Vampire Weekend is an excellent band with a crappy name. At the very least, their name conveys nothing about their sublimely melodic rock - it has touches of Graceland and The Police. No angular guitars. No shouty post-punk. Smooth, clever, cheerful.
Here's their myspace page. (Does anyone download the mp3s I post? )
VW is getting plenty of good hype. I'm all for that. But what annoys the hell out of me is that people keep talking about how they're "preppy" and Ivy league educated (they went to Columbia). Their lyrics name check Northeastern WASP towns and feature quirky references to oxford commas and Louis Vuitton. My dad would approve of their dress sense.
So they're sons of privilege. So what? All these pasty white music critics and bloggers have hip-hop acts on their year-end lists (so as to be "balanced") and many of them shamelessly glorify violence, conspicuous spending, and misogyny. All that is cool and very "street", but college kids singing about college life is elitist, and therefore reprehensible. What crapola.
Here's a good article about this issue.
But screw my rant -- just listen to them. That's the main thing.
EDIT:
Here are 3 of their songs:
Mansard Roof
A-Punk
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
