Ouch, Part II

In Friday's Weekend section of the New York Times, music critic Jon Caramanica ripped into Vampire Weekend, the effete, WASP-y quartet of Columbia graduates who blew up two years ago and are releasing their follow-up record this month, with a ferocity rarely seen in the paper. Surveying coming albums, Caramanica coupled Vampire Weekend with the solo debut of one of the Jonas brothers and then let loose. It's such a direct punch in the face that it's worth quoting in full:

"Let's face it: Vampire Weekend is a boy band for 20-somethings with poorly paid jobs in art galleries, a strong interest in local food and Jonathan Lethem novels in their purses (or tote bags). They would have liked Nick [Jonas] had he come around a decade ago, and then dropped him as soon as they got to high school. They love the disheveled postprep clothes, and the sneaky global winks in the arrangements, a remembrance of semesters-abroad past (or at least ones they wish they'd had). They might be screaming per se at these shows, but the swooning here won't be that different from that at the Beacon [Theater; where Jonas is performing]: a fan is a fan is fan.

"In both cases all shows are sold out, though there's probably a path to bliss to be found with the aid of a reseller and, probably, Mommy or Daddy's credit card."

Wow. The rough part: Caramanica is probably right. Vampire Weekend is a quartet of dreamy-eyed guys who play breezy music that typically chronicles upper-class fashionable outings and generally uncomplicated, privileged lifestyles. Isn't that what "Gossip Girls" does? They named their new record "Contra," but insist it has nothing to do with the right-wing militants in Nicaragua illegally funded by the Regan administration in the 1980s. Politics is so lame these days, didn't you hear? And, when they performed recently in suburban southern California, they were mobbed by teenage girls, the New Yorker reports in this week's profile of the band. That Vampire Weekend came up through Pitchfork and the Brooklyn scene only gave them a two-year head-start on avoiding the "boy band" tag; it doesn't mean that they can't be labeled with it.

Then again, if Vampire Weekend is a boy band for 20-somethings and, as this year may prove, teenagers too, what's so bad about that? Their music is sophisticated, well composed and different -- their earliest attention came for using African rhythms and melodies in their drums and guitar lines, which has been imitated since. Their lyrics are heartfelt. Two years ago, when Vampire Weekend played "Saturday Night Live" as they were blowing up, I made three friends stay up to watch it with me. "Is this it?" I thought. Now, I find it pleasant and catchy, if certainly not mind-blowing, because that's what it is. If Vampire Weekend is what drives suburban high-schoolers crazy this year in the hallways and as they nervously flirt with each other, it's a vast improvement on what's been the background music for that in recent years.

Mr. Caramanica probably wouldn't disagree with the idea of being a boy band as not such a bad thing -- he's written positively about Taylor Swift and other top-40 stars in the Times. He probably just wants to call a spade a spade a spade, something that's easy to agree with. Anyway, to judge for yourself, here's Vampire Weekend's video for its song "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," from its self-titled debut:



Update: Mr. Caramanica again writes about Vampire Weekend in today's Arts section -- quite glowingly, in fact, saying their music is "appealingly leisurely, technically accomplished and pinprick precise." I think his problem is the contemporary music market, the stylized audiences where image drives fandom and the ridiculously quick fan cycles that send bands bursting in the open and then discard them on the side of the (Internet super) highway. For an example of the latter, see his review of the Drums' and Surfer Blood's show this week at the Bowery Ballroom. Between them the bands have about one full-length yet receive so much buzz that they're having trouble keeping pace with the adoration, which Caramanica thinks is hampering their sound. Again, I agree with him on the broader point.