imomus | Contra takes it NXTLVL

Contra takes it NXTLVL

Hey, there's this band called Vampire Weekend, and they're actually pretty good! Oh, you knew about them already? I see, I see. Yes, I'm always a bit late picking up on these things. Now I think about it, I was vaguely aware that Contra, their new album, isn't their first release. There was a bit of excitement a couple of years ago around their debut, wasn't there? In fact, it even reached Click Opera, didn't it? It's all coming back to me now. Rostam from Vampire Weekend sent me their first album, and I wrote a piece entitled Fan mail to the future.

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Now, that particular month (February 2008) you weren't allowed to be lukewarm about Vampire Weekend -- you were either supposed to love them or hate them with a passion. So my response to their debut album got relayed by various music publications to an astounded, incensed world as Momus to Vampire Weekend: Bugger Off!.

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In fact, I was far from saying "bugger off!" What I actually said was much more muted and tentative: "I haven't really had my Vampire Weekend moment yet. They've sent me their album, and I've listened to it, and I can hear the basic appeal -- the directness, the economy of means, the well-written lyrics, the happy feel. I get a weird sense that there are possibilities in this music ("Wow, pop can do this!"), and yet the possibilities are all in the past. Taken a bit further, this bit could become Talking Heads, this bit could become The Beat, this bit The Police, and this bit Prefab Sprout... Perhaps Vampire Weekend will work with a producer who gives them enough experimental edge to make my penny drop."

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After reading this, Rostam wrote me back: "Perhaps in a weird way I expected as much, but in fact it's inspiring because it means things aren't nxtlvl enough on our end..." Unlike the music press, he got exactly what I meant. Pop music has to keep taking things to the next level. Otherwise it begins to die.

My own "next level" with Vampire Weekend was meeting vocalist / lyricist Ezra Koenig in New York on May 18th, 2009. Ezra chose a vegetarian Indian restaurant called Saravana Bhavan, where we each dipped a big dosa into a delicious array of little sauce dishes. Ezra told me he was thinking of calling the next Vampire Weekend album "Contra" and asked what my immediate associations with the word were. I said: Oliver North (Iran-Contra), The Clash (Sandinista!), Hegel (the Hegelian dialectic of thesis and antithesis, which would mean their third album would have to be Synthesis) and the idea of the internet troll or contrarian. The following week several Vampire Weekends got the table of honour at the three-hour Momuthon concert I played at the Highline Ballroom.

And now Contra is out. I don't have a copy yet, but the tracks I've heard on YouTube -- the ones splashed across this page -- bode very well indeed. I think my favourite is the most experimental. This is called California English:

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And this is California English Part 2:

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The "disorienting autotune" effect reminds me of an early version of my song Zanzibar, A Canterbury Tale, but VW have a more zingy chorus and better production. In fact, it's the production on this album that excites me most. There's an excellent use of space, an avoidance of rock sludge, some wonderfully crunchy percussion rolls which nevertheless drop away to leave some good space when they're finished, and a nice early 80s synth bass sound which reminds me of The Passage:

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There are still, of course, reference points and influences. From Afropop, from Paul Simon, from The Police, from Two Tone ska, from Elvis Costello circa Armed Forces, from Talking Heads. But my fuzzy feeling this time is much warmer, and not just because of Ezra's charm offensive. This sounds to me like a band taking old things and making them new, making them brashly fresh. It's rather like seeing the way Japanese culture takes things from the West and recompiles them just askew enough to make them fresh, appealingly strange, and unmistakably Japanese.

To my ears, from what I've heard so far, Contra is more original and innovative than the first release, without losing the infectious, accessible pop edge. Vampire Weekend did indeed take things NXTLVL.

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I've been having my own Momus flashbacks tonight. I started off You-Tubing Takako Minekawa and the concert footage of Kahimi Karie performing "I am a Kitten" was suggested to me on the right panel. I watched you on the guitar and wanted to listen to Ping Pong. Listening to that put me in the mood to watch the flash video Whimsy made for you, but I couldn't find it. That hunger then propelled me here and I see that you are having a past-future continuum capsule race with Vampire Weekend! Now I'm pondering the next Momus record. Actually, I just finished speaking with Sayaka about all this and her response was "I have Kahimi Karie on my laptop. You like her?"

The Lord Whimsy Flash-media video for Bantam Boys is here (http://imomus.com/whimsy.swf). Who's Sayaka?

man that thing just blows me away every time I see it. some of the best work you and Whimsy ever did.

Oh, wonderful. Thank you!

Sayaka is my girlfriend. She designs clothes and I bake cakes for her. I write about it later, we cry together, and repeat. It's a lovely arrangement. And she likes your music. I have written a lot about her on my lj lately. I only have one photo of us, but we have taken many together.

Not to whack you with the big stick of sentimentality, but, being back in Berlin, are you missing Tokyo?

Chaucer on LSD!

I want to like them, but I lose interest 20 seconds in to each song. You're hearing talking Heads and Two Tone, but all I hear is updated Johnny Clegg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj7paXrhOdY&feature=related) :(

-what they need is some ornette (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ijdr_ornette-coleman-1974_music) in the mix.

- on second listen I can hear some two tone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnBQyRmOTHs&feature=related) in there, but does it improve in any way over the original. No, it does not. Rude boy smash.

- on third listen, wow, I must say, this is a band that really runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

- on fourth listen the banal lyrics have become somewhat sick making. this is music to make ads by. Men in a boardroom at Nike sitting around a table tapping their feet. Oh jesus no momus. What happened to Frank Tiger?

- on the fifth listen I put a gun up to my head and pulled the trigger.

- and linking a Passage track on the same page is just cruel.

Ha ha, I'll make a Sado-Anon of you yet, Vronsky!

Hi, Nick. Listening to it, Flo says that the Vampires should give you back (at least) 40% of their royalties. She adds that your voice is much more agréable, which is totally true. Nevertheless, it's an interesting pop virage, like the one taken by AC or GB or DP. And thanks so much for the Japanese trip you shared with us.

Gilles

Salut Gilles!

Odd, the only song that I actually like in all of the links on this page is yours.

Also, have you heard "Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay"? I only recently did so, but right away it made me think of 'matsuri-kei'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj17bGvUQmM

Hmm, a bit repetitive. For me, matsuri-kei has to have that matsuri drum (plus, really, Japanese vocals on top), whereas this just has a chugging bassline and some hispanic meowing on top. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so dismissive.

Glad you liked A Canterbury Tale!

This is the tribal dancefloor distant cousin?

Maybe you should try and bring together a matsuri-kei compilation with a primer in the liner notes.

By the way, do you have other early versions of songs like Canterbury Tale? Because I really like that version, like, way more than the original Zanzibar. From my personal ratings of your previous work posted here, I like it when you do the more stripped down stuff, with your vocals stronger in the mix. Nick Currie the Balladeer.

Despite your protestations, I think you've let yourself be wowed by the fact that VW are an "it" band who like your music and got in touch. Their music is not awful but it slips down easily and is pretty banal really, a long way from the sort of thing you'd normally recommend.

Back pedaling suits you. I still think they're a load of cack.

I wonder if Vampire Weekend are what Alan McGee calls "drownedinshite"? They probably sell too many albums to be proper drownedinshite, but they're semi-experimental, clipped, white, lacking grip to the songs. Zero entertainment value for oiks.

I think it more difficult to make a listenable record than an experimental one (if not innovative)… the kind that you’d want to hear many times, rather than be taken by the sounds of the unfamiliar (and unfamiliar to whom… those who’ve heard it all?)

I mean, a song with slowed-down donkey braying, elephant trumpeting, and military drum-rolls (and add a little 1812 overture booming samples and some revolutionary bull-horn chants) may sound different, be innovative, and say something political (in the U.S… and really now, what’s more sophisticated that than political intrigue in foreign locals)… but will it keep your toes tapping, and keep you singing along? (OK that may be a dumb “experimental” song concept… but it was much easier to come up with off the top of my head than an even slightly slamming tune would be).

With that in mind, I found the latest Vampire Weekend more immediately listenable than the first… and it has drawn me to multiple listens, again, more than the first. I think they are learning, and improving.

But then again, I thought Interpoly Paul Bank’s “Julian Plenti” album last year rocked authentically hard… and I doubt many here have similar taste.

I may be a “bone-head,” but am I the only artist here who sees making it “look cool” or “sound good” as the hardest part?

No, you're not.

Thanks Lord Whimsy…

….but to dispel any ambiguity – A CT scan proof of my “bonehead”:

http://brainprobe.jdcasten.info

"Taken a bit further, this bit could become Talking Heads, this bit could become The Beat, this bit The Police, and this bit Prefab Sprout... Perhaps Vampire Weekend will work with a producer who gives them enough experimental edge to make my penny drop."

I never quite understand why you insist on undermining bands based on how much they sound like their influences. I get your point about a general lack of innovation in the "musical grammar", as you called it, and I completely agree that Vampire Weekend would sound a lot better with a Rusty Santos or even a Dave Fridmann to produce them, but I feel like too much is lost in this almost-rockist posture that "they don't make them like they used to".

Perhaps you would be less disappointed with the state of music if you didn't look back so much and compare. A lot of the most interesting music these days is indeed a synthesis of influences from different musical eras, but also most of the innovation comes from the different ways in which these influences/elements are recontextualized and updated, and in that sense I don't think these times are very different from any other period.

i dont likei dont like

I don't like VW at all, but knowing that they actually say "nxtlvl" in emails has taken my dislike to the next level: outright hatred.

changes how it sounds
do any of your friends make shite music?

If I may butt in, anon: All of my friends who make music are unsung genii. I say this with complete objectivity.

as I pulled up your page I was listening to "California English" as I pulled up your page and what are the odds that you talking about Vampiredubz!!
This is my first time visiting your blog.This must be a good sign!!! :)

If they had more dog barks, signal horns and glitchy drums I'd be more than happy. Though they don't but I really like the afro-pop sensibility. Though Paul Simon ended up doing it as a political statement, while Vampire Weekend make it a stylistical statement.

"stylistic statement"

...like all the mentions they make of clothing items that are worn by college students as a way to burrow into their fans' hearts. "I wear that! They understand me and the dowdy, cozy, tryingsohardtomakeitworkcan'tfuckitup1iota side of my priviledged life!" Hate.

those arent little sauce dishes, those are chutneys -- coconut, tomato, etc.

Chutney as in chutney sauce.

you sound like a redneck from america (or britain for that matter)

The second album certainly seems more interesting, but perhaps just not interesting enough. Ezra seems an affable chap and I'm sure the record will appeal to many, however it just isn't quite my thing.

I do like 'A Canterbury Tale', thanks for posting it.

I was going to give them some credit for naming a song after a Star Trek monster, but google informs me that that is a Horta, not a Horchata ;(

I love you're writing momus, but you're taste in music is so questionable (but can we question a taste in whatever?). The point being, this guy in this band with a moron name, came on and kissed your ass so know it seems that are forced to give him a good review...

And..WHAT THE FUCK?!??!?! Is it just me or is everyone forgetting that animal colective have been making music (more edgier in fact) like this for the past 5 years?? Its actually starting to become a standard in indie music, i dont think we should encourage a band that goes out and smoothens (castrates) an original and guttural, visceral aproach to music making.
These bands, like Vamp Weekend (more like Weakend) are so boring, filled with "nice fellows", They insult me by not insulting me or everyone else!

The A-Hole Zeitgeist circa 1984:

this is post-colonial prissy pop

I wish more people in indie music (for want of a better term) would sing confidently. I'm tired of hearing men sing cutely. Where's the aggression, passion, whatever you want to call it?

The only person bucking the trend seems to be John Maus:

all the shoegazing, demure, weary, indie attitutude; i remember what bono said back in the 90s, something like, "if you really don't want to be doing this, get another fucking job, jeez!!"

The most unattractive thing in the world is a demure man whining about love. This is why I've always hated the Beach Boys.

then you disagree with paul mccartney when he says "God Only Knows" is one of the best songs of all time?

I guess that would be one obvious implication of hating the Beach Boys.

how about john lennon's later solo stuff? whiney? or arthur janovesque?

Oh, to hell with aggression or "I mean it, man." That's kid stuff. I just want to see male singers who look like grown ass men, and whose agenda is all about getting panties thrown at them while they wear a tux.

Hm, well, I obviously phrased that all wrong (I realise now I used words that connoted Pearl Jam), or used the wrong video, because I am as anti "I mean it, man" as anyone could possibly be. Maus is hilarious (try this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVpZme0kRQ) or this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEkPsHMhDwU) instead), and actually makes an effort to bloody well sing out, rather than mumbling coyly into an ironically grown beard. It's the "shoegazing, demure, weary, indie attitutude" that pisses me off.

In other words, I'm actually with you, because the men in tuxes whose agenda is to get panties thrown at them are my kind of guys. Martin Fry FTW.

Maybe the words should have been "confidence" and "arrogance".

You took Bob Newhart to the NXTLVL.

"like seeing the way Japanese culture takes things from the West and recompiles them just askew enough to make them fresh, appealingly strange, and unmistakably Japanese."

http://www.youtube.com/user/masawo#p/u/78/o3RhDrHM3TA

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Sparks win every time without even being there when it's happening.
-J F

It is the production that reminds me of Momus records. Some of the song structures have a real Momusian sensibility as well. However they lack Momus' lyrical zing.

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Contra takes it NXTLVL

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vampire

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drownedinshite

Sounds Cool...

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the boy with the perpetual nervousness

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knowing who made the music

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clairvoyance, much???!!

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om tat sat

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Love Animal Collective too...

Spivak to the future

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Naoshima Hatecrush Slideshow

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