Vampire Weekend! Argh!!!!!

I'm sorry, but that fucking Honda commercial that seems to have played three times in every commercial break for the last month has done absolutely nothing to endear Vampire Weekend to me.

I was on the fence about them previously, but now I just want to find them and drown them at my earliest possible convenience.

I really hate that band which feels very liberating to say during the Christmas season.

People who love 'em stick by their love of them though - have seen them make a lot of top 10 lists here at year end.

Consider me baffled.

The commercial killed them for me. I'm done. But wish them luck in their future endeavours.

hmm,
i'd place Contra pretty high on my best of 2010 list.

i watch precious little tv and have not been overexposed to them at all. i do feel it is a strong album from a (so-far) excellent band.

peace

Like Randysan, I watch very little TV, so I haven't had the displeasure of being burned out by a commercial. Having listened to VW plenty of times, and seen them twice in 2010, I still say they're an excellent band. I was impressed that they could come up with a sophomore album as good as Contra.

I'm getting into the Dos Equis commercials, they're quite hysterical. The Most Interesting Man in the World, indeed....


[www.youtube.com]

I haven't heard (or at least haven't registered) the Honda commercial, but I've always thought they sucked. I know lots of folks whose opinions I respect who disagree with me strongly, though.

My wife instinctively hates that commercial (due to the music), despite not knowing that it is said band. I think this is further proof that said band simply sucks ass.

i liked the first album, but the second one (which i finally got around to playing) seems awfully flimsy, instrumentally. some cool drum bits, but otherwise kind of Weezer-like (and not in a good way), not to mention the nearly lifelike resemblance to the last 20 years of Paul Simon records.

I like the album (but "Holiday" is a weak track). The commercial is dreadful.

I'm hoping that Honda leads to this band's downfall.

or that they end up running Honda.

All I know is I'm relieved to realize that I've not seen that commercial or heard it on the radio for the last week or so. Thank God. I'm already mellowing back out towards Vampire Weekend and no longer think I would automatically drive a stake through Ezra Koenig's heart, cut off his head and stuff it with garlic if I happened to see him on the street. I'd probably just nod politely and pass on by.

But I swear, the month of December was sheer fucking torture due to "Holiday" and if I ever run afoul of the men who stare at goats I pray they don't bring that song to my interrogation. Two weeks ago I swear I would've confessed to a couple of embassy bombings and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa if I'd been forced to hear it one more time. I heard it three motherfucking times in one ten minute time span listening to a Rams game a couple weeks ago and wept bitter tears of mental anguish at the experience.

or they end up ruining Honda

Just to jump to the defense of Weezer.........nah, I can't do that, but I can jump to the defense of Coppola. His decline for me is sometimes portrayed wrongly I think.

He stopped making masterpieces I'd agree, but I do still like almost every Francis Coppola film after Apocalypse Now anyway (except for Jack and maybe one or two others).

Even if I don't think they are "great" I usually find them well-made and solid (I like Dracula, what can I say?), with moments of greatness even.

I think it's important to differentiate between the general artistic drop-off and the Rod Stewart artistic what did I ever like about this guy in the first place drop-off.

Weezer to me were a singles act, but I like the first 2 albums without loving them. The singles now don't have any hooks, which is a pretty big problem.
Their fan-base is a good example of how in artistically bereft times people want something to believe in...........in this case, for a fave band that isn't there or capable any more.

Don't hate the player; hate the game. It isn't the music per se, it is the irritating commercial imperative to burn the advertising into your cerebellum, using the music as a tool to that end.

Hate the player also. The ad companies will find some visual/audio to drill into your brain but you dont have to let it be your song.

nosepail wrote:

> Hate the player also. The ad companies will find some
> visual/audio to drill into your brain but you dont have to let
> it be your song.

Perhaps you'd prefer the money only go to dead artists who can neither object to the commercialization nor cash the checks?

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Don't hate the player; hate the game. It isn't the music per se

Well, this is how my mind works. I read that and my take-away was "hmmm, two good band names":
Hatin the Game [beard punk]
Music per Se [Neu-prog]

---

a)In a free market, ads are a fact of life. (let p be a natural number)
b)The ads agency is going to add music. (let q be a number greater than p)
c)VW is better than Bob Seger or another weird usage of John Lennon or Nick Drake (permutation of Ps and Qs)
d)VW fails in being non-irritable (p, q)/τ.Λ(V)
e) = hate the band



Post Edited (01-11-11 20:15)

I think we're onto a meme here...Steven Colbert had a comedic bit this evening where Vampire Weekend and The Black Keys compete for the title of being the biggest sell-out. They ended with brawl featuring baseball bats and chains.

Reno, buddy ... settle down, man. Here, have a seat. Put your feet up. I'll make us some tea.

Hey, how about if I put on Lucinda Williams?

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I would've confessed to a couple of embassy bombings and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa if I'd been forced to hear it one more time.

Shit, I hope Dick Cheney doesn't lurk here.

So your saying Colbert copped us?

Nice lurking Stephen! (if that's yr real name)

wait...Black who?



Post Edited (01-12-11 02:58)

Just when I was mellowing out towards him in the blessed departure of the Honda commercial from the airwaves, Ezra Koenig does nothing to endear himself to me by praising John Mayer:

[www.spin.com]

But at least he's not as big a prick as Rivers Cuomo, who pulls the despised gambit of when asked to name his favorite album of the last year feigns ignorance of anything current and names an indisputable classic instead. Fuck that shit, and fuck that shitmonkey Cuomo while you're at it. Isn't it time for people to realize that Pinkerton was the only good (or even tolerable) album he had in him and just begin ignoring him now?

I've been ignoring Rivers Cuomo since the first Weezer album.

I must be waaaaay out of touch - I've either never heard or never heard of about 99% of what those folks picked.

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I've been ignoring Rivers Cuomo since the first Weezer album.

I've vented about Weezer on this board before, but they honestly mystify me. I can't think of any other band with such a crazily devoted cult that remain devoted despite the fact that they seem to hate everything the band ever does. Every Weezer album is highly anticipated and given a great fanfare upon release only to be greeted by a groaning chorus of "IT SUCKS" from the very people who couldn't wait for it to come out.

I understand that people keep hoping for another Pinkerton or blue album (which I never understood the appeal of to begin with, except for "Buddy Holly" which is an admittedly great song), but geez, when do you give up? After I suffered through Bram Stoker's Dracula and Jack I was willing to concede once and for all that Coppola was not ever going to deliver another Godfather or Conversation and have not tormented myself with a Coppola movie since. (Though he has helped out immensely by only making one or two anyway.)

Every Weezer album since Pinkerton has been the musical equivalent of Jack, and even Weezer's most ardent fans seem to think so. So when are they finally going to get a clue and move on?

A few years ago, I saw Coppola's Rumble Fish for the first time. In my opinion, it's a startling, original and completely unexpected masterpiece in the midst of Coppola's quick and steep decline.

So of course it was a critical and commercial failure.

With Coppola, I don't think a single movie he made between The Godfather and Rumblefish was less than very, very good, with four of them being masterpieces. Then he went into a swoon in the mid-80s, briefly rebounded with Tucker, then it was all downhill.

Godfather III has its moments, but too much of it felt like Coppola and Puzo were phoning it in. Everybody blamed poor Sofia for dragging the movie down, but neither of Coppola's preferred choices - Winona Ryder or Julia Roberts - would've saved it. The stupid sequence with the helicopter machine gun massacre, the lack of any real effort to bring Duvall back (Duvall said that in negotiations for the movie, Coppola was more interested in talking about Italian cooking), the odd Vincent/Mary relationship where people only seemed moderately perturbed about cousins getting it on...yuck. Like the Star Wars prequels, there are promising ideas floating through it, but it needed another set of eyes to look over the script.

I have a love/hate relationship with Dracula. The look is great, most of the acting is okay (or at least appropriately pulpy, except for poor Keanu), the story is a classic, but something is just off about it for me. I end up watching it every time I stumble across it on tv and wish I liked it better.

Jack is a legend collecting a paycheck. I had no desire to see it, but was dragged to it by a girlfriend who thought it looked cute and had no conception of the fact that heartwarming Robin Williams = insufferable Robin Williams. Now it's useful only as a reminder that early in her career Jennifer Lopez was actually a likable and promising actress and that Diane Lane looked damn good in that Halloween costume.

I haven't bothered with his recent movies due to my aforementioned giving up on him, combined with generally lousy word of mouth.



Post Edited (01-15-11 10:05)

If you want a great Dracula movie, get the one with Louis Jordan as the Count. It was made for the BBC in 1978, and it's totally faithful to the book. And one of my favorite actresses, Judi Bowker, gives an outstanding performance.

To avoid confusion, it's not Louis Jordan, the horn player. I'm talking about Louis Jordan, the actor who starred in Gigi.

I don't expect Weezer to make another album like Pinkerton, mainly because Rivers was pretty embarrassed by some of the things he wrote about on that album.

The only album Weezer has made that I just plain didn't like was the Red Album. I like the Green Album a lot; in fact, I consider it to be of a piece with the Blue Album and Pinkerton. And I found a lot to enjoy on Raditude. Both Maladroit and Make Believe had enough on them to merit repeated listens, IMO. I haven't listened to Hurley yet.