A: Apparently so, and it makes people want to wipe that smirk off their faces. Vampire Weekend’s second LP Contra shot to the top of the charts while scripting pop tunes that are as polarizing as Obamacare. Either they’re the new best thing or the new culture bandits, unashamedly talented and privileged. Divisive music for divided times. WNYC’s John Schaefer pits the haters versus the lovers on the latest edition of the Soundcheck Smackdown.
Vampire Weekend - “Horchata” (click to download)
Vampire Weekend’s story* sticks in the craw of populist pop culture: Ivy League kids gain instant fame from their dorms, skip the struggle, jump from well-off to rich and famous, and deliver Graceland 3.0 while trading in the Steven Biko references for Luis Vuitton and yachts. The band’s main offense, apparently, is their untenable union of preppy style and African influences. It would be easy to write the whole thing off if their music wasn’t sophisticated and catchy. Their brethren, The Very Best, take this matter to the club, skipping the cardigans in favor of bright graphic T’s and throwing synth fire for Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya’s soaring vocals.
The Very Best “Julia” (click to download)
Click and drag your buddy’s MP3 library onto your HD and you may find yourself confronted with the entire discography of a forefather from a country you’ve never heard of. “Free” music allows people to take in the unknown, building eclectic playlists that ignore traditional barriers between genres.
This cross-pollination of styles is the hallmark of contemporary music: My band plays, like, dubby surfer post-punk. The music from the African diaspora is, itself, increasingly malleable and cosmopolitan, appropriating everything from reggae to rock to electro. But MP3’s don’t have liner notes, and research into your new fave track’s backstory is purely optional. From the safety of the headphone’s cocoon, you can remain blissfully detached from the culture and motivation of your artist du jour.
Which leads us to song titles like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and genres like “Upper West Side Soweto.” The band’s name conjures images of the recreational activities of bloodsuckers. Vampire Weekend’s lead singer Ezra 
Koenig name checks ethnic food and accessories in the ostentatious way rappers do luxury items. “Spilling kefir on my keffiyeh” is the indie equivalent of rap’s “spilling Dom P on my Gucci” - loaded, if somewhat unfamiliar, signifiers imparting caché to the vocalist. VW’s music excites today the way modernist painters (claiming African masks and Japanese woodblocks as their muse) did at the beginning of the last century.
It may be that the “the whitest band’s” music and image blatantly challenge the limits of a “post-race” America. But consider this: Vampire Weekend’s music more accurately reflects New York City (where over a third of its inhabitants are foreign-born) than their indie brethren who remain stridently devoid of color. The best artists are the ones who embrace the unfamiliar and transform it into something new. On a hill amongst the fields of gold, Sting is looking down on these boys and smiling.
* Storyline embellished and/or changed to suit populist ire.
Props to Will Hermes at NPR
Catch Vampire Weekend on their European tour through Febraury
Catch the Very Best in Australia through February
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