Los Angeles-via-Pennsylvania multi-instrumental singer and home recordist Evan Voytas -- sort of a more clean-cut Ariel Pink -- creates strange synth-pop/space-disco outings that feel danceable but private and insular. The idea's explored in the video for his most recent single... CONTINUE READING EVAN VOYTAS - "I RUN WITH YOU, SPIRIT ANIMAL" VIDEO»
Posted on February 9, 2010 in , (3 comments)
Tags: Evan Voytas
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... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND COVER RANCID»
Posted on February 8, 2010 in (17 comments)
Tags: LoneLady | Operation Ivy | Rancid | Vampire Weekend
Brooklyn-based Holly Miranda is about to release the Dave Sitek-produced The Magician's Private Library. You might remember her name from the Jealous Girlfriends. When she opened for the xx in Italy. Or, more close to her home, for Vampire Weekend... CONTINUE READING NEW HOLLY MIRANDA - "WAVES"»
Posted on January 29, 2010 in , (13 comments)
Tags: Holly Miranda | Light FM
Despite being in stores for much less than a full week, the recording of Friday's all-star charity telethon has debuted atop the album charts (knocking down Vampire Weekend's Contra and more importantly, Ke$ha). You can watch some performances (e.g., Jay-Z,... CONTINUE READING HOPE FOR HAITI NOW 1ST DIGITAL LP TO HIT #1»
Posted on January 28, 2010 (3 comments)
Tags: Better Than Ezra | Hope For Haiti Now | Tough Knuckles
Contra, which has sold 124,000 copies and is the band's first no. 1, "is only the 12th independently distributed album to top the Billboard 200 chart since SoundScan began powering the list in May of 1991," says Billboard. Take that... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND HAVE THE NO. 1 ALBUM ON BILLBOARD»
Posted on January 20, 2010 (49 comments)
Tags: Pixies | Vampire Weekend
Coachella's officially announced the lineup for 2010 and, not surprisingly, it includes Pavement. Jay-Z, Gorillaz, Phoenix, and Muse are also hitting Indio with Sly & the Family Stone, Faith No More, PiL, Echo & The Bunnymen, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly... CONTINUE READING COACHELLA 2010 LINEUP: JAY-Z, GORILLAZ, PAVEMENT, THOM YORKE????»
Posted on January 19, 2010 (73 comments)
Tags: Coachella | Gorillaz | Jay-Z | Pavement | Thom Yorke | Thom Yorke????
Vampire Weekend continued their Contra goodwill tour by performing "Horchata" on Craig Ferguson yesterday, a week after offering "Cousins" to both Conan and Letterman. They did it with strings (via the Calder Quartet) but sans the horns they'd been spotted... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND BRING "HORCHATA" TO FERGUSON, LONDON ICE RINK»
Posted on January 15, 2010 in (21 comments)
Tags: Craig Ferguson | Vampire Weekend
I don't know if the Very Best's people releasing the video for their track featuring Ezra Koenig during Vampire Week will maximize its promotional value or wash it out in the deluge of Contra-related content, but whatever the case, here... CONTINUE READING NEW VERY BEST VIDEO - "WARM HEART OF AFRICA" (FEAT. EZRA KOENIG)»
Posted on January 15, 2010 in (9 comments)
Tags: DEVO | Ezra Koenig | The Very Best | Vampire Weekend
They're seemingly everywhere at once, but actually they're just in one place this Vampire Week -- California, muse to Contra, where the band brought bells to Conan and played an album-release show at the Henry Fonda Theater. Very Be Careful... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND @ HENRY FONDA THEATER, LOS ANGELES 1/12/10»
Posted on January 13, 2010 in , (1 comments)
Tags: Vampire Weekend | Very Be Careful
Thank god Vampire Weekend played Conan last night, that guy hasn't been in the headlines for ages now. Just kidding, shit is bananas over there. It's interesting how moving Leno to 10PM didn't kill NBC's drama programming so much as... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND PLAY CONAN, KCRW»
Posted on January 12, 2010 in (11 comments)
Tags: Conan O'Brien | Max Tundra | Passion Pit | Vampire Weekend
You'll be seeing a lot of Vampire Weekend in the coming weeks. This is what's commonly referred to as an understatement. Contra's out tomorrow (1/12), the reviews are in, and so far the promo campaign can scratch Letterman, The New... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND UNPLUGGED»
Posted on January 11, 2010 in (8 comments)
Tags: Jerry Lee Lewis | Vampire Weekend
A month shy of two years ago, Vampire Weekend made their network television debut on Letterman with "A-Punk." They returned last night bringing their punkest bit yet with "Cousins," a familial and frantic, ska-siphoned racer that always feels its a... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND BRING THEIR "COUSINS" TO LETTERMAN»
Posted on January 6, 2010 in (41 comments)
Tags: David Letterman | Vampire Weekend
The New Yorker shadowed VMPRWKND as they shot a doc on Cali musicians. Their interview with DeLonge oddly turned into Tom pitching them Modlife, his artist-services site. After little luck, he asked: "Why are you guys so mellow?"... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND MEET TOM DELONGE, REMAIN MELLOW WHILE DOING SO»
Posted on January 5, 2010 in (9 comments)
Tags: Blink-182 | Tom DeLonge | Vampire Weekend | Yeasayer
There's been plenty of pre-release hype, viral and otherwise. You've known the tracklist and backstory for a while. And after hearing "Horchata," "California English" (in two parts), "Cousins," and the old-timer "White Sky," you wouldn't be faulted for thinking Vampire... CONTINUE READING PREMATURE EVALUATION: VAMPIRE WEEKEND - CONTRA»
Posted on January 4, 2010 in , , (55 comments)
Tags: Vampire Weekend | Weezer
The purest year-end music list would be a playcount of the tunes you listened to most, and not the carefully sculpted, self-consciously eclectic 1-10s we end up reading. We know you're as sick as we are of parsing critics' picks,... CONTINUE READING STEREOGUM'S 50 MOST DOWNLOADED MP3S OF 2009»
Posted on December 31, 2009 in , (30 comments)
Maybe it was these tough economic times -- the sinking music industry, everyone downloading shit for free, rising unemployment. Or perhaps folks just are getting stir crazy from lack of fresh air, sitting in front of their laptops/4-tracks while their... CONTINUE READING THE 14 BEST BAND BEEFS OF 2009»
Posted on December 22, 2009 in , (50 comments)
Tags: Alice Cooper | Beck | Black Lips | Cat Stevens | Chris Cornell | Coldplay | Courtney Love | Ed O'Brien | Eminem | Fiery Furnaces | Get Up Kids | Jay Reatard | Joe Satriani | Lily Allen | Mariah Carey | Miley Cyrus | Nick Mason | Pink Floyd | Psychedelic Horseshit | Radiohead | Ryan Adams | Soundgarden | The Cure | The Flaming Lips | Trent Reznor | Vampire Weekend | Wavves | Weezer
Here's the relaxed, daydreaming pop of "White Sky," a song that fuses Vampire Weekend's new focus on not focusing on guitar with Ezra's understanding of how best to channel Paul Simon. It's technically the third listen from Contra (the fourth... CONTINUE READING NEW VAMPIRE WEEKEND - "WHITE SKY"»
Posted on December 17, 2009 (18 comments)
Tags: Kelley Deal | The Breeders | Vampire Weekend
The current crop of indie rock pinups have had their sartorial sensibilities played with by the New York Times already -- a couple of times! Fashion and buzz bands are highly bloggable bedfellows: the Gray Lady analyzed artists' fashion sense... CONTINUE READING VAMPIRE WEEKEND, BEIRUT, MGMT ARE IN VOGUE»
Posted on December 16, 2009 (21 comments)
Tags: Adam Green | Beirut | DJ Hero | Golden Silvers | MGMT | Sasha Pivovarova | The Horrors | Vampire Weekend
I read this New York Times piece about how we're frantically trying to find a pithy, reductive nickname for this decade that's closing. Some are proposing "The Noughties," others "The Naughties," so I'm gonna coin a phrase for this time... CONTINUE READING ROLLING STONE'S 100 BEST ALBUMS, SONGS OF THE '00S»
Posted on December 10, 2009 in (168 comments)
Tags: Laura Veirs
Yes new Vampire Weekend, but I think ur a stiil a full eight tracks from hearing all of Contra proper, unfortunately. "California English, Pt. 2" is not to be confused with "California English"; the latter is the album track, whereas... CONTINUE READING NEW VAMPIRE WEEKEND - "CALIFORNIA ENGLISH, PT. 2"»
Posted on December 4, 2009 (24 comments)
Tags: Imaad Wasif | Vampire Weekend
A couple of days ago Frog Eyes frontman/Swan Lake member Carey Mercer sent us a link to an article in the Edmonton Journal that discussed a clause in the contracts signed by performers at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics that... CONTINUE READING OP-ED BY CAREY MERCER: HOW THE VANCOUVER OLYMPICS IS FUCKING OVER YOUR FAVOURITE ARTISTS, AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE»
Posted on December 4, 2009 in (78 comments)
Tags: Broken Social Scene | Carey Mercer | Chromeo | Cold Cave | Feist | Frog Eyes | Hal Willner | Iron And Wine | Laurie Anderson | Malajube | Neil Young | Ron Sexsmith | Rural Alberta Advantage | Steve Earle | Sun Kil Moon | Swan Lake
The Vampire Weekender takes SPIN on a tour of his Brooklyn apartment, showing off posters, instruments, a very special Dirty Projectors EP, and a bowl of the best yogurt in NYC. ... CONTINUE READING CRIBS: EZRA KOENIG»
Posted on November 30, 2009 in (4 comments)
Tags: Ezra Koenig | Vampire Weekend
For about 54 seconds this just looks like a pretty lame movie trailer, but that's when it becomes a pretty lame movie trailer that also rips off "Oxford Comma" and "A-Punk." Hollywood magic! (And lawsuits probably!) ... Vampire Weekend'">CONTINUE READING THE STRIP TRAILER RIPS OFF VAMPIRE WEEKEND»
Posted on November 24, 2009 in (7 comments)
Tags: Dave Foley | The Strip | Vampire Weekend
Following up on our post for "Cousins" The Song, here's "Cousins" the video: The single art's shot of the boys in a long alley doused in confetti fit the song's manically festive, church-belled punk racer, but is pretty much a... CONTINUE READING NEW VAMPIRE WEEKEND VIDEO - "COUSINS" »
Posted on November 19, 2009 in (36 comments)
Tags: I Was A King | Vampire Weekend