But Bon Iver.... and Vampire Weekend is just mediocre all-around..

Bon Iver is definitely the best album of the year so far (if you don't count the fact it's been out since 2007) and Vampire Weekend is one of the few others that's caught my attention.

I'm seeing them in June, it should be a fun show.

Yeah, I would have thought that everybody here would have heard at least ten albums they thought were spectacular. This year has been treating me really well in the music department.

quote:

Originally posted by It's Mike:
Yeah, I would have thought that everybody here would have heard at least ten albums they thought were spectacular.

I don't think I've heard one. But, it takes a lot to impress me. The number of releases in the last five years I'd consider "spectacular" probably isn't that high. This year does seem slower to me than usual. I've been far more interested in rediscovering the classics than anything with a 2008 release date.

I'm a bit surprised that people are still fans of Vampire Weekend. I thought everybody would have figured this out by now.

quote:

Originally posted by harrisonOWNSmccartney:
I'm a bit surprised that people are still fans of Vampire Weekend. I thought everybody would have figured this out by now.

A lot of haters have surfaced. They are really nice guys though.

Being nice guys and making music worth listening to unfortunately do not correlate very well.

I'm curious mike what are ten 2008 releases that you've heard that you think are spectacular. Aside from Bon Iver.

quote:

Originally posted by Liberalkid:
Being nice guys and making music worth listening to unfortunately do not correlate very well.

So are you saying that you have to be an asshole to make good music, or that just because they're nice guys doesn't necessarily mean that their music is good?

Back when the blue CDR came out, many indie fans were raving about these guys. Now that they are an MTV staple, there's a lot of backlash. They're still making the same music and I still like the record.

But... but... but they're POPULAR! We can't have that!

It's really funny how I would have no idea what was "popular" if it wasn't for people mentioning it on this board.

Anyway. VW still doesn't engage me a great deal.

I'm still liking Vampire Weekend, although it's not getting anywhere near the number plays it did when I first got it.

I reckon it'll have a bit of a renaissance with me when it hits summer. Just seems like a very summery record.

whether your an asshole or a nice guy doesn't correlate to musical ability, is what I'm saying.

Quite frankly vampire weekend could have a myspace page with 10k page views and their album would still bore me. It was good for a few listens, but it just doesn't make me want to listen to it anymore.

Yeah, i didn't know they were on MTV, and i don't really give two shits if they're on MTV (possibly one shit or one-and-a-half), but i still don't like this album. It bores me. Of course, i like music with some kind of attitude other than snotty ivy-league dweebs talking about walking around Harvard, so perhaps I have some kind of bias. I can't relate, don't care to, and find this band Highly overrated and just plain boring. However, i did like this album when i first heard it, but its shelf-life for me has been incredibly short - to the point where i believe deleting it from my iTunes and storing the cd far far away may become necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by CleverName84:
Yeah, i didn't know they were on MTV, and i don't really give two shits if they're on MTV (possibly one shit or one-and-a-half), but i still don't like this album. It bores me. Of course, i like music with some kind of attitude other than snotty ivy-league dweebs talking about walking around Harvard, so perhaps I have some kind of bias. I can't relate, don't care to, and find this band Highly overrated and just plain boring. However, i did like this album when i first heard it, but its shelf-life for me has been incredibly short - to the point where i believe deleting it from my iTunes and storing the cd far far away may become necessary.

How do you know they're "snotty dweebs"? I understand some people not liking the music (lots of bands that I don't like that others do), but comments like this really make me think that judgements are being clouded by factors that have little to do with the songs.

I'm surprised of the amount of people that totally despise this record. Well, I got this album in February and utterly loved it. I see some complaints about it's lightness, but then I just think of other bands that are can be considered light and my thoughts keep going on. It's weird how this album is getting a supreme backlash.

Vampire Weekend are the definitive 2008 example of "mainstream indie." They are featured on MTV (they actually have their own playlist on MTV Hits) quite often, played on SNL, have sold 100,000+ copies of their debut, and keep rising in popularity. It makes me happy to see MTV actually recognizing music that rocks and that's their purpose so if you can just connect "MTV" with "good music" it would be nice.

I mean really, they're preppy kids that make music that 6 year olds can love. Does that AUTOMATICALLY render their music worse than complicated electronica outfits? uhhh whatever Vampire Weekend is the best record I've listened to in 2008, and finally I can talk to my physical friends about them and they can say, "yeah I've heard of them." Sometimes it's just nice when everyone is on the same page.

I'm not part of the backlash, I never even liked the Blue CD-R. I can't actually find one redeeming quality in their work-- I'm being completely honest here. I agree that it's awesome when you can share musical ground with friends, but I don't understand what's so hard to get into about Spoon, the Shins, Wilco, and the many other bands that have been semi-accepted into the mainstream AND put out music that doesn't seem like a novelty.

When you have friends that are either metalheads or hip hop heads, Vampire Weekend is a much easier starting point then Wilco or Spoon. (Shins are actually easy to get into, and I have tried recommending them)

Whatever, I understand not everyone's going to like Vampire Weekend but all I see is the same 4 complaints from people
-too light
-too mainstream
-too preppy
-boring

I'm fine with people not liking them, I just hoped people could describe what they don't like about them specfically (like the instruments, vocals, un-uniqueness, etc) instead of just saying they're not good. period.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick Jonas:

I'm fine with people not liking them, I just hoped people could describe what they don't like about them specfically (like the instruments, vocals, un-uniqueness, etc) instead of just saying they're not good. period.

What do you specifically like about them? For me, a good tipoff that I don't like a band, is that I can't come up with a good answer to that question.

Exactly, they're a throw-away. The other acts I listed all have a lot of solid output under their belts.

You wanna know something funny? My metalhead friend was getting bored of metal, he decided to give something new a try. He got Black Kids and Vampire Weekend and hated them... but when we were living together he would jam out with me to the Arctic Monkeys, Spoon, and Daft Punk (just as long as it was followed with Burzum).

That's kind of like eating something really sugary after eating salty foods all your life. Black Kids and VW are horrendously cute, I'm not sure you could go directly from metal to them.