In early 2007, a blue CD-R circulated and Vampire Weekend became a blog sensation before the packaged debut even reached music distributors. Three years later, their sophomore album’s achieved the top spot in national sales and is, ironically, as indie as ever.

It’s not as immediate as the debut, but repeated listens are rewarding. There’s still the Afro-pop riffs, the ska influence, the harpsichord, and Ezra Koenig’s lite, naïve voice. But the songs are more dense and complicated this time: M.I.A. samples and Nintendo textures (“Diplomat’s Son”), autotune (“California English”), and synths that recall the R&B of bandmate’s recent side project. They’ve also sped things up a bit with “California English” and punky first single, “Cousins.” The latter makes past singles “Oxford Comma” and “Mansard Roof” feel like elevator music.

Even with the added complexities, the tracks never feel bloated or gimmicky. Tracks like “Horchata” and “White Sky” retain the precise, sunshiny spirit of their debut. Even their meeker tracks (“Taxi Cab,” “I Think Ur a Contra”) go down easy.

Also making its return in the sequel is the white-collar pretense bashed by clusters of the blogosphere. I can just picture the Columbia University grads huddled around an Oxford dictionary in pursuit of words that rhyme with “horchata” (“balaclava,” “aranciata,” and “Masada” were chosen).

But, frankly, it’s a quibble that has no business deterring potential listeners. It’s clear that their “education” was used in other ways here—namely, in synthesizing even more influences. Even if you can’t take it in all at once, it’s for good reason. They’ve expanded. And that’s the sort of effort you want in a follow-up.

I was always taught that an ‘and’ should never, never be preceded by a comma. It’s bad form, on a par with various types of apostrophe abuse. But over and over recently, in the highly wordy academic papers I’ve been reading, I see “, and”. It looks wrong to me.

It turns out that this is a serial comma or even better, an  Oxford comma, with its own rules and debates and everything. It seems that the journalistic approach is to discourage the serial comma, whereas academic use makes it OK – after all, anything to avoid ambiguity, or so you would hope. This explains why it’s coming up a lot recently, but I still have trouble approving of it. So there you go, punctuation fact of the day.

Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

이동진 기자님이 블로그에 그린데이 콘서트 후기를 올리셨는데, 좋아하시는 곡이 나왔을 때의 기분을 이렇게 표현하셨다.   

(…)  그런데 어제 공연의 연주목록은 흡사 제게 계를 탄 것 같은 느낌을 안겨줬어요.  ^^  ‘Give me novocaine’ 뿐만 아니라 ‘Jesus of suburbia’와  ‘Last night on earth’까지 나왔거든요.  (…)

저게 어떤 기분인지 아스라히 알 것 같았는데 그걸 저렇게 쓰시다니…  포스트를 읽으면서 소리내 웃었다.  하하~  흡사 계를 탄 것 같은 느낌을 안겨줬대…  (그린데이 콘서트 갈걸 그랬다.  -_ㅠ)  그리고 얼마 전에 vampire weekend가 신보를 낸 기념으로 소개해 주신 oxford comma 뮤직비디오를 보다가 그거 끝나고 나오는 관련 동영상 중 귀여운 노래가 있어서 올린다.

뭐든 열심히 해야 하는 거임.  빙글빙글 돌아가며 음정에 따라 높낮이 바꾸는 키보드좀 보게~

Yeah.  We’re 1/12 of the way through 2010 and 1/120 of the way through the new decade.  And surprisingly, a lot of crap happened in the music world.  Vampire Weekend released their long-awaited second album, which doesn’t really win over any new fans and doesn’t really alienate any old ones.  Sure, there’ll be the odd chap who hated “Oxford Comma” but really identifies with “Horchata,” just like there’s the kid whose 2008 jam was “A-Punk” but finds “Cousins” a little embarrassing.  Honestly, the best thing about “Contra” is its sheer ridiculousness; really, how stupid are you when you feel that the phrase “I Think Ur a Contra” is a suitable song title?

But shit has happened in 2010.  Beach House’s newest album came out (even though we all heard it in, like, November.  And I semi-bashed it a few weeks ago, but I think I forgot to mention just how sweet the opening four songs are.  The rest of my review still holds up.

Surfer Blood have bad timing.  Surfing in January?  Really?  Really?

Charlotte Gainsbourg has a new LP out.  Not as great as Serge, but quite delectable.  Review coming soon.

But there is one part of 2010 that I really and truly enjoy, and that is Jay Electronica’s song “Suckas.”  Subject material is fairly typical- it’s about wack MCs.  But something about the track- Jay’s jubilant flow, the Willy Wonka samples, the ecstatic J Dilla beat- makes it the first hip-hop anthem of 2010.  It’s from his mixtape “Victory.”  The title is quite apt.

Dear Words That Spill Out Of My Mouth,

Recently, I have noticed that the words that flow out of my mouth have been of “poor” choice.  Have I always said, “shit” and “fuck” in every single sentence?  Maybe I always have and am barely noticing such.  Either/or, I’d just like to come to my senses with my language.  In doing so, I only feel as if it is necessary to bring attention to my mouth.  It is my mouth that delivers it.  No, no, it isn’t.  It’s something else.  But, I’m not going to search for the right body part that delivers these lovely vulgar words that exit my mouth.

My mother always told me that I should never curse.  She said it was unattractive and made a person rotten.  But, ever since I was a little girl, I remember cursing.  I blame my sister for this.  We would always play these rhyming games while driving in the car with my mom.  She would intentionally say words that rhymed with curse words.  I, the innocent darling I was, had no idea that these words were “bad” words.  So, she would say, “Duck!”  I would exclaim, “FUCK!”  And then I would get yelled at by my mom.  That usually resulted in getting soap in my mouth.  I am pretty sure I have indulged in many bars of soap because of cursing when I was a kid.  I never realize I curse, though.  I don’t try to insert “bad” words into my daily dialogue.  It comes naturally.  Maybe I should blame my sister for this.  But, really, I don’t even feel the need to blame anyone.

Where am I going with this?  I just want to make clear that my cursing isn’t out of anger or anything.  It flows so well.  For the most part, I think curse words sound pretty.  (Then again, it annoys the hell out of me when some people curse.  You know how some people sound okay cursing and others make you want to kill yourself?  Yeah, I run into that a lot.)

Dear Mouth, keep flowing the flow.  For your flow is fucking fine.

Love,

Krista and the Whale

Soundtrack to my day: ♫ Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

Download the soundtrack to my day here

Cover of Vampire Weekend’s Oxford Comma by The Carleton Singing Knights

This is good. I think this is one of the better songs of VW’s debut album.

My mp3 player is always full these days. :/ I’m fantasizing about buying a new one.

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?!

It took some extensive listening, but now I’m really enjoying them – no moneyZ for their new album though.

So we all know these NY indie-pop-rockers from the likes of ‘Oxford Comma’ and ‘A-Punk’, but foursome Vampire Weekend have hit back in 2010 with a brand spanking new album, and they’re making bigger waves than ever.

From their free performance at Somerset House last Thursday, followed by a sell-out show in Kingston and multiple gigs in London over the weekend, the new album, ‘Contra‘ has entered the number 3 spot in this weeks’ official album chart.  It seems there’s something about these lads that people warm to, and it’s been impossible to avoid seeing or hearing them this past week. Potential festival headliners? We think so.

For weeks I’ve been hearing the hype about this album and because I’m an ignorant bastard I just brushed it aside like a child that says it dosen’t like vegetables and said “I don’t like it!”.  Why you may ask?, well i thought the first album bared correlation to the excremental fertiliser used on various plants and vegetables. A-Punk was maybe the worst single ever produced on the indie scene (OKAY… maybe it’s not as bad as Glasvegas’s drowsy singles, but the song was still bad!) so i thought “Contra” would be a repeat of the first album, thus meaning it wasn’t worth my time to listen to a few tracks.

Then i stumbled upon a feature on Pitchfork which boasted an interview and a few live tracks, so i took a 15 minute window and had a listen….It was fucking lush!.  I knew “Cousins” was a piece of  art in itself  but i thought could the album bestow a few other good tracks well today ladies and gentlemen I am gonna take you on a musical journey through the wackey ways of Vampire Weekend (Just imagine me saying this and then traverling down a river like on the original Willy Wonka with cuts to Vampire Weekend jamming naked….scary stuff)

So anyway let the games begin!

Vampire Weekend – Cousins —Score – 8.5/10

Vampire Weekend – Horchata — Score – 8/10

Vampire Weekend – White Sky — Score 7.5/10

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Beginning a new blog is somewhat like going on a series of a few first dates.  Full of potential and a little bit butterfly-inducing.  Am I talking too much?  Am I not saying enough?  Why do I keep answering every statement with “yeah?”  Do I have anything stuck in my teeth?  Do I look genuinely interested or am I smiling without blinking thus looking like a creepy psycho?  Oh god, I’m doomed to die alone with 53 cats.

Go ahead.  Say it.

Since I do not enjoy this experience (neither dating nor dying alone with 53 cats), I thought the natural progression before I open the blog to some full-on goodness, would be to first introduce myself.  (Besides, don’t we all secretly enjoy writing our own bio once in awhile?)

I was born in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas – the home of the original Pizza Hut.  Not that it matters to you unless you’re looking to meet a girl born in 1981 from the home of the original Pizza Hut.

I am an ENFP.  I am a Leo. I grew up in Abilene, Texas. I am tall and I have very long fingers. I like most people. I believe in Karma. I can sort of play the piano.  I can sort of speak Spanish. I like palindromes and the oxford comma and sometimes I feel like grammatical correctness is stodgy. I love my family.  I am a bleeding heart for animals.

I believe in elegance of real mail. I close my eyes when I listen to classical music. I want to learn how to ride a horse. I have a scar on my finger where a parrot named Butterscotch bit me in Hawaii. I embrace happiness and joy and the present moment. I accidentally ran over a rabbit with my car in 1999. I still feel bad about it.

I buy lots of shoes, but I prefer to be barefoot. I like people who still believe in romance. I eat Chinese food on Christmas Eve.  It is a family tradition that inspired an impressive collection of fortune cookie fortunes.  I think trains and thunderstorms are romantic.  I like traveling.

Whenever I play the game Monopoly, I am the thimble because it is the most true-to-size game piece. I got car sick in romantic Tuscany. I am afraid of sharks on any given day. I am super afraid of sharks during Shark Week. I believe human beings are inherently good.

I like to find patterns in numbers on the clock. I think fruits and vegetables are beautiful. I am not sure if I am a child or an adult. I prefer forks to spoons.  I think bookstores are charming.  My favorite smell is bonfire. I almost died when I was 3. I choked on a purple Flintstones Dino vitamin. I think bellybuttons are strange.

I want to discover something undiscovered. I give money to street performers.  I think most good things in life defy logic, reason, and convenience. I enjoy reading the thesaurus.  The word thesaurus reminds me of a dinosaur. I ask a lot of questions and prefer to get to know people deeply and quickly because time is short.

I want to meet artists, dreamers, writers, and optimists. People who want to have sleepovers, dance parties, or random adventures. People who defy norms, logic, gravity, and reality. Travelers. People who have strong feelings on the proper spelling of grey/gray and theater/theatre.  People who use the word “pub” without seeming pretentious.  Photographers and flamenco dancers. My mother in her previous life. Myself in the my future life. Anyone who knows a thing or two about the YKK zipper factory. Passionate people who walk the walk.  Random fact books. Anyone up for a road trip to see the largest ball of twine, a palace made of corn, and a water-tower in the shape of a very large peach. Gardeners. People who don’t leave distance between your bodies when they give a hug. Dog people. Mariachis. People who still believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit.

Basically, anyone who gives a damn.

Beginning a new blog is somewhat like going on a series of a few first dates.  Full of potential and a little bit butterfly-inducing.  Am I talking too much?  Am I not saying enough?  Why do I keep answering every statement with “yeah?”  Do I have anything stuck in my teeth?  Do I look genuinely interested or am I smiling without blinking thus looking like a creepy psycho?  Oh god, I’m doomed to die alone with 53 cats.

Go ahead.  Say it.

Since I do not enjoy this experience (neither dating nor dying alone with 53 cats), I thought the natural progression before we bust this blog open to some full-on goodness, would be to first introduce myself.  (Besides, don’t we all secretly enjoy writing our own bio one in awhile?)

I was born in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas – the home of the original Pizza Hut.  Not that it matters to you unless you’re looking to meet a girl born in 1981 from the home of the original Pizza Hut.

I am an ENFP.  I am a Leo. I grew up in Abilene, Texas. I am tall and I have very long fingers. I like most people. I believe in Karma. I can sort of play the piano.  I can sort of speak Spanish. I like palindromes and the oxford comma and sometimes I feel like grammatical correctness is stodgy. I love my family.

I believe in elegance of real mail. I close my eyes when I listen to classical music. I want to learn how to ride a horse. I have a scar on my finger where a parrot named Butterscotch bit me in Hawaii. I embrace happiness and joy and the present moment. I accidentally ran over a rabbit with my car in 1999. I still feel bad about it.

I buy lots of shoes, but I prefer to be barefoot. I like people who still believe in romance. I eat Chinese food on Christmas Eve.  It is a family tradition that inspired an impressive collection of fortune cookie fortunes.  I think trains and thunderstorms are romantic.  I like traveling.

Whenever I play the game Monopoly, I am the thimble because it is the most true-to-size game piece. I got car sick in romantic Tuscany. I am afraid of sharks on any given day. I am super afraid of sharks during Shark Week. I believe human beings are inherently good.

I like to find patterns in numbers on the clock. I think fruits and vegetables are beautiful. I am not sure if I am a child or an adult. I prefer forks to spoons.  I think bookstores are charming.  My favorite smell is bonfire. I almost died when I was 3. I choked on a purple Flintstones Dino vitamin. I think bellybuttons are strange.

I want to discover something undiscovered. I give money to street performers.  I think most good things in life defy logic, reason, and convenience. I enjoy reading the thesaurus.  The word thesaurus reminds me of a dinosaur. I ask a lot of questions and prefer to get to know people deeply and quickly because time is short.

I want to meet artists, dreamers, writers, and optimists. People who want to have sleepovers, dance parties, or random adventures. People who defy norms, logic, gravity, and reality. Travelers. People who have strong feelings on the proper spelling of grey/gray and theater/theatre.  People who use the word “pub” without seeming pretentious.  Photographers and flamenco dancers. My mother in her previous life. Myself in the my future life. Anyone who knows a thing or two about the YKK zipper factory. Random fact books. Anyone up for a road trip to see the largest ball of twine, a palace made of corn, and a water-tower in the shape of a very large peach. Gardeners. People who don’t leave distance between your bodies when they give a hug. Dog people. Mariachis. People who still believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit.

Basically, anyone who gives a damn.

Beginning a new blog is somewhat like going on a series of a few first dates.  Full of potential and a little bit butterfly-inducing.  Am I talking too much?  Am I not saying enough?  Why do I keep answering every statement with “yeah?”  Do I have anything stuck in my teeth?  Do I look genuinely interested or am I smiling without blinking thus looking like a creepy psycho?  Oh god, I’m doomed to die alone with 53 cats.

Go ahead.  Say it.

Since I do not enjoy this experience (neither dating nor dying alone with 53 cats), I thought the natural progression before we bust this blog open to some full-on goodness, would be to first introduce myself.  (Besides, don’t we all secretly enjoy writing our own bio one in awhile?)

I was born in 1981 in Wichita, Kansas – the home of the original Pizza Hut.  Not that it matters to you unless you’re looking to meet a girl born in 1981 from the home of the original Pizza Hut.

I am an ENFP.  I am a Leo. I grew up in Abilene, Texas. I am tall and I have very long fingers. I like most people. I believe in Karma. I can sort of play the piano.  I can sort of speak Spanish. I like palindromes and the oxford comma and sometimes I feel like grammatical correctness is stodgy. I love my family.

I believe in elegance of real mail. I close my eyes when I listen to classical music. I want to learn how to ride a horse. I have a scar on my finger where a parrot named Butterscotch bit me in Hawaii. I embrace happiness and joy and the present moment. I accidentally ran over a rabbit with my car in 1999. I still feel bad about it.

I buy lots of shoes, but I prefer to be barefoot. I like people who still believe in romance. I eat Chinese food on Christmas Eve.  It is a family tradition that inspired an impressive collection of fortune cookie fortunes.  I think trains and thunderstorms are romantic.  I like traveling.

Whenever I play the game Monopoly, I am the thimble because it is the most true-to-size game piece. I got car sick in romantic Tuscany. I am afraid of sharks on any given day. I am super afraid of sharks during Shark Week. I believe human beings are inherently good.

I like to find patterns in numbers on the clock. I think fruits and vegetables are beautiful. I am not sure if I am a child or an adult. I prefer forks to spoons.  I think bookstores are charming.  My favorite smell is bonfire. I almost died when I was 3. I choked on a purple Flintstones Dino vitamin. I think bellybuttons are strange.

I want to discover something undiscovered. I give money to street performers.  I think most good things in life defy logic, reason, and convenience. I enjoy reading the thesaurus.  The word thesaurus reminds me of a dinosaur. I ask a lot of questions and prefer to get to know people deeply and quickly because time is short.

I want to meet artists, dreamers, writers, and optimists. People who want to have sleepovers, dance parties, or random adventures. People who defy norms, logic, gravity, and reality. Travelers. People who have strong feelings on the proper spelling of grey/gray and theater/theatre.  People who use the word “pub” without seeming pretentious.  Photographers and flamenco dancers. My mother in her previous life. Myself in the my future life. Anyone who knows a thing or two about the YKK zipper factory. Random fact books. Anyone up for a road trip to see the largest ball of twine, a palace made of corn, and a water-tower in the shape of a very large peach. Gardeners. People who don’t leave distance between your bodies when they give a hug. Dog people. Mariachis. People who still believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit.

Basically, anyone who gives a damn.

Yes, I’m back. I couldn’t really keep away from this intriguing little album for much longer. In fact, I’ll probably end up writing a third (and final!) review of Contra as a kind of blog-exclusive. The micro-review below is to be printed in next week’s PartB culture supplement of my university newspaper, The Beaver. Enjoy!

What I really loved about Vampire Weekend was its fusing of catchy pop music, subtle world influences, and some seriously smart lyrics about “college” life. It was the great unifying soundtrack to my first year at university, depicting the perfect, globe-trotting lives of four Ivy Leaguers while I stumbled drunkenly around rainy, gloomy London. That their critiques of privileged youth appropriating distant cultural trends were misinterpreted as somehow endorsing colonialism was bizarre – as anyone who listened properly to “Oxford Comma” would know, Ezra Koenig wasn’t so much flaunting his knowledge of punctuation as criticising that kind of pedant.
Anyway, now they’re back, with the knowingly titled Contra – a wink and a nod to The Clash, and we’re off, with the starry-eyed vocals and thumb piano of “Horchata”, a song that rhymes aforesaid milky drink with “balaclava” and “aranciata”. Cheeky bugger. The next song, “White Sky”, melds the chirpiness of the band’s debut with a new-found love of synthesiser bleeps and beats, no doubt informed by producer-at-large Rostam Batmanglij’s side-project Discovery.

At this point, the most noticeable change in direction exhibited on Contra must be brought to the fore – namely, the sense of sadness and regret that tinges large swathes of the album. This is not such an upbeat album as even a song like “Holiday” would suggest: where cheeky verses once practically fell into rousing choruses, now the default setting is slightly detuned synths and pitter-patter beats. It’s certainly less baroque, as the AutoTuned dancehall of “California English” and the ambitious, sample-heavy “Diplomat’s Son” will testify.

The second noteworthy progression on Contra is, unsurprisingly, in the lyrics. Vampire Weekend was very much an album about campus life; Contra is all about this same set of Ivy League types graduating, inheriting the earth, and now re-evaluating their place in society. So, relationships crumble, and tales of distant shores are nostalgic and wistful. Which, all told, is probably a good thing, because I don’t think another thirty-six minutes of cold professors studying romances, and Blake, with his new face, would have washed with Vampire Weekend’s more astute listeners. Contra is a subtle, limbering creature; less catchy and celebratory; more reflective and critical in its aesthetic and lyrical bent.

In honor of the marriage of two of my favorite people (who I met while I was in journalism school), I have put together a list of songs that journalists should at least hear once.

1. Kodachrome by Paul Simon

For those who don’t know, “kodachrome” refers to a Kodak film camera from the 1970s.

The song Kodachrome is an upbeat hit about this type of camera and film

Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

This is great for the photojournalist who can appreciate the work of the first people to use color film for print media.

2. It’s Good News Week by Hedgehoppers Anonymous

It’s really hard to find songs that speak even remotely well about journalists or the news. This song doesn’t speak well about journalists, but it does have a dark humor to it that I think journalists would find funny.

It’s good news week
Someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky

It’s good news week
Someone’s found a way to give
The rotting dead a will to live
Go on and never die

If you’ve ever worked in a newsroom, you know that is how the industry works, and while it seems like a horrible moral issue to most, news people know better.

3. Sunday Papers by Joe Jackson

If you want to know about the gay politician
If you want to know how to drive your car
If you want to know about the new sex position
You can read it in the Sunday papers, read it in the Sunday papers.

As my wonderful boyfriend noted, I’m not sure how many newspapers print new sex positions in the Sunday paper, but this song says they do, so it must be true….haha.

I had never heard the song Sunday Papers by Joe Jackson until today after I saw another blog refer to it, but I think it might go on my regular playlist soon. It’s got a great reggae beat that you can’t help but love, and Jackson calls the words you read in the Sunday paper, “words of wisdom” and says that we “wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t the truth.” What journalist doesn’t like to hear such optimism?

4. American Pie by Don McLean

This very popular song is about the death of Buddy Holly from the perspective of the singer Don McLean, who was a paperboy at the time.

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

While this is not the focus of the piece, it does show how much newspapers were part of the culture.

5. Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend

This hilarious song is about how the oxford comma (or the serial comma). For those who don’t remember the terminology from English class, the oxford comma is the comma that goes before the conjunction (and, or) at the end of a series of items. The Associated Press decided several years ago that this comma was a big waste of space and ink, so they stopped using it. What’s funnier is that the Oxford stylebook doesn’t even use it in a normal series.

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I’ve seen those English dramas too
They’re cruel
So if there’s any other way
To spell the word
It’s fine with me, with me

In this article from Vanity Fair, the songwriter Ezra Koenig says he came up with song after he encountered a Facebook group called Students for the Preservation of the Oxford Comma, ” I didn’t think about it too much but, a few months later while sitting at a piano at my parents’ house, I started writing the song and the first thing that came out was ‘Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?’”

As much as I love Edward, I’m all excited for a vampire of a different kind.  Vampire Weekend will be releasing their much anticipated sophomore album, Contra, January 12, 2010.  Their delightfully different sound usually conjures up images of old fashioned Ivy League boys in preppy outfits, but also makes me think of Dr. No.  James Bond might give Edward a run for his money, but that’s another topic for another post.  Dr. No is set in the Kingston, Jamaica of the 1960’s, which lends itself to the old fashioned, islandy feel of the music.

Vampire Weekends hails from Columbia University, so I got the Ivy League part right, but their influence is more South African than Jamaican.  (I shouldn’t have painted my nails through geography…)  Either way, these boys know how to keep me coming back for more.  Check out their new single Cousins while you wait for the album release;  it’ll put you in the mood.

Bonus question:  Are there any Oxford Commas in this post?

Went to see Vampire Weekend on Saturday at Art Factory. It was a super fun gig. Their play was very tight. Great to see them live. The new album Contra is set for release next January.

This cool video clip was filmed in a single shot. Love these types of videos. This example shows great styling, timing, choreography, lots of extras, nice details and quirks, subplots, distractions, slight of hand, travelators, etc. When all put together it appears to be quite a basic video but is actually an extremely complex technique. It would be nice to see what the storyboards looked like. And the thing that I probably love the most is the “Get Low” references in Oxford Comma.

No.  I didn’t just hear about the band Vampire Weekend, but they’ve just returned to my radar, and I figured they were worthy of some love in Rashan’s World.  Unlike some other things, I was not anywhere near one of the first to really be up on Vampire Weekend.  I think freshman year or something, I saw their video for the song A Punk on MTV U(which is actually great for hearing new music) and liked it, but didn’t pay much attention to the band.  Vampire Weekend is mainly listened to by a lot of teenage suburban girls, but guys, don’t sleep on VW!  I got their self titled debut album late last school year and got really into it over the summer.  I told my girlfriend, and she made no bones about telling me that “yeah, that’s like so last summer for me,” putting it plainly for me to see that…I’m not that cool.  Anywho, I really enjoy their sound, and overall aesthetic, prep style, with lots of button down oxfords, and chinos.  The band members met while attending the Ivy League school, Columbia University in Manhattan.  Their few videos are very simple and show them and their environment for what it is.  Why I’ve been thinking of them as of late is they have a new album, entitled Contra due out in the US on January 12.  (Why the hell is it coming out on the 11th in the UK?  They’re American!)  I think the first album was terrific, and I just hope that they’re popularity doesn’t change and ruin them for their sophomore run.  Watch the interesting video of their record, “Oxford Comma” and click on the picture of the band to link to their website where you can listen to their new track “Horchata.”

All right, here’s the big question I want to ask everybody…

Are you a ROSS or a THURBER? I’m a ROSS, by the way. In case you don’t know what a ROSS or THURBER is, it is a comma-usage rating. How often do you use commas in a sentence ROSS uses as many as possible, THURBER as little as possible)? Do you care for the Oxford Comma? This is a big bone of contention… I must warn you, do not get in between two people with opposing views on the Oxford Comma after they’ve had strong drink, as it can potentially be deadly.

Yes, it’s true, punctuation is often a matter of life and death. Just try citing Johannesburg. My, what an ugly story of death and violence… and all because of a few mis-placed commas.

I do not only defend commas; I find all punctuation marks worthy. Hyphens and apostrophes are among more of my favourites.

So, the question remains: Are you a ROSS or a THURBER? Ten seconds (just kidding!)

Only two debut albums have cracked my top ten CD lists the past four years — Lily Allen’s Allright Still and Vampire Weekend’s self-titled release (and both wound up in the top five). I’ve discovered a lot of good music over that span but those are the only two top-ranking artists who were new to the rest of the world and not just me.

My music purchases tend to be by artists I became a fan of long ago… take a look over to the right and you’ll see I’ve bought albums this year by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan (twice), Elvis Costello and U2 as well as the latest by Neko Case (relatively new to me but she’s been recording for 7 years). I also purchased a Lyle Lovett album that I’ve yet to review or rank. The only relative exception is Lily Allen (again), who released her second album this year.

I’m going over all of this to point out that it’s a pretty rare thing for me to discover a new artist that I instantly fall in love with, and Vampire Weekend is just that. Their album is fresh, fun and inventive… college-boy alternative punk by way of Paul Simon’s Graceland. It gets better and better with every listen and I absolutely can’t wait to hear what they come up with next.

I’ll have to wait, though, into January 12, 2010, when their follow-up album, titled Contra, will be released. The first single (available now on their official Web site) sounds like it could have easily fit on their debut, which is a good thing. I’d like these guys to stretch but I very much enjoy the sweet spot they’ve managed to hit so far.

‘Oxford Comma’ was the first song on Vampire Weekend to really hit me. The lyrics are cryptic, like most of their lyrics. I’m not sure what an Oxford comma (great title, by the way) has to do with coal or chapstick. But who cares when it sounds this good?

Horchata in winter? Only in the lyrical landscapes of a Vampire Weekend winter.

Though composed of Americans who met while attending Columbia University, there is, as a friend recently commented, something about the indie rock band Vampire Weekend that distinctly suits Oxford.  Perhaps it is their exceptional diction, their light step or their wit. In listening to lyrics from such songs as “Mansard Roof,” “Campus” and “Oxford Comma” could easily have been written to suit Oxford’s neighborhoods, colleges and students. When you hear someone listening to their music in the library, or walking down Turl, you may well think, as my friend does: Yeah. This person is doing this right.

And so it was that I heard the new song “Horchata” from their forthcoming album with a sense of delight. The setting is winter, the subject: food. The lyrics are typically quirky, the rhythm immensely catchy and the subject dear to my heart.

Horchata, or orxata, is a traditional drink commonly drunk but made of uncommon ingredients including almonds sesame seeds, rice, barely or tigernuts. In and of themselves, these are not unusual; but each region has their own recipe. Some call for milk, others cinamon, nutmeg and vanilla.

According to drinking myth (a most unreliable category) the drink originates in an exclamation by King Jaume who, on frist drinking it, said, “”Això és or, xata!” (“That’s gold, darling!”) More likely than darling is the translation of barley from the Latin hordeata into the Valencian ordiata, but then a drinker must be able to dream, and the mythology of a king fills the imagination more than the etymology of a word. Long live the king.

What is lost in the translation — from Latin to Valencian to Vampire Weekend — is why this summer drink is drunk in a Vampire winter. The setting is intentionally inverted; the hortchataa trigger to warmer times. It’s somehow self-consciously Proustian, but not posing, merely playful.

As the same friend said — we need only now to find a place here in Oxford that sells horchata. To then drink, listen and walk would be to pose self-consciously — a deliberate irony.

Anyone know where to get horchata in this town?

Oi gentee,

Depois de tanto reclamar que o meu iPod era atrasado duas gerações eu consegui um nano novinho e ele tá bem aqui no blog Ich bin die Königin. É um gadget em formato de nano pra vocês curtirem um pouco de música enquanto estiverem navegando no meu blog. As músicas desse mês são uma mistura de tristeza com um pouco de punk.

1. Wonderwall – Oasis ( muuuito boa)
2. Hello, I love you – The Doors (clássica)
3. Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys (sem comentários)
4. Hello – Schuyler Fisk (encontrei ela nao sei aonde e gostei ..)
5. Sex on Fire – Kings of Leon (o cara canta muito bem)
6. This Must Be The Place – Talking Heads (outra clássica)
7. Should I stay or Should I Go – The Clash (precisa falar alguma coisa!?)
8. Heaven – Talking Heads (awnn…adoro)
9. Hey – Pixies (eieieieiei q se ta fazendo ai?)
10. Oxford Comma – Vampire Weekend (ouvi hoje e adorei!)

Também tem agora o destaque do meu blog. Cada mês tem um destaque. Se você quiser aparecer como destaque é só comentar pedindo. O destaque desse mês já foi definido.

P.S.: Não se esqueçam do “Contest charm Shine” da Ariane. Ainda falta três pessoas para o contest começar por isso corram!

Molly Gaudry just got a well-deserved Pushcart nomination from PANK. I know I’m taking part in a bit of fun that kind of subverts the whole idea of Pushcart nominations meaning anything, but when they are deserved, they are deserved. Even the excerpts I’ve read from her upcoming novella-in-verse, We Take Me Apart, make me reconsider my opinion on Gertrude Stein, which is saying a lot. I mean, a lot. I hate Stein. But, what Molly has taken from her work and spun into We Take Me Apart is a solid wonder.

Between Lovelace, Peak, and Molly, I owe Molly 33% of my gratitude for my recent resurgence of writing/blogging/etc., since it was through finding these three blogs/writers that I’ve gotten back into the nunnery, and eventually found HTML Giant, an armload of amazing online publications and writers, and now my fingers won’t shut up.

You should probably check out her work here, here, and here.

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Speaking of the exquisite corpse Pushcart project, I got my section written for it yesterday. The thing has turned into a cluster of wow–it moves like Frankenstein stitchery, zombie needlepoint. It’s over halfway done now, so we’ll see how it ends up.

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And Peak, too. His new story on PANK is malaria bones and holy water.

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Wedding rehearsal tomorrow. I said today, “I’ll be on my honeymoon next Wednesday, so I won’t be able to attend the meeting.” And, it finally hit me.

I’ll be on my honeymoon next week. Not sure if I’ll get to write anymore before then, so if not, be well everyone, and I’ll see you when I get back with pictures and tales and a wife.