VABE WIGODA [counterpoint]

abe vigoda

  It’s interesting that Tim takes up the issue of identity first. But my disgust with Vampire Weekend has less to do with how they look, and even less to do with how well put together their music is (blog-come-mainstream hype will guarantee good production for any studio record), rather it has everything to do with what information being conveyed in the music. I speak generically because these aspects include instrumentation, depth of sound, style, appropriation.. blah blah blah blah… it can go on and on with as long of words as you care to use. But that’s the great thing about pop music, and is actually why music criticism is so terrible: it’s because music is virtually indescribable and unless you've heard it, it's pointless to discuss. And actually, I'm going to take this one further, unless you've heard a lot of it, music discourse is pointless.

    Now that we got that out of the way. Some REAL TALK. Listen to Vampy Weekend. Listen to their first self-titled album all the way through (or atleast try to skim through all their myspace songs), and then listen to Contra. None of what I’m going to say next will make sense unless you do. There are a few things that bother me about Vampz and all of them have to do with Contra. It’s not that their lyrics don’t make sense ( I can easily forgive that, Phoenix), or the pillaging of a certain Simon who pillaged from a certain Lady, or that Ezra Koenig’s out of register voice sounds like early 80’s Sting, but it’s that there is so god damn SMUG. I appreciate rappers for their candor: they explicitly tell me they ride on 24’s and that they have a fresh pair of Tim’s for everyday of the week. But for Vampire Weekend, every song sounds like an opportunity for the band to grace us with their presence, not show us music they’re making, or what music is captivating them, or what direction they think the world is head towards. The songs are frothy nonsensical ditties that are framed in precocious lyrics that don't bring a listeners closer to the ineffable; it just sounds like it from a distance. Contradictions also follow, “’not caring ‘ and meaninglessness is something that has been valued in pop music, something that is liberating to listen to” Well that’s true. But that kind of freedom doesn’t seem come across in a well produced song about Horchata.

Not caring eh? What bullshit is this? Well that would probably lead you to band like Abe Vigoda,  with a similar flare for the jangles as Vampy Weekend, all of the intellectual indifference, and none of the smug puke.  Unlike Uncle Vamps, we have noisy, lo-fi, self-described tropical punk rock and sure, why not agree? The music exploits the feeling of freedom afforded with real apathy. My presence is not being violated by their “greatness”, and music cues they're drawing from, punk, interestingly stems from what is traditionally understood as white culture. In the coming months, that they’re touring with Vamps, I think its an interesting choice, notably because while one can draw a line of tangency between the two band's sounds, they are and sound, nothing alike. The audience will probably hate it.