StereoGums like to point out.

spk_0 But at the same time, like the kids at the, you know, the Frat Party who just wanted something

spk_0 lighthearted and upbeat, they're, you know, they're catering to them too. A Punk is basically like a

spk_0 Skaw song. And I mean, like as far as how they factor it, they factor into the book quite a bit.

spk_0 Because like you said, the book goes well into the 2010s. And when you move through like Contra

spk_0 and modern vampires, they become emblematic of the shift towards Indy bands incorporating more of

spk_0 these explicitly non rock elements into their songs. Like I think about the synths and the samples

spk_0 on run or like the dance hall beat on diplomats son or doing a rap remix of Step. That was kind of

spk_0 the wave at the time. And then by the time you get to the aftermath of that album, Ezra is talking

spk_0 about how the idea of a rock band has become unfashionable. And they prefer to think of Vampire

spk_0 Weekend as a recording project. And so yeah, they kind of are the arc of the book to a certain extent.

spk_0 Right. And what I remember about them is they got so huge, so fast, right? Like there's always

spk_0 overnight successes or just bands that seem to come out of nowhere. But like, you know, getting

spk_0 reviewed in the New York Times, you know, off like a couple songs available on the internet,

spk_0 they're on the cover of Spin before the Alums out there on SNL. Right after the Alums out,

spk_0 as you say, is that just down to how catchy the songs are and their ability to sort of pander

spk_0 to everybody? Like, is it surprising to you that this is the band that just really did seem to

spk_0 blow up overnight and stay blown up? It's not surprising that they would get all the critical,

spk_0 like, Housanas because they were like, they're doing the whole, there are many layers of meaning.

spk_0 And you know, the critics and the hipsters, they want the complexity and the contradiction and

spk_0 putting a little John and Venetan and Daram Sala all in the same song. But like, I think they

spk_0 they were really benefiting from kind of a crescendo in the blog hype situation. Like, you wrote

spk_0 that piece for Ringer about how they were like the last Indy Buzz band to break through.

spk_0 And they kind of got in right before all the taste makers started caring more about rap and R&B

spk_0 and the blogs were kind of filled off by streaming and social media. So like,

spk_0 you know, they kind of arrived at just the right time. They were just the right band,

spk_0 just the right time and kind of slipped in just before the door closed.

spk_0 Yeah. I think, if I remember correctly, you're a little younger than me. You were just a

spk_0 couple years out of college when the first vampire weekend record came out. Like, were you plugged

spk_0 in to sort of the critical discourse about them, all these arguments about, you know, cultural

spk_0 appropriation, upper, why, upper west side, Soweto, stuff like that. Like, were you reading a lot

spk_0 about them and thinking really hard about them or was this just like a fun band with some cool

spk_0 tunes, you know, and you don't really have to dig any deeper than that yet because it's not your

spk_0 job. Well, it was my job and I did have the baggage because like, I was very tuned in.

spk_0 I was working at Columbus, alive at the time, one of the weekly newspapers here, which, you know,

spk_0 sadly is gone like the rest of the weekly newspapers. And I was loading up pitchwork every day

spk_0 and clicking around the blogs and reading articles by you at the Village Voice. And, you know,

spk_0 I was, I was very tuned into the critical discourse and fancied myself to be a part of it. So,

spk_0 yeah, I was definitely engaging with Vampire Weekend on that level from the very start. And I'd

spk_0 be curious to see like what my reaction to them would have been if I didn't bring so much context

spk_0 into it. Like, this is a band that I definitely read about before I ever heard them. And it

spk_0 definitely like colored the way that I approached their music. No, I totally agree. They're one of

spk_0 these bands that I kind of wish I could, you know, visit an alternate universe. Why I don't come

spk_0 to it with any baggage, you know, and I just understand like this person loves them and this person

spk_0 hates them and they both have good reasons and they're fighting, you know, on message boards or whatever,

spk_0 like all the critical noise in my head. Again, off just a handful of songs, you know, just basically

spk_0 Oxford, common, a couple others, you know, and there's suddenly, you know, hundreds of thousands of

spk_0 words online for me to digest professionally. You know, I'd like to think that doesn't color the

spk_0 way I hear just the music, but I don't think that's really the way music works. I think I've always

spk_0 had all this discourse in the back of my head. And it would be nice just for 10 seconds to not have

spk_0 it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, definitely. Although I mean, looking at this, I love the discourse.

spk_0 Well, sure, we all do. We all claim to not love the discourse, but we all secretly love the discourse,

spk_0 you know, and so it's a love hate thing for sure. Absolutely. How do you think about that discourse

spk_0 now, like almost 20 years later, right? Like it can't help but feel a little quaint to me that in 2008,

spk_0 you know, we all had time to argue about this. And this seemed like one of, you know, the most

spk_0 pernicious and unpleasant things going on in the world. We had a band of Ivy Leaguers doing like

spk_0 Afropop, right? It does, it feels a little weird to me. What a what a hot ticket issue this band

spk_0 was at the beginning. It seems like we should have had other stuff on our mind, maybe.

spk_0 It is kind of bizarre that it's set off so many alarms, but like I don't know, people are so

spk_0 protective of of their music scenes. And you know, people also are very interested in reasons to get

spk_0 angry. I don't know. I mean, it doesn't the extent of it and the intensity of it is what kind of

spk_0 blows the mind. But like, I feel like if they were a new band now, there would still be the reaction

spk_0 that they got would be somewhat similar to the reaction that they get now. Like they're just such

spk_0 unique artifact like the way that they carry themselves and the way they present themselves,

spk_0 it stands out and it is kind of softly confrontational in terms of.

spk_0 And I mean, they knew what they were doing. They very consciously positioned themselves in a certain

spk_0 way to stand out. Yeah, softly confrontational is a great way to put it, right? Because it's not

spk_0 it's not trolling, right? Like they're not it's not it's not insincere, but they know what they're

spk_0 doing. They know that this is going to bother people in a way that's also going to get attention and

spk_0 also attract people. You know, there's a Ryanness and a knowingness to it. Like they know how to

spk_0 kick up a fuss. Like Ezra was a blogger. You know, these these are people who know how to be online

spk_0 and to stoke conversation online, you know, occasionally among people who come to hate them,

spk_0 you know, they know what they're doing. Yeah, and you mentioned when we were emailing, you

spk_0 mentioned like the the fashion aspect of that too, like the the preppy qualities. And it's like,

spk_0 I think that that does matter to a certain extent too. Like it's yeah, it's popular music. And so

spk_0 therefore it's show business and image does factor in. It's like it's mainly when you're talking

spk_0 about appreciating music, it is mainly about the sounds coming out of the speakers, but it's not

spk_0 only about that. And like, I think about, you know, the way a band looks affects whether you even

spk_0 choose to engage. And then there's beyond that, there's like, in terms of music fandom, like

spk_0 that's another thing that I write about in the book a lot is kind of a thread throughout the book

spk_0 is music fandom as a way to construct your identity, like not just around the things that you enjoy

spk_0 listening to, but the things that, you know, the that reflects how you want to present yourself

spk_0 to the world. So like for them to come along in 2007, 2008, like in these polo shirts looking

spk_0 more like the John Mayer fans at my high school and be heralded as a vanguard of indie rock,

spk_0 it does kind of scramble your brain. Of course, yeah. And as you write, you know, you're you're

spk_0 defining yourself as much by the things you hate as the things you love, right? And I think

spk_0 vampire weekend we're very useful to people as like the outer boundary, like I love vampire weekend

spk_0 is one identity. I hate vampire weekend is another, you know, just as distinct identity. I can

spk_0 almost picture the hate person before the love person, right? Like if you're going to define

spk_0 yourself in opposition to one band from this era, I think vampire weekend is a pretty vivid,

spk_0 you know, foil for you personally. Yeah, absolutely. You talk late in the book, you know,

spk_0 the first two albums are great, but you talk late in the book about modern vampires of the city,

spk_0 you know, their third record from 2013, and you call it one of the most important records

spk_0 of your lifetime, you know, I think a milestone in my own transition to full fledged adulthood,

spk_0 you know, as you say, like I think this book, this band's arc and this band's catalog sort of mirrors

spk_0 the way you talk about the Indiraq explosion as a whole. Like what is it about this record and

spk_0 this era and the overall, you know, album to album transition of vampire weekend that resonates

spk_0 with you? I mean, I knew pretty much right away that I loved the album. It was kind of like the

spk_0 album that unlocked this band for me in a way. Like I had listened to the first couple albums and

spk_0 liked them, and I, you know, I went to see them a couple of times. Like I was kind of a casual

spk_0 fan, but like I had this experience listening to modern vampires right after it came out, I was

spk_0 covering the Hangout festival, a music festival in Alabama on the beach, and I had to drive a

spk_0 rental car along the Gulf Coast to get there. And so I'm just listening to modern vampires of

spk_0 the city having this like serene kind of, you know, just one of those special listens to an album

spk_0 that you'll have sometimes. And so I pretty much immediately knew that I was like, oh, this,

spk_0 I think I'm becoming a much bigger vampire weekend fan this album cycle, but there were other

spk_0 aspects of it that made it important to me like for one thing, my as much as I like Indiraq,

spk_0 my wife doesn't really care about Indiraq, and this is like one of the only Indiraq albums that she

spk_0 actually enjoys. So it's kind of like a foundational record of our household, but then there was

spk_0 the aspect of like it came out right before I turned 30, and you know, I'm only, I'm a few months

spk_0 over in Ezra. So like he's wrestling with the same idea as it kind of just hit me right where I was

spk_0 at in terms of feeling like my youth was over and my clock was ticking. Plus I always am extra

spk_0 interested when artists I like start wrestling with like spiritual existential religious type

spk_0 questions. And I know I wrote this year end essay in 2013 about modern vampires of the city and

spk_0 Jesus that I have not gone back and read for a while. And I'm kind of afraid to go back and read it

spk_0 now, but you know, drawing, drawing parallels between my two favorite albums of 2013 at the time.

spk_0 So anyway, yeah, it was very important now for me. That was it's so funny because I went and looked

spk_0 at the Paz and Jop year end critics chart for 2013 and number one is Jesus and number two is modern

spk_0 vampires of the city. And I was like, well, that's funny. Those are two very different head spaces,

spk_0 you know, to occupy and even consider occupying both simultaneously is very funny to me.

spk_0 I think my point with the piece was something about how they were both like freaking out about

spk_0 the onset of new adulthood. Sure. Right. You know, obviously Kanye's way of freaking out was

spk_0 quite different from Ezra's, but there is no where the hell is my damn croissant moment on the modern

spk_0 vampires record. You mentioned the spiritual part and I my favorite song off that record and my

spk_0 favorite vampire weekend song still is Yahayi, you know, which is it's really lovely, but kind of an

spk_0 intense song, you know, where Ezra who's Jewish, of course, is talking either about or to God,

spk_0 you know, like he's singing, it seems to me anyway, singing directly to God. It's almost like an

spk_0 argument and my you've written really beautifully both in the book and elsewhere about, you know,

spk_0 growing up in an evangelical household and how your your life is a Christian and your life is a

spk_0 rock critic intersect. Like I wondered what you made of that song Yahayi in particular, you know,

spk_0 and this thread through the whole modern vampires album as you say of like grappling with spirituality.

spk_0 It's interesting because like Ezra always is obviously, you know, filling up his songs with all

spk_0 these references, kind of these eclectic references to different geography, different cultures,

spk_0 different pop culture moments. And I felt like on that album, there are still some of that going

spk_0 on, like, you know, you listen to Step and he's quoting Soul's Amishif and then talking about

spk_0 modest mouse and it's sort of the juxtaposition thing is still happening, but like the

spk_0 spiritual stuff on that album, it doesn't come off to me as like clever. Like it's one of the times

spk_0 when I feel like he is really like honestly wrestling with those things like there there are times

spk_0 when it's just like, oh, well, you know, look at this trick that I pulled off. I wrote this clever

spk_0 little song with this clever little references and it's like, I don't really see that happening when

spk_0 he's like, it feels like he is getting kind of raw on Yahweh and like, you know, bringing some

spk_0 like legit concerns before God and, you know, obviously like you said that's something that kind

spk_0 of courses through the whole album and you've got unbelievers and other stuff. And so yeah, I mean

spk_0 that's probably one of the reasons I like it because I do, I appreciate Ezra as like the

spk_0 clever guy and I appreciate the eclecticism and the sophistication and the layers, but like

spk_0 there was something very human about that album and about the way that he approached those

spk_0 subjects that doesn't necessarily touch everything he writes. Right. And I think that continues. Like

spk_0 I think part of the reason that Vampire Weekend continues to resonate, you know, it was 2019

spk_0 is Father the bride, right. And like the one Vampire Weekend song, my kids, you know, my teenagers

spk_0 now, Latched on to his Harmony Hall, you know, which I think is in that same vein. It is, it's not,

spk_0 it's not that it's not clever, but it's less about cleverness for its own sake. There's more vulnerability,

spk_0 more humaneness to it. I don't want to live like this, but I don't want to die. Like I, that seems

spk_0 like a pivot, like a step like an evolution that he took as a songwriter and the band took as a

spk_0 band that isn't, that's not necessarily going to happen. You know, there are plenty of bands,

spk_0 great bands and during bands, you know, that don't evolve, you know, who don't get to that phase

spk_0 of seeming like an older mature, more thoughtful version of themselves. And it's very cool that

spk_0 Vampire Weekend figured out how to kind of do that. Yeah. And I, I feel like you're right that,

spk_0 I feel like Father the bride has a really good balance of that like genuine searching and kind of

spk_0 like real life existential crisis mixed in with with the winking side of things. Yeah. You talk a lot

spk_0 in the book about, you know, like the importance of the OC, you know, the TV show and all the SYNC's

spk_0 Garden State, etc. Grayson, Adam E. You talk about Apple ads, you know, and just the way that

spk_0 this generation of musicians learn to love, you know, being on TV shows, being in commercials,

spk_0 you know, doing things that we were all taught, you could not do in the 90s. And so A Punk and

spk_0 Holiday, especially off Contra are like songs I love, but songs that I am always going to associate

spk_0 with seeing them on TV ads like a billion times, you know, like there was that Colbert

spk_0 rapport thing where the Vampire Weekend and the Black Keys like did like some sort of fake game

spk_0 show, making fun of themselves for being in so many ads, right? Like being, you know, very knowing

spk_0 and right about it. But I wondered if all the commercialism, you know, if the selling out, you know,

spk_0 affected the way that you hear these songs or any of the Vampire Weekend's music. Or we all

spk_0 worried about this the whole time for nothing. I mean, I don't think it's like an antiquated thing

spk_0 to say that it like taints your experience of the music if a song appears in a commercial and gets

spk_0 I mean, I think that the politics, like the scene politics around it definitely changed

spk_0 because like people people just kind of came to tolerate that stuff because I think people

spk_0 understand more and more how hard it is to make a living in the music industry. And I mean,

spk_0 it's got it's only gotten harder since those songs were in commercials. But like at the same time,

spk_0 it's like, you know, I hear A Punk and Holiday and I think of the commercials. They're, you know,

spk_0 the I'm able to if I'm in the flow of the album, maybe lock in and kind of set that stuff aside.

spk_0 But like it definitely like can recontextualize the song the same way that like a song appearing in

spk_0 a movie scene or something would. And so like I think the idea of like being a sell out,

spk_0 it's so interesting how it's going away because some of its fine necessity. But I think some of

spk_0 it's also probably opportunistic like, you know, the idea of like this indie music edging up

spk_0 towards the world of pop and pop like suddenly becoming kind of like the like the taboo that's being

spk_0 explored like, ooh look, we're an indie band that can go pop and we're, you know, we're not

spk_0 going to apologize about it like it was convenient that that was sort of the trendy,

spk_0 critical line of thinking at the same time. Right. When when it became maybe more of a necessity

spk_0 to get by. Yeah, it's cool that we're trying to make money now. It's it's very

spk_0 convenient for us. And do I have this right that Ezra suggests on Twitter that I'm what's the path

spk_0 of the Beyonce song. Oh man. Hold up. I it's he's involved there somewhere. And I don't know if it's

spk_0 in if he just suggests it or if he actually contributed it. But he's sort of emblematic of that

spk_0 period where like father John Misty is invited to like try and write Beyonce songs or whatever.

spk_0 Like that's another thing that was not thinkable, you know, in the 90s or particularly even when

spk_0 vampire we can started. But suddenly became a huge thing as you write, you know, by the end of

spk_0 the explosion. Yeah, man, hold up by Beyonce is so interesting because like, yeah, you know,

spk_0 it's you know, it's built around yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's created the concept came from

spk_0 from Ezra. He did tweet something and he was working with Diplo in the studio. And thank God

spk_0 Diplo is involved. Yeah, that's a huge relief to me actually. I don't I don't remember. I think

spk_0 that is the the Beyonce song that father John Misty also worked on if I remember correctly. So

spk_0 it's just like such a fascinating artifact along with like, right, maybe four or five seconds.

spk_0 I think that that Rihanna Kanye poem, a cartony song has Dave Longstruth from dirty projectors

spk_0 in the credits. And you can totally hear it like in the bridge of the song like it just goes from

spk_0 being, you know, a few chords to like these, you know, bizarre melodies tangled in the, you know,

spk_0 jazz chords. You can hear that. Oh, that's the part Dave Longstruth wrote. Yeah.

spk_0 What a time to be alive to wrap up. I think you've already answered this question,

spk_0 but I'm going to ask it anyway. Like is vampire weekend just dad rock now? And is that such a bad thing

spk_0 if they are? Yeah, I mean, I think they got to be I know from a practical standpoint,

spk_0 I know you told me you told your you took your kids to see them. And I did. Yes.

spk_0 I actually took my daughter to see them in since now you last year because my wife couldn't make it.

spk_0 But so that in the objective sense, I guess that makes them dad rock. But I think there's two

spk_0 dimensions to that to think about too. Like one is just that like all of that sort of millennial

spk_0 indie rock as, you know, millennials and, you know, excenials age into into parenthood.

spk_0 Then you yeah, basically anything that that dads like when they were young when they become

spk_0 dads, you know, I think is dad rock by default. But there's also like with with father of the bride,

spk_0 it was so interesting they they had been they had been so much a part of that wave of the

spk_0 indie bands going pop and they just pivoted in the other direction with father of the bride and

spk_0 kind of embraced that vaguely jam bandy type sound. And like Ezra like apparently just got into

spk_0 to fish in the dead a lot and they were doing the whole sandals thing like it just they kind of

spk_0 steer directly into the dad rock thing. And then maybe that's just an example of, you know,

spk_0 they're always kind of zigging where people expect them to zag. But yeah, I think as as someone who's

spk_0 who's been a dad for a while now, I've kind of let go of having any kind of shame about the term

spk_0 dad rock. And I'm like hell yeah, dad rock. By the way, father of the bride super underrated,

spk_0 I think it's everybody's good as modern vampires. I think it might there are definitely days when

spk_0 it's my favorite vampire weekend album. And the people who felt like it was a misstep or like not

spk_0 as good as the first three albums are totally wrong. I need to get that on the record. I mean,

spk_0 it's already I'm already on the record writing it many many times at stereo and on social media. But

spk_0 I just, I know audio I need to get it on the record. It's another medium. It's a it means a

spk_0 totally different thing. And I agree with you actually, it's my kids favorite, you know, the only

spk_0 vampire weekend record they really know or care about like even at the show, the songs that they

spk_0 picked out and wanted to hear in the car after we're all we're all father. The song called sympathy.

spk_0 And so there yeah, I don't know. I'm not I'm wondering if they're responding specifically to

spk_0 the jam band aspect to the dad rock aspect. What it is about that record specifically that's more

spk_0 appealing to them, even then a punk, even then, you know, step. I would be curious to know

spk_0 what makes that record interesting to teenagers or at least my teenagers. But I'm happy to to

spk_0 to announce here on this show with your help that it's it's everybody is good. Is anything

spk_0 else they've done? Hell yeah. Join the movie. Hell yeah. This has been fantastic Chris. Thanks

spk_0 so much. It congrats on the book. Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks very much to our guest this week

spk_0 Chris DeVille. Thanks as always to our producers Olivia Creary Christopher Sutton and Justin Sales

spk_0 and thanks very much to you for listening. And now let's all go listen to A Punk by Vampire Week.

spk_0 Thanks a lot.

“A-Punk” — Vampire Weekend

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