Question grammar! Oxford Comma is playing now. Click the  button to hear The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance. |
So, you can imagine my frustration when, days before my column on Vampire Weekend and their self-titled debut album was set to run on iList Paducah, the band appears on Saturday Night Live. #$&*!!
Less than a month ago they were almost unheard of, with the buzz mostly among music bloggers. In that period, Vampire Weekend has appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, were named MTV’s “Artist of the Week” and made the cover of Spin, as “The Year’s Best New Band.” In fact, they’re the first band to be featured on Spin’s cover before the release of their first album. This band is hot!
Vampire Weekend is an Afro-Pop quartet. Not sure what Afro-Pop is? It’s the musical genre that most Americans heard first in Paul Simon’s Graceland. I realize that criticizing Paul Simon is about as controversial as a Danish cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. However, my opinion remains that Graceland was really cool music written and performed by somebody who’s not all that cool. Let’s face it, Simon was hip when Mrs. Robinson was sexy.
Editor’s note: Chicks totally dig Paul Simon and are in awe of Edie (The Talk on a Cereal Box) Brickell for snapping him up after his failed marriage to Carrie (Princess Leia) Fisher. Sorry to interrupt — back to Vampire Weekend.
Vampire Weekend has cool nailed down. Musicians Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Christopher Tomson and Chris Baio look, act and dress like a preppy Ivy League fraternity party band. All four met at Columbia University; their name comes from a film they made together. And they write truly innovative music. It’s sort of white man’s burden meets South Africa. The music is African-influenced, but the songs are about Cape Cod, the Columbia University campus and, in the case of Oxford Comma, the Oxford comma.
I’m glad somebody finally addressed the issue of the Oxford comma in song. Better known as the serial or Harvard comma, it’s the preferred style of many English teachers. I hate it (and so does Vampire Weekend and iList Paducah, for that matter). I find the Oxford comma superfluous, snobbish, and annoying (get it?).
I doubt that Oxford Comma will get much airplay, as the boys from VW throw out some F-bombs in describing it. You’re more likely to hear The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance or A-Punk. These songs, like all the rest of the album, stand out from any current music in their style and wit.So, I got scooped by network television, MTV and the musical press in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. I did, in the process, listen to hours of a band that is fascinating and fun. I can live with that trade-off.
vampireweekend.com
myspace.com/vampireweekend
