The Teen Dream that won't end up with you on To Catch a Predator AKA Beach House

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Not so much funny as it is a revelation
 
Peefer sucks at hate.

I'm listening to Silver Soul right this second.
 
I can't sleep with headphones on. I'm the type of sleeper who is never still, so I'm constantly rolling over. Makes the headphones thing not work out well.
 
I'm usually that way, but I'll make adjustments if I'm in the mood. Theres something about falling asleep when the music sounds like its coming from inside your head that is unlike anything else.
 
I concentrate too much on the music and thus can't really fall asleep to it. I have a hard time doing anything other than busy work with music on either, or I end up with an email like this:

Thank you for the quick turn around time on that lot yesterday, we'll be able to never trust a big butt and a smile from your hard work. Yours truly, Michael Bivins.
 
Jive Turkey said:
I'm usually that way, but I'll make adjustments if I'm in the mood. Theres something about falling asleep when the music sounds like its coming from inside your head that is unlike anything else.
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Just to bring this back to MPP for just a second, I couldn't truly appreciate Daily Routine until I heard it in this context. Its wash of keyboards is really soothing.

So, as promised, I listened to Teen Dream again, and I think I know why I don't love it in spite of its strong melodies and cohesion: the vocals. They're fine, but the vocal harmonies are nowhere near as creative and enveloping as those of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear. The production also feels really flat, especially in regards to the drums. It doesn't glisten, nor does it pop. It's just there. Perhaps we'll see an improvement on that facet with their next release.

The songs though...they're starting to click with me. Norway and Lover Of Mine were my favorites on first listen and remain as such. No real clunkers either. This is one of those albums that doesn't display its greatness immediately, but gets better as the songs become more familiar. See: The xx's debut. Don't quite understand how it could get boring quickly...I hope listen #2 doesn't wind up being the best, anyway. I think this album will hold up well.
 
I put Teen Dream back on in the car this morning (sorry, mofo, that's where I do my serious listening even though it's not the right mood for this record) and I have to say, the minute Zebra came on I thought, "I love this, what's my problem?" I agree with LeMel about the vocals. As I said before, they sound somewhat affected to me, but not overwhelmingly so, not enough to be a deal breaker. I think right now I just like the first half of the record better than the second and then I start to lose interest. I'm not sure why. Maybe next time I'll start it at the middle and listen to the second half first and see what happens.

About MPP, I just love the whole damn thing beginning to end. It still sounds fresh to me after a bazillion listens.
 
Jive Turkey said:
I'm usually that way, but I'll make adjustments if I'm in the mood. Theres something about falling asleep when the music sounds like its coming from inside your head that is unlike anything else.
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that's how i have to fall asleep every night. the best is when i forget that my ipod is on "repeat all" mode and i wake up at 4am with music still playing.
 
Those little bastards did another song not too long ago. I cant remember what it was. Listomania or something. They must have a cool music teacher
 
Style is infinitely less important than the actual music, but anyone who thinks Vampire Weekend have the so-called "hipster" style is out to lunch, no offense. Style-wise, they've keyed in on the fact that Polo is the nexus between hip-hop and preppy. The band themselves come from a preppy background - Christ, they're all Ivy Leaguers and the lead singer used to be an English teacher. Can't get much more preppy than that. The flip-side is that they play Afro-pop, and have a huge following in the hip-hop community. They headlined the Roots picnic in Philly this summer! What other "hipster" band has legit cred among proper hip-hop acts? VW is being as true to their own roots as they possibly can be. People bag on them as being "rich white guys," but look at the two primary songwriters in the band: lead singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig is Jewish, and guitarist/keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij is gay and Middle Eastern. "Not exactly straight off the Mayflower," as Ezra quipped in one interview. They're actually far, far less "white" than 95% of most indie/hipster bands, especially when you factor in the Afro-pop. But at the end of the day, who's counting? The music is groundbreaking.

Back on topic, the new Beach House record is ridiculously awesome. They're touring with Vampire Weekend this summer and I'm planning on catching the Berkeley, LA, SD and Vegas shows :drool:
 
Look, I don't dislike Vampire Weekend due to their image. It starts with their music, which is complete tripe to my ears. Their image certainly doesn't help, but I don't want y'all thinking that's the only thing I base my opinion on. I've listened to both of their records, the first one more times than I care to admit. It just doesn't do much for me, and I hate the fact that they're what the mainstream considers to be a real flag bearer for whatever "indie" is supposed to sound like.

In any case, this thing would be the other way around with them opening for Beach House in an ideal world. "Master of None" alone is better than anything Vampire Weekend will ever do.
 
I really don't want to make two Vampire Weekend-bashing posts in a row, but God is their music lame.

Lover of Mine is one of my favorite songs of the year, possibly ever. Norway is also tremendous. I'm just never in the mood to sit through all of Teen Dream.
 
Jive Turkey said:
I dont know about this, man. They arent really doing anything that a band like the Police or even Paul Simon were doing 25/30 years ago
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Well it's all in the ear of the beholder and no disrespect, but I would contend that the Police were much more reggae-influenced than Afro-pop/Afrobeat influenced, and that Paul Simon just randomly tossed in African-sounding music flourishes than really "getting" African music. VW formed their band in large part because they were all fans of African music, had all the old records, etc. I listen to a lot of Afro-pop/Afrobeat, and I don't think any other rock band has melded together traditional orchestra with Afro-pop/Afrobeat. And when you think back to all the Bono interview comments over the years, of rock-n-roll being a hybrid of European melody with African rhythm, I have to tip my glass to VW for refining that hybrid in a way I've never heard before.

As for all the "indie rock flag bearers being mainstream," etc., it just doesn't really matter to me.
 
LyricalDrug said:
The flip-side is that they play Afro-pop, and have a huge following in the hip-hop community. They headlined the Roots picnic in Philly this summer! What other "hipster" band has legit cred among proper hip-hop acts?
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Um, no. Just no.

Seriously, if you want to listen to Afropop, go back to the original stuff from King Sunny Ade, etc. Go back to the 1970s Nigerian and Ghanian stuff. THAT is real Afropop. What Vampire Weekend is doing is watered down, shitty preppy "Afro" pop. To me, jacking some guitar riffs from King Sunny Ade and throwing some syncopated rhythms into indie pop doesn't count as being an Afropop group. Please.

Also, The Roots have been known to love the Dirty Projectors as well, along with myriad other indie groups, so it's not like Vampire Weekend are special in that regard, whatsoever. And, for the record, the VAST MAJORITY of hip-hop heads I know either don't give two shits about Vampire Weekend or can't stand them. Just because a band plays at a Roots-curated festival doesn't mean they have a "following" in the hip-hop community, because they simply don't.
 
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LyricalDrug said:
What other "hipster" band has legit cred among proper hip-hop acts?
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Jay-Z is a huge fan of Grizzly Bear. Regardless, I dont see how that is some sort of measuring stick for quality. (I'm not being a dick, I just dont see how it's relevant)

Besides, they're equally well received in the frat boy community, but I dont think you'd want to be flaunting that tidbit
 
onebloodonelife said:
Um, no. Just no.

Seriously, if you want to listen to Afropop, go back to the original stuff from King Sunny Ade, etc. Go back to the 1970s Nigerian and Ghanian stuff. THAT is real Afropop. What Vampire Weekend is doing is watered down, shitty preppy "Afro" pop. To me, jacking some guitar riffs from King Sunny Ade and throwing some syncopated rhythms into indie pop doesn't count as being an Afropop group. Please.

Also, The Roots have been known to love the Dirty Projectors as well, along with myriad other indie groups, so it's not like Vampire Weekend are special in that regard, whatsoever. And, for the record, the VAST MAJORITY of hip-hop heads I know either don't give two shits about Vampire Weekend or can't stand them. Just because a band plays at a Roots-curated festival doesn't mean they have a "following" in the hip-hop community, because they simply don't.
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Well, different ears hear different things. To me, the western rock critic who by far knows the most about Afropop has got to be Robert Christgau, and you're right, he would agree with you in many ways. But look at what else he writes about VW:

"Vampire Weekend"
(XL)

Young twentysomethings who write about what they know -- college. Liberal arts majors broad-minded enough to worry that "ion displacement won't work in the basement," they took their Columbia studies seriously, which is my idea of how to exploit privilege (though how much privilege is less self-evident than Ivy-hatas assume). Hence all the flags about appropriated exotica, class distinctions and cultural capital -- and the not unrelated correct accents, designer brands and vacation retreats. Their chief thematic concern is whether there's life after graduation, and rather than Afropop, from which they misprise a guitar sound but nothing of the groove it was conceived to serve, their music, as with most fresh recent bands good and bad, is quite Euro. Affecting a clarity and delight that pleases the many and confounds the some, their lyrically alluring, structurally hop-skip-and-jumping songs aren't deep. They're just thoughtful fun. And now let me give it up to an I Love Music post by Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef: "off- kilter, upbeat guitar pop, with -- in comparison to their peers -- something singular about both their music (e.g. not just the touches of African pop but the willingness to use space and let the songs breathe a bit) and their lyrics (detail-heavy, expressive; too bad they're images of wealth instead of poverty, otherwise they'd be critical manna)." Right on, my brother.
Grade: A MINUS

Contra [XL, 2010]

They're sticking their SATs in yo face, dumb-ass, and as Tom Petty once put it, they won't back down. Whatever the extent of their world travels geographical and virtual on this album, the actual money remains with people they only know, particularly the putative ex-girlfriend to whom Ezra Koenig addresses half his new songs. One exception is the guy who inspired "Giving Up the Gun"--still plays guitar down at that ex-skinhead bar, but his ears are shot to hell and he feels obsolete. Vampire Weekend give him respect, but "Contra" establishes that his band has chosen another path, celebrating the world's contradictions, contraindications, and contradistinctions with a new pop sound made up of old pop sounds that aren't the same old pop sounds. As for that controversy you may have read about, they spell too well to care.

GRADE: A
 
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