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In late March 2007 as I was getting off the subway I picked up a copy of the most recent issue of The L Magazine. The week's feature was "8 New York Bands You Need to Hear" and I, always on the lookout for bands I need to hear, eagerly paged through the to the cover story. First on their list was an up-and-coming four-piece out of Columbia University named Vampire Weekend.
While the group didn't turn out to be my favorite from the list (Brookyln's My Teenage Stride took that spot) I very much enjoyed what I heard on Vampire Weekend's Myspace. It was catchy, quirky and inventive, and though their aesthetic came off as not-quite-finished, I was looking forward to hearing an album from them. They didn't amaze but they showed some real promise, if they could tighten up a bit and shake off the "Aww Shucks" vibe I could hear even through a digital file on the clunky Myspace audio player.
Throughout that summer I'd hear the band mentioned now and again with increasing frequency. I stopped by their site every once in a while to listen again and check out any band news. Then, in the fall I saw them live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with the Harlem Shakes opening… to my great disappointment. Vampire Weekend was already big enough at this point to sell out the venue but the show that they put on was lackluster at best. Compared to the high energy set executed by the Shakes, Vampire Weekend seemed to be going through the motions. Their songs, while catchy online, seemed to fall flat and I began to see that the hype surrounding them was built on the novelty of their influences rather than the actual quality of their music.
In the months to follow the hype surrounding the group increased at a seemingly exponential rate. The blogosphere was abuzz with their buzz and writer after writer lavished praise onto this band whose album hadn't even dropped yet. When the self-titled record debuted in January reviews read like a pre-approved checklist:
- Witticism about preppy Columbia students - Check
- Afro-infused pop - Check.
- Draw parallel to Graceland - Check.
- Mention that the band writes about clever things like oxford commas - Check.
- ZOMG this band is teh bestest!!!11!one - Check.
In March the band played both The Late Show with David Letterman, and Saturday Night Live, and appeared on the cover of Spin magazine with the headline, "The Year's Best New Band… Already?" I should point out here that due to the cycle of the magazine medium, the cover photo shoot occurred before the release date of the band's debut.
It's hard to tell exactly where in this sequence an annoyance with this group and the overblown hype surrounding it began to fester in my mind. Since seeing VW live at the supposed-coming-out-party of South by Southwest, however, more and more reviewers seem to be realizing the same things I have.
A quick Google search for "Vampire Weekend SXSW review" yields:
The problem with Vampire Weekend, one of the star attractions at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, is not really the band's fault.
Blame all the bloggers and rock critics (present company included) who feel the need to anoint up-and-coming musicians as "buzz bands." Sometimes the music simply cannot stand up under the weight of all that hype.
Vampire Weekend -- although a likable enough group of guys with a solid debut CD to their credit -- seems destined to join the Monkeys on the ever-growing "Weren't they supposed to be huge?" list. Indeed, mention Vampire Weekend to the average Joe Blow in six months and he'll likely think you're talking about some new John Carpenter movie.
The band's SXSW set on Friday night at Antone's -- Austin's most fabled blues club -- did very little to get this critic excited about the two Vampire Weekend shows this week in San Francisco. Of course, I'd never suggest that you go to Craigslist and sell your tickets for these sold-out shows (Saturday at the Independent and Sunday at Rickshaw Stop) and make oodles of money. I will, however, recommend that you not buy any of these over-priced ducats online.
Vampire Weekend's actual set, meanwhile, was...well, actually it was pretty good. Performing to a mostly easy crowd of already-won-over fans, the band performed its set engulfed in the glow of their own hype (or was it just the orange house lights?). The crowd bounced along happily and cheerily to the songs (Afro-beat and Jamaican-inspired drums tend to have that effect on people), and the band members reciprocated, jaunting through each track on their 34.5-minute debut. It was a cheery, smile-filled set. It was cute. And fun.
But it just wasn't as remarkable as the Vampire Weekend-loving crowd exiting the venue made it out to be
The problem I see is that VW is actually quite a good band. They have an intriguing style, they are good musicians, and they offer a fairly unique (in the current scene) mix of sounds. They are, however, not at all ready (or good enough) for all the buzz that has built up around them. I wish for their own sakes that they'd been given more time to grow into their sound, and flesh out their musical ideas before being unceremoniously thrust onto such a large stage. As it stands, they've been built up to a height that is so far over their heads that they now have little hope of living up to their own reputation. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah (anyone remember those guys?) was forced down a similar path and once the blogosphere dropped them they fell hard.
I wish the best for this band, and I certainly hope in two years people aren't echoing my thoughts from late 2007:
"Vampire Weekend? What's the Big Deal?"
This article cross-posted from the new ListenInMusic.com.
© Eric Atienza 2008 for Listen In Some rights reserved.
