Music Matters - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend, XL Records
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Last Wednesday I braved the hardened streets of Northeast DC to see Vampire Weekend play to a sold out crowd at the Rock and Roll Hotel. This was the first stop on the bands self-titled debut album tour. The band is comprised of four young guys from the hallowed halls of Columbia University. Ezra Koenig (lead vocals and lead guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (producer and keyboards), Christopher Tomson (drums), Chris Baio (bass). The band generated more buzz than a bee hive in 2007 by tickling the ears of music reviewers with their short and snappy EP. Their effervescent three minute pop song format made for a energetic, polished and short performance. The band hit the stage at around 9:45 and were packing up at around 10:30. I have to agree with Bob Boylan of All Songs Considered, "this band has it."

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I'm reletivly new to the world of serious popular music. When I was growing up my mother forced me to listen to Christian radio and she didn't mind if I listened to oldies. I didn't take a hold of my own music tastes until I was in college and even then I did so half-heartedly. After I graduated I resolved to figured out how to navigate the current musical landscape.

Every journey into the unknown requires a map. Their are no shortage of map makers in the music world, but finding the right one took me some time. The obvious leaders, such as Rolling Stone and Billboard seemed too be for the seasoned traveler but I couldn’t trust my journey to the cartographic sketch artist of the blogosphere. At the time, my general intellectual musings were guided by various Washington media outlets including The Washington Post, NPR and City Paper and each had a pretty good sign posts for music. Then one day I stumbled across Paste Magazine. I might not have ever looked at this magazine, but Philip Seymour Hoffman was on the cover (the first non-musician to grace the publications cover) and it was the first music magazine that I had ever seen with a sampler CD. Finally, a sonic map for a sonic landscape. In June 2007 I bought an Ipod and started downloading NPR's All Songs Considered and with that I had all of the direction I needed to start my adventure through the contemporary musical world.

I say all of this to help you understand how much of a novice I am when it comes to music. As I read all the reviews of Vampire Weekend, I was struck by the sheer number of references to bands from the 80's, sounds from South Africa, and the other musical building blocks that make this band who they are. After reading all of this I realized that I hadn’t heard most of the music the reviewers were referring to. I also realized that I listen to music with one thing in mind, do I want to hear this song again?

Such is the plight of me and the unwashed masses who can't tell that Vampire Weekend draws from Congolese rhythms and South African guitar rifts. We love music without knowing how it got here. Listening to Vampire Weekend is like a Cliff's Notes version of the musical genres and influences from which they are born. I know I should read the book some day, but sometimes, I'm fine with just knowing how the story ends.

So, at Entertainment Matters, I will cover music as sophistically as I can, but I have young ears. Join me on my journey to find music that matters.