When dishing up our two cents on Vampire Weekend’s Billboard-topping Contra we noted:
It would have been interesting if Ezra had worked some of his knowledge/love of punk and hardcore (a la his Fucked Up moment) into the mix. The song notes provided by the band/label as background mention “Holiday” was inspired by “third wave-ska bands like Operation Ivy” (and VW’s own “exploration of new guitar tones and rhythms”), but you won’t mistake Koenig for Jesse Michaels or Tim Armstrong even if he says, lyrically, he’s referencing a family member who gave up meat after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And you still won’t mistake Koenig for either of those dudes in the next five minutes, but the band did just dig into Tim Armstrong/Matt Freeman’s post-Operation Ivy band Rancid’s alt-hit “Ruby Soho.” Fun to hear, yes, and satisfying on a underground/whatever crossover level (i.e. …And Out Come the Wolves‘s bigtime success/Contra‘s success), but I’m still holding out for “Knowledge.”
(Via abeano)
VW’s “Ruby Soho” was recorded live during a Radio 1 session for Zane Lowe. You can poke around more here. For compare/contrast:
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Awesome.
i made some album art for it since i didnt like what it came with
Thats pretty funny seeing VW in the context of your album art. Love it
Awesome! Well done.
Terrible cover. I was expecting much more, and I was excited at first. But it’s just so pedestrian and boring. None of the bite of the original. Not even close.
If Ezra is going to insist on covering Rancid, he should learn how to take a bottle over the head ?
this is really bad
Kind of intriguing until the chorus hits, and then it just sort of falls apart. Much better in theory than in execution.
“Vampire Weekend Cover Rancid” should read “Vampire Weekend RUIN Rancid”
bleeeeck!
Minus the last two from the last on the album the thing just SWINGS all the way through…I want to square dance with Betty White…and Christgau…
I think the audio recording of Lars vomiting and yelling as he listens to this would be more pleasing than this. Dirty Projectors: Black Flag::Vampire Weeknd:Rancid — good guitarists should leave bad guitarists alone. They’re better that way.
Too many haters. I like this and don’t give a fuck.
much better in theory than execution, but still ok. i definitely love the idea.
if you actually like this youre basically a vw fanboy
this shit is garbage
I kinda think this is awesome.
http://cigarettesandludes.wordpress.com/
I had actually forgotten how bad Tim Armstrong’s impression of Joe Strummer was. Madonna thinks that English accent sounds fake. VW’s version sounds like one-hour joke, which it prolly kinda was.
Just the fact that the most popular band in indie music today was able to make a bunch of indie bloggers talk about Rancid is admirable in its own right.
Love VW and like Rancid but this is a pretty toothless cover. As a lifelong Francophile, for my money Vampire Weekend’s finest cover to date remains this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-zDCBNpMnY
wow. This is shameful.
Ouch. This is awful.
VW has officially killed what was left of the spirit of punk-rock.
No, wait… Green Day did that years ago, nevermind.
they got nothing on rancid…not good
Thankfully any lingering memories of the vw cover were immediately blown out of my mind after listening to the original.
I honestly think it’s amazing. Better than the original. Call me a Vampire Weeend fanboy, but everything they touch is perfect. Rostam Batmanglij is an absolute genius.
Eww. It took a crappy Vampire Weekend cover to make me realise how awesome Rancid seemed in 6th grade.
I think I’ll download And Out Come the Wolves for the nostalgia now.