Tin Speaker

Note to self — White Rabbits use that Blank Dogs vocal effect on The Salesman (Tramp Life). While I’m on the subject, It’s Frightening is pretty damn good on first listen. It appears that Britt Daniel is quite a capable producer, and the drums especially are mighty fine, especially (and probably not surprisingly, given the name) on album opener/standout/presumable first single Percussion Gun. On Right Where They Left You, too, though that song sounds a lot like something from Fort Nightly — I Used To Complain Now I Don’t, or maybe Tourist Trap. It’s still a good song, I’m just saying…

Keep reading, it gets interesting!

I’d also like to make a little note on fame (crossword digression: yesterday’s 20-across: How fame comes, sometimes, eight letters. Answer below). I started listening to White Rabbits and Vampire Weekend at around the same time — June 2007, after reading about New York Bands I NEEDED TO KNOW! in L Magazine. Fort Nightly and Blue CD-R (which ended up being pretty much identical to VW’s s/t) were albums of similar quality, I thought, and, coincidentally, one of the new songs that White Rabbits began playing live shared a lot of Vampire Weekend’s island rhythms (I don’t know if it made it on the new record — if so, it’s changed a bit). The singers have similar voices, the bands have equally preppy stylings, and both bands have an affinity for neon-templed-and-earpieced faux-wayfarers (though I’m sure Ezra Koenig can afford the real deal these days, right! Ha! Just kidding, he’s a rich Ivy Leaguer, he’s been wearing Ray-Bans since he was being silver-spoon-fed blended filet mignon + Roquefort baby food. Oooh, bitterness!) and hollow-bodied guitars. But now Vampire Weekend are practically household names (okay, not really, but you know what I mean. They played SNL and sold out a couple nights at Terminal 5) and White Rabbits are still playing Bowery Ballroom (not that that’s some sort of bad thing. Hopefully they’ll sell it out, too — unlike poor former-blog-darlings Annuals (whose Such Fun was admittedly much more of a sophomore drop-off than is It’s Frightening (at least so far, for me))).

So what is there to explain the fame gap? Management? MGMT (Ha, ha!)? Looks? Name? (definitely not) Perhaps it is simply a matter of moment. Vampire Weekend came along at a time when “world music” influences were hot; people were ready for Graceland II (which the record really isn’t, but enough people thought it was that my writing this is justified) and they delivered songs like Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa with hand drums and little Ali Farka Touré riffs. And so they made for interesting journalism, which led to expansive press coverage and therefore wide exposure. And because their music is good and fun to listen to and not challenging or abrasive people liked them and told their friends about them and pretty soon they were the sound of college campuses around the country.

Another pairing of bands who were hot together at one point (last winter, specifically) is Yeasayer and MGMT, who co-headlined a pair of shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom on 13th and 14th February. Though sharing much fewer similarities than White Rabbits and Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and MGMT were buzzed about in the same circles and at the same time, but now tickets for MGMT at Prospect Park are going for $100 on Stubhub and eBay (if you need one — or four — let me know) while Yeasayer are still at a Bowery-Music Hall fame level (once again, definitely not a bad thing). So why are MGMT so gigantic?

is actually probably a pretty easy question to answer. They have not one, not two, but three songs that are the type of singles that make record execs believe in a god besides Pablo Escobar. Sometimes, major labels aren’t fools; Columbia signed them in 2006 and licensed the shit out of Time To Pretend. When people explored further and found Kids and Electric Feel, that was it. One hit, and you’re Chumbawumba; three, you’re Rihanna (okay, not quite, but on the way. Sort of).

This also may provide some insight into M.I.A.’s future after Paper Planes. Nothing else from Kala stuck with the population at large (I was a personal witness to one fraternity brother saying that he had checked out the rest of her songs and found nothing of note), and, considering the extraordinary critical acclaim that album received, her music’s not the problem — the average listener simply doesn’t dig it. M.I.A. does have the significant advantage of her association with Kanye, T.I., Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne from Swagga Like Us, which definitely bought her plenty of exposure after the Pineapple Express hype faded a bit. It remains to be seen whether that will translate to a sustained career atop the charts. I can’t imagine her seizure-inducing Web site helps her cause any. In any event, MGMT and M.I.A. are fine examples of one of the best ways to get famous: write a song with an amygdalae-lodging hook (albeit one borrowing liberally from some legendary ska-punks), sign to a major label (or a good indie with major-label distribution — cred counts!), license said song as if the world were about to go deaf. Repeat.

I’d love to discuss more groups (Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes come to mind, maybe TVotR and Animal Collective), but I’ll spare my more ADD-addled (ADDled) readers the unrestrained verbosity that would surely come from that.

Incidentally, since 21 February 2008, when my iTunes play counts were all reset, I’ve not listened to any Vampire Weekend (except the Teenagers’ (now there’s a band I don’t miss!) remix of Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, and only went through Fort Nightly once. Oracular Spectacular has gotten a run-through, too, though that was on 29 February 2008 and before the ubiquity of Kids — thanks to a certain Croatian neighbor of mine, and then everyone else in the world — made MGMT nearly intolerable for me. I listened to a lot of Yeasayer, though, but not much since last spring. I still go back to them, though, and their song Tightrope is easily one of the best on the strong Dark Was the Night Compilation. Actually, Fort Nightly, Vampire Weekend and All Hours Cymbals are all very good albums, and I’ve enjoyed revisiting all of them as I write this post. MGMT, though… fuck you guys. Just kidding, sort of! I can’t deny Kids, Time To Pretend and Electric Feel are great pop songs, but the rest of the album is just flat in comparison. We’ll see what they can do with major label money on their sophomore LP.

Speaking of major label money, how about Passion Pit, right? I dig ‘em now, but four months from now, when they’re famous as shit, I don’t know! I’d better listen while I can! I don’t know, that EP has held up pretty well since CMJ, but we’ll see…

Answer to crossword clue (you didn’t think I’d forgotten?): ATAPRICE (that’s three words. If you didn’t get it, don’t feel bad; I needed a few letters)

This entry was posted on 22 Apr 2009 at 11:44 pm and is filed under music. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: all hour cymbals, blank dogs, blue cd-r, fame, fort nightly, it's frightening, kids, m.i.a., mgmt, oracular spectacular, paper planes, passion pit, the salesman (tramp life), time to pretend, vampire weekend, vocal effects, white rabbits, yeasayer