New Vampire Weekend, biotches!

and this:


Well, I was told I should actually write something when I write a blog, rather than just posting videos and songs. I could write something about the history of Vampire Weekend, how their name is taken from a film that the lead singer, Ezra Koenig (who, I might add, looks sort of like George McFly to me) made, also called Vampire Weekend. I'm guessing it's not all that. They met while attending Columbia University, and refer to their music as Upper West Side Soweto, owing to African popular music and Western classical music. You can read all about them here, if you're interested in that stuff.
There's also the offical site and this, whatever IT IS.


No, what I want to tell you is a mini-tale. A tale of moral compromise, of success, of spoiled rich kids, of the devil. And it is completely baseless and fabricated.

There were these spoiled rich kids who went to Columbia University, and their parents paid for it all. They were prototypical preppies, a little bored and a little mean-spirited, but not evil. After dabbling in this and that, looking for something to fulfill their yawning boredom, they decided to form a band.
One day they were out carousing, and found themselves at a crossroads. A tall, dark man with a guitar approached them, and without sounding strange or out of place, suggested he might be able to help them with their band, that he could guarantee success for a small price. Although the situation was indeed strange, the young boys lacked self-awareness or sense of danger, having been sheltered all their lives. "Hell, yeah!" they said.
And thus Vampire Weekend was born. Lyrically strange, their music still held in it a inexplicable hook, making it ultimately listenable, catchy, and damn hard to get out of your head once in place ("Blake's got a new face!").
The price has yet to be named, but the tall, dark man stands holding his guitar, waiting in the shadows to collect as he watches the boys reap the success he has himself sowed for them.

Um, as for the songs: Horchata I heard first, and while not immediately catchy, it has grown on me - it certainly has that Vampire Weekend "sound", different and intersting.
Cousins came next and it was instantly catchy - due, perhaps in part to the video.
I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the album and listening to it ad nauseum without being able to help myself.

iTunes (or iPod) Roulette

Put iTunes or your iPod on shuffle and take note of the first ten songs it plays, regardless....

1. Safety Dance (12" Version) - Men Without Hats

2. Hard To Handle - Otis Redding

3. The Host of Seraphim - Dead Can Dance

4. Slow Walker - Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

5. ...And The Gods Made Love - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

6. Fear in Flight - Alexkid feat. Ursula Rucker

7. Flip Flop Rock - Outkast feat. Jay-Z

8. You Really Got A Hold On Me - The Beatles

9. Blackbird On The Wire - The Beautiful South

10. Tame - Pixies

What a sad, sad day.

Mixwit is no longer available to us. All those mixes I made will no longer be. What a bummer. What a great site. Let's just hope there's something else out there for us. What a terrible break-up. I never saw it coming. I'm off to chow down on some chocolate. It'll take me awhile to get over this.

Cool tunes for your listening pleasure.

Mixwit Rules.

The Dandy Warhols

what do you think of this?

Kind of catchy. A remix AND art contest. Perhaps I'll do something.

Tuesday's Tunes

Neil Halstead

I have to take a few minutes out of my day to talk about Neil Halstead. He's an English songwriter and muscian. His voice is like chocolate in my mouth. I stumbled across his music and heard only one song and knew I'd be hooked. Ever listen to one song from a new artist and just know it's going to be a long, wonderful relationship? Here's the song that stole my heart.



I just bought his second solo album titled Oh! Mighty Engine from itunes which came out in 2008. The $9.99 I spent on this album has been worth every penny. His debut album called Sleeping on Roads is also just as good.

I love this quote I found online. Neil Halstead writes "the kind of honest, heartfelt love songs men are too scared or too cool to write these days".

If you want to read more about Neil Halstead go here and here.