With the 2010 release of Vampire Weekend’s sophomore record Contra, New York Times magazine writer Andy Gensler dubbed the New York quartet’s style “Upper West Side Soweto,” thus anointing (and perhaps, tainting) the band as connoisseurs of style. But their mastery of pastiche demonstrates, above all, an acute awareness of the global musical landscape and the multiple places in which they fit into it. Their drawing from a retrospective palette of the rich music that came before it is not so much cut and paste as much as it is careful sonic application. Through the art of borrowing, Vampire Weekend came to acquire its own inimitable style. … Read More
Vampire Weekend
Staff Picks: Flavorwire’s Favorite Cultural Things This Week
Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments. … Read More
An Interactive Map of Vampire Weekend’s Many Geographical References
“I used to front like Angkor Wat…” Oh yes, it’s a new Vampire Weekend album, all right. Modern Vampires of the City — now streaming at iTunes — is the third album-length example of Ezra Koenig et al’s patented preppy Paul Simon/Peter Gabriel-chic indie rock, and it’s full of the band’s usual lyrical references to the sort of exotic places where they probably played tennis with wooden rackets before sipping Pimm’s on the lawn. There are so many geographical names dropped in the band’s songs, in fact, that it seemed high time to collate them all as pins on a fancy Google map. Click through to discover which continents Koenig’s trust fund and/or tour schedule haven’t sent him to yet (spoiler: South America and Australia). … Read More
7 Music Videos More Destructive Than Vampire Weekend’s “Diane Young”
You’d think it would be hard for a music video that’s practically a still life to offend anyone, but this year prepster darlings Vampire Weekend have been taking heat for the video for new single “Diane Young,” which shows an old Saab bursting into flames with downtown Manhattan in the background. Frontman Ezra Koenig has clarified that the vehicles in question were old, out of order, and dirt cheap — and we’d like to remind the offended car lovers that Vampire Weekend are hardly the most extreme when it comes to making destructive music videos. Read on for the most chaotic clips, from combusting drum sets to a kids’ birthday party from hell to a Hunger Games-style rap epic. … Read More
Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend Headline Amazing Occupy Sandy Benefit Lineup
Despite the pervasive assumption that Occupy Wall Street is defunct or irrelevant, in the weeks since Hurricane Sandy struck, the movement has mobilized countless volunteers to fill the gaps left by government agencies and larger humanitarian organizations. Now, in order to sustain its efforts, Occupy Sandy has announced a benefit concert… Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. You know that $4.05 billion that George Lucas made in his deal with Disney? Apparently he plans to donate “the majority of the proceeds” to his philanthropic endeavors. [via Collider]
2. Wes Anderson says that Grand Budapest Hotel “mostly takes place about 85 years ago… And it’s kind of European … a… Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. The rather excellent looking new Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom, will kick off this year’s Cannes Film Festival on May 16th before opening in the US on May 25th. Can you believe that this will be the auteur’s first time screening one of his films there? [via Vulture]
2. Apparently Britney Spears… Read More
What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office
Today at Flavorpill, we met the cat with two faces. We read the true confessions of a Teenage Manic Pixie Dreamgirl who blames her almost ruined sex life on Zooey Deschanel. We were happy to find out that we’re not the only ones who are completely obsessed with Inspector… Read More
Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’ Cover Model Case Finally Settled
Remember Ann Kirsten Kennis, the former model who sued Vampire Weekend for $2 million for using her photo on the cover of last year’s Contra? Well, over a year later, Photo District News reports that the preppy-on-preppy litigation was settled after the band and XL Records agreed to pay Kennis an… Read More
Oil Paintings of Indie Rock Royalty
In an ongoing project, artist Joe Simpson (no, not that Joe Simpson) creates beautifully detailed, near-photorealistic portraits of his favorite musicians. He meets with the musicians, takes their photographs, and then works from the photos to create these amazing oil paintings. At present he has completed about 14 paintings — he aims to create around 30 before the project goes up as a solo exhibition later this year. Click through to see our favorite pieces so far, and for more of Simpson’s beautiful musician portraits and to see a few of his other projects, check out his website. … Read More
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