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......

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. Hm, what? How can you get these tickets? I guess that would be......

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......

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......