TAG: Vampire Weekend

Mar04

Next Stop… Soweto – Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga (Review)

Township Sounds From The Golden Age Of Mbaqanga

NEXT STOP... SOWETO



With Next Stop... Soweto, Strut trace some of the amazing music that often only appeared on short run 45s at the time; rare lost gems deftly culled from the '60s + '70s South African "township jive sound." Featuring music recorded primarily for the local market, the album takes the listener far beyond the accepted township jive template into fusions with jazz, gospel, rumba, funk and traditional mining songs. It delves into the golden age of mbaqanga. Jazz had been a fixture in South African music since the ‘50s and jive (or mbaqanga) initially emerged a decade later as a fusion combining elements of rural Zulu music and harmony vocal styles with Western instrumentation. You can hear influences from American R&B and '60s rock and surf, in the same way ska and rocksteady developed in Jamaica. And if you like desert blues from Sahara, you will also like the fusion of mbaqanga.

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Feb25

Live Review :: Vampire Weekend @ l’Olympia (Video)

Paris’s Olympia was packed to the brim last night for Vampire Weekend’s second ever French performance (Ezra Koenig made sure to specify this fact). The lads put on their classic polos, flannel shirts, cuffed jeans, and keds à la Brooklyn/Upper West Sider, for the pleasure of the hipster, wide-brim wearing Parisian audience. The simple but kick-ass stage set featured a huge photo of the mystery blonde Contra girl, along with hanging chandeliers and long velvet red curtains. The stage and the boys were all perfectly stylin’ to the very last detail… and the music wasn’t too shabby either.

Throughout the hour and a half performance the boys made sure to throw in a bunch of new songs off of second album, Contra, but the Vampire Weekend hits were obviously the biggest crowd pleasers, all executed with clean, clear, FIRELY flare. …

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Feb16

Massive Attack Headlines Sasquatch! Festival, Lineup Announced

My Morning Jacket, Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, Kid Cudi and others slated to perform 

This Memorial Day the annual Sasquatch! Festival will takeover the Gorge in Quincy, Washington with Massive Attack, My Morning Jacket and Pavement headlining. As per usual, the lineup sticks with the indie-rock vibe. Expect dirtier-than-usual hipsters but there’s not much better than catching the scene’s fresh darlings (Local Natives) alongside the established (Broken Social Scene) and the fan favorites (Vampire Weekend, The xx) in that woodsy setting. Full lineup and info after the jump.

2010 Sasquatch! Festival Line-Up:
My Morning Jacket
Massive Attack
Pavement
Ween
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
Band of Horses
The National
LCD Soundsystem
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Jan15

The Very Best “Warm Heart of Africa” Feat. Ezra Koenig (Video)

Rule #1 about being a blogger: always have something to say. Well, right now, I’m smiling ear-to-ear and totally in love with both Koenig and Esau Mwamwaya. Their collaboration seems so natural and carefree, it’s hard to not fall for them. It’s an irresistible song, but I second what Amir said at Stereogum: is there a risk of getting lost in the shuffle during Vampire Weekend’s domination streak? Well, made it here, so guess not.

[Stereogum]

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Jan13

Vampire Weekend – Contra (Review)

Vampire Weekend

Contra

Released by XL Recordings


Vampire Weekend. You love them or hate them or love to hate them. The question of how authentic they are in their music and dress seems to be the Achilles heel for this quartet, and the blogosphere lauds them one day, raises concerns over their sweaters, then hypes the shit out of the leaks and this new album. From all the controversy and adulation, you’d think Contra marked the coming of the Messiah.

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Dec18

Best of 2010 Preview Awards

With each years close, there’s two things you can count on from the music press—best of lists from the past year and preview lists of the coming year. With the deluge of both filling our Google Readers, it’s easy to get them confused. So somehow we’ve come up with the Best of 2010 Preview Awards. Because if there’s one thing a good music site must do, it’s predict the future with infallible accuracy.

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