Music: Vampire Weekend
If you asked a Pitchfork or Stereogum devotee for his thoughts on Vampire Weekend a scant two years ago, the reply would be a huffy dismissal. Ask him now? Probably quite the opposite.
Yes, the same blogosphere that catapulted the band into the national consciousness in 2008 promptly ripped it to shreds shortly thereafter -- an all-too-common occurrence these days. But Vampire Weekend persevered, shedding the "blogger band" stigma and selling obscene numbers of records. The band hit No. 1 with its second album, "Contra," and is now heading into a massive run of sold-out concerts -- including a jaunt through First Avenue on Monday. The New York-based Afro-pop rockers' narrative doesn't follow the traditional underground arc, which might be why they're flirting so heavily with the mainstream.
Just two years after their legitimacy and sound were relentlessly trashed by the indier-than-thou contingent, Vampire Weekend has racked up quite the war chest. Two gold records, multiple appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and a video featuring cameos by Lil Jon, Jake Gyllenhaal and a Jonas Brother are not typical feats; the group's growth has staggered both haters and boosters.
"I guess we're doing quite well," drummer Chris Tomson said by phone. "But ... I don't know, it doesn't strike me that we're Prince or something."
Prince they're not, but the initial refrain that Vampire Weekend was a bunch of "ungrateful Ivy Leaguers" and "cultural thieves" is now yielding to a newer, more accurate interpretation: They're a damn fine -- and damn popular -- pop band.
BLOG BIRTH, BLOG WRATH
Vampire Weekend's genesis was not grand -- simply four well-to-do Columbia University grads with an interest in worldbeat, specifically African music. The blogosphere latched itself onto the band, building up to a 2008 self-titled debut and exploding after its release.
"From very early on, the first time the smallest person wrote about us on the Internet there would probably be two comments," Tomson said. "One would say 'Oh, this is awesome!' and one would say 'Oh, this fucking sucks!'"
Where'd all the contentiousness come from? There's nothing overtly diabolical about the sweater-clad, genial troupe. But these white, privileged individuals were making earnest, African-influenced music -- a stylistic choice that drew charges of cultural piracy. "Maybe we arouse some sort of special brand of dislike," Tomson pondered, adding that the only criticism that fazes the band is the occasional charge of quasi-racism. Indie stalwart Nick Thorburn (the Unicorns, Islands) sneered that Vampire Weekend was "parroting the genre" of Afropop. Everyone chimed in with cries of Paul Simon plagiarism.
"I don't understand [the backlash]," said 89.3 the Current DJ Bill DeVille. "I don't think [dabbling in world music] is wrong; they seem like they happen to be products of their parents' record collections." DeVille likens Vampire Weekend to Talking Heads -- a white, educated American band that heavily borrowed world rhythms and is universally acclaimed 30 years later. He also appreciates the group's nod to another privileged musician on the "Contra" track "Diplomat's Son" -- a reference to Joe Strummer of the Clash. "He was a rich kid, too," Deville said. "But look how respected he is as a punk rocker."
SOPHOMORE SUCCESS
The blogosphere loves to hype and destroy -- just ask Black Kids or Tapes N' Tapes. But Vampire Weekend, despite drawing ire like no other, survived the machine. In fact, the band has escaped the machine entirely. The group's sophomore LP -- always considered a daunting release -- is soaring. "Contra" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 124,000 copies in its first week, in an age where people don't even buy records, no less. Beating out Susan Boyle and Ke$ha, it became just the 12th independently distributed album to top the Billboard 200 since Nielsen SoundScan began keeping score in 1991.
"Contra" is a denser affair than Vampire Week's self-titled debut. It's a pop record first and foremost, but tempos vary, instrumentation shifts from 8-bit electronic bleeps to lush, swirling strings, and M.I.A. is even sampled. There's an obvious air of intelligence. "A lot of thinking and conceptualizing on this album centered around California," Tomson said, citing California ska/punk staples Operation Ivy and Sublime as influences. If those references smack of high school starter music, they're just part of the pie.
Vampire Weekend got the long end of the globalized music stick. "Music from all over the world and from any genre was available to us from very early on," Tomson said, confirming his band's much-celebrated/maligned African influences like Orchestra Baobab and Super Mazembe. "We know we're coming from an honest place," he said.
Mark Thomson, assistant music director at the University of Minnesota's Radio K, said his listeners are accepting of "Contra," a record he says is more complex than the debut and frees the band of the "Paul Simon ripoff" disses. DeVille said the older Current audience is similarly smitten, confirming that the Current's request box is still littered with pleas for "Horchata," the spaciously tropical first single off "Contra."
BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH
"Contra" was released by independent XL Records, but it's selling better than most major-label releases. Safe to say, the Pitchfork realm no longer possesses Vampire Weekend. True to its Ivy League pedigree, the band has graduated -- but you wouldn't know it by talking with the understated Tomson.
"Obviously, being No. 1 and doing well is such a thrill, and I think we all feel lucky," he said, adding that the day-to-day feels no different than before -- only the shows have gotten larger. "Almost everything that's happened to us has surpassed our expectations."
And as new expectations are made and surpassed, perceptions of Vampire Weekend are similarly in flux. The initial backlash was amplified by the very thing that propelled the band so far, so fast: the Internet. So as the music-snob sect of the blogosphere -- the great magnifier, for better or worse -- releases its hold on Vampire Weekend, the band ventures into the mainstream, leaving a generation of born-again indie kids in its wake.
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
- With: Abe Vigoda.
- When: 8 p.m. Mon.
- Where: First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls.
- Tickets: Sold out. 18 and older.
