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November 12, 2007

New Vampire Weekend Video - "Mansard Roof"

When all your members hail from the same Ivy League school and Cape Cod figures in the title of one of your catchiest tracks, music journos are gonna come up with some tags with which to handle you. "People call us Ivy League or preppy or whatever," VW singer Ezra Koenig told SPIN this month. "But those are such racially and socially loaded terms." Later in the piece, drummer Chris Tomson says, "I read something that called us prep rock. I have no idea what that is. Maybe we've invented a new genre?" Now watch the band's first video:

UPDATE: We've replaced the MTV embed with one our foreign readers can enjoy:

Yachts and shades? Either that's a big ol' "Fuck you" for a lack of critical thinking, or it's a "You get us! You really get us!" with some satirical winking. Either way: Well played.

Vampire Weekend is out 1/29 on XL. If you need MP3, revisit our intro.

Posted at 6:12 PM in
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17 Comments

Well played? Ugh. I really can't think of a band who has ever made me hate them more before hearing a note of music. Maybe The Bravery?

Posted by: gurk at 11/12/07 6:36 PM | Reply
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there's no hating VW. it's official.

Posted by: jim at 11/12/07 7:19 PM | Reply
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hahahaha, these guys are great

Posted by: jonathan at 11/12/07 8:20 PM | Reply
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"VIDEO NOT ACCESSIBLE"

Posted by: seth at 11/12/07 11:11 PM | Reply
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white and healthy. sailing on a yacht to manhattan? can we say rich kids. ok move along now.

Posted by: andrew at 11/12/07 11:55 PM | Reply
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are you trying to make a point andrew or just completely missing it?

Posted by: jonathan at 11/13/07 12:06 AM | Reply
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that's a well made little video, a much as their music seems pretty and toothless

Posted by: kingoffresno at 11/13/07 1:09 AM | Reply
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Hey, great, the video is not available in Canada (or anywhere outside the U.S.). If anyone's got another link, it'd be much appreciated.

Posted by: David Topping at 11/13/07 1:52 AM | Reply
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marry me, ezra koenig.

Posted by: loulou at 11/13/07 2:11 AM | Reply
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"VIDEO NOT ACCESSIBLE"
sorry

Posted by: shyboy at 11/13/07 5:03 AM | Reply
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Not a fan of the band but I like the "tongue firmly in-cheek" video.

Posted by: Pedro at 11/13/07 10:23 AM | Reply
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Vampire Hands > Vampire Weekend

Posted by: tk. at 11/13/07 11:09 AM | Reply
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mad sailing skillz

Posted by: kippy at 11/13/07 11:15 AM | Reply
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http://www.ifilm.com/video/2911063?ns=1

Posted by: anonymous at 11/13/07 11:15 AM | Reply
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don't hate just because you guys didn't get accepted into columbia and are still bitter about it.

Posted by: pearl at 11/13/07 11:38 AM | Reply
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Oh, it's just cute harmless boys making cute harmless music. No need to get upset about it. Cute has played an active role in many interesting bands, like the Association, the Zombies, the Jackson Five, even/especially the early Beatles. If we're lucky, we'll get to see how they come to terms with this cuteness and whether or not they can move past it to make something a bit more substantial. This could lead to cringe-inducing experiments in Acid-Jazz, but you never know.

Too bad they got hit by the blog-hype train so early, though, before they had the chance to change that terrible name.

Posted by: tvc at 11/13/07 12:40 PM | Reply
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wait. they're called prep rock because of where they went to school. jesus lord media, grasp much? nice reaction by VW whether you like em or not. (me-like)

Posted by: blondie at 12/06/07 4:26 PM | Reply
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