Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Preview :: Vampire Weekend - Contra
You may have seen this photo floating around the internet and thought, polo advertisement, and not clicked on it. (This was of course before there were any words on the photo.) Others of you may have thought, preppy porn...sweet, and clicked on it only to find a website with just this picture posted. Still others of you may have done some research and found out that this photo is a teaser promotion and the cover of Vampire Weekend's second album, Contra, to be released on January 12th.
The girl is in New York City in 1983, and she's still alive today. The cover and title have something to do with Vampire Weekend being ousted for going to Harvard. The mentality is, "If these guys are so smart, they shouldn't be making music, they should be saving lives or changing the world!" But, no one criticizes Harvard business majors that use their intelligence to make money. The band addresses this stuff in their interview with pitchfork: here.
The first song they've released is a breezy vacation to the beaches of Jamaica. Horchata is made from almonds and it's the national drink of Spain and is very popular all throughout Latin America. There don't seem to be any traces of anger or resentment toward haters, but quite the opposite. The sound is a relaxed Vampire Weekend, compared to the afro punk pop jamborees on the last album. There's a unique mixture of digital and tribal drums, synthesized and plinking xylophone, that never becomes odd or trite.
Tracklisting for Contra:
1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. Giving Up the Sun
9. Diplomat's Son
10. I Think UR A Contra (...alas, the internet age...)
www.vampireweekend.com
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Essential Albums for the Next Four Months!!!
There are so many brilliant releases coming out that I thought I'd post a little calendar:
9/22
Brand New - Daisy
Volcano Choir
9/29
Karen O and The Kids - Where the Wild Things Are
10/6
Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
Daniel Johnston - Is and Always Was
The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
No Age - Losing Feeling
10/13
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
10/20
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freekie
Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar - One Fast Move or I'm Gone
(This album is amazing. All songs were written by Death Cab's Ben Gibbard and solo artist Jay Farrar about Jack Kerouac's Big Sur. It accompanies a documentary of the same name.)
Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
(This is a DVD/CD of a live symphony Sufjan composed about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It'll most likely be the best orchestrated audio about a highway ever created)
11/3
Nirvana - Bleach (Reissue with full Live LP)
Neutral Milk Hotel - Reissues of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and On Avery Island
11/17
Nirvana - Live in Reading
11/27
Blackroc (This is The Black Keys hip hop project with Mos Def...and some other wrappers)
12/8
Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
1/12/10
Vampire Weekend - Contra
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