Results tagged “vampireweekend”

With a name like Princeton (Myspace), I formulated a vision of a young band from my great homeland of East Coast, New Jersey (Philadelphia Metro Area, naturally), breaking out onto the indie rock scene. And so I was slightly disappointed to find out that my completely baseless guess as to the band's name origin couldn't have possibly been more wrong. Sure enough, twin brothers Jesse and Matt Kivel named their band after the place where they spent most of their childhood. Unfortunately, that place isn't crawling with ivy and preppy college students (or fortunately maybe, depending on your opinion). These boys mean Princeton Street, Santa Monica. As in California. West Coast, Pacific Ocean, sand, sun, surf—all that nonsense. But I'm not going to hold that against them as their first full-length album is pretty damn cool.

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2009 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know!

In a jumble of misunderstood credential arrangements, I arrived at the Popped! Philadelphia music festival last Saturday more or less as a spectator with a photo pass. No interviews, no all-access backstage pass, no video cameras, and not even an idea to give the Phillyist world an artsy camera perspective of the small details involved in being there. Despite my skepticism of the changed nature of this festival, and the frustratingly unorganized course leading up to it, Saturday, no question, was a success.

Attention college students who dig indie ethic! You like your indie rock. You like your city. You probably have an opinion on Vampire Weekend. And you probably hate how much tuition costs! The Popped! folks know you have no money, and are somewhat forgiving. So, stop being pissed off that tickets to Saturday’s big show are $32.50, and get ‘em for $25.

Despite their name, NYC four-piece Vampire Weekend (MySpace) is not a shoe-gazing, emo goth band. In fact, their self-titled debut LP, just released at the end of last month, is perhaps best described as "sunny" - the very antithesis of a vampire's idea of a good weekend. This band, beloved of many blogs (including us), performs bouncy, funny, clever, retro indie/punk/pop/New Wave songs about love. Their music is so fun it feels like there has to be something wrong with it, but nothing is. It's been a while since we listened to an album the first time through, and loved every song on it instantly. (Although of course we did love some more than others; the head-bopping "A-Punk," which they performed live on Letterman just the other night, is the best, and "One (Blake's Got a New Face)" is the worst.) If you haven't got your copy of the album yet, hit the R5 Productions website to download some free MP3s.

For a band with only a three-song EP to its name, Vampire Weekend sure has polarized the indie rock blogs. It’s like a cage match between hype and backlash: on one side you’ve got a long line of critics and fans hailing the New York band’s refreshingly polyrhythmic, Afro-pop sensibilities, while on the other, there are just as many people resenting the mounting hype or their sunny tunes or both. (You can sample some of that criticism, which ranges from “What’s the big deal about this band?” to “They’re the Jimmy Buffetts of indie rock,” here.)