Vampire Weekend

Is Rock Dead? Not If Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, More Can Help It

04 Jan 2011 13:16:40 EST

Rock bands had a hard time breaking through in 2010, but our critics say new indie groups might be nirvana for the genre.
By Gil Kaufman

There was a time not long ago when good-old fashioned meat-and-potatoes rockers like Nickelback, Hinder and Disturbed frequently landed albums in the top 10 and reeled off solid chart singles. Then came a new generation of bands like MGMT, Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire who were heralded as the saviors of a limping-along genre that had been overtaken by pop cuties like Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.

"In 2010, we just didn't see the people like the MGMTs, who potentially could have taken over the top from being a great niche artist to being a pop sensation [take off]," said Noah Callahan-Bever, editor in chief of Complex magazine, addressing the psychedelic duo's confounding, sometimes confusing second album, Congratulations.

But maybe it was just an off year and, as Elliott Wilson, founder and CEO of Rap Radar, suggested, we're due for the kind of musical flushing of the pipes we experienced back in 1991 with the rise of Nirvana. Back then, music was emerging from an era of spandex and lipstick ruled by a generation of hair-metal bands like Poison and Mötley Crüe, as well as mega-selling boy bands like New Kids on the Block, when the punk-fueled trio started a revolution that shook up the industry.

With the airwaves currently flooded with hip-hop/R&B collaborations and dance floor-ready pop, Wilson said a riff-fueled correction could be on the horizon. "I think rock is due for that kind of Nirvana-esque explosion," he said. "I think it's just gonna be the right artist with something different, with more of the tradition of the foundations of rock — great melodies and songwriting, hard guitars and a kick-ass kind of attitude."

With rap stars such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Drake and Lil Wayne taking on the mantle of rock stars thanks to fast-selling albums, hit singles, major tours and an embrace of live backing bands, what rock needs to storm back is a group with a dynamic frontman who can capture music lovers' attention, or a sound that can spawn a million imitators.

In the meantime, urban artists have certainly taken their cues from rockers, with Rihanna employing heavy guitars on "Rockstar 101," Wayne releasing his "rock" album, Rebirth, last year, and Jay-Z opening for U2 and reportedly cooking up a collaboration with the White Stripes' Jack White called "Ray Bans."

And while 2011 will not suffer from a lack of new music from rockers, with tentatively scheduled new efforts from U2, the Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Radiohead, the Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, My Morning Jacket, a reunited Blink-182, the Decemberists and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we're still looking for the act that will help tip the balance.

Like so much of the music biz, the rock charts in 2010 showed a further splintering of the audience for the genre, according to New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica. "What happened this year is you really got a stratification of the rock audience," he said. "If you look at a Billboard rock chart you got bands like Shinedown, Godsmack and these hard bands that have absolutely no play in major cities. And then at the same time you have this creeping up of Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend who had a lot of traction at indie rock for a long time and all of a sudden had #1 records."

Caramanica, like Wilson, argued that the rise of those indie acts is similar to the arc of the Seattle grunge bands of the early 1990s. In time, he predicted, you may see mainstream rock influenced by their sound. "I think a few years from now we'll be sitting here talking about rock bands that grew up on Vampire Weekend."

Do you think rock is due for a revival? Tell us in the comments!

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Vampire Weekend Draw Inspiration From Kate Hudson For New Album

13 Dec 2010 12:47:24 EST

Frontman Ezra Koenig says watching 'Love Guru,' 'Bride Wars' is helping band 'think about the art' they want to make.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Matt Elias

In 2010, Vampire Weekend released a rather amazing album of pan-ethnic pop, debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, showed up on the "Eclipse" soundtrack, hung out with Lil Jon, the RZA, a very drunk Jake Gyllenhaal and a Jonas Brother and even got sued by the unwitting star of their Contra album cover.

Needless to say, it was a pretty hectic year, the kind most bands would follow with a rather lengthy (and well-deserved) break. But, as they told MTV News on Sunday at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Los Angeles, Vampire Weekend aren't most bands: They're already in the early stages of work on the follow-up to Contra. To be honest, though, they've been in those early stages for a while now.

"We're always thinking about the next album. ... I would say we've been thinking about the next album since before we finished the last one. It's natural. ... I think that's the way we work," frontman Ezra Koenig said. "In terms of working on it, have the four of us gotten into the studio and started laying down tracks for it? Not in any formal way, but in some way that's not even the most important part of the process. So the ball's already rolling. When and how we start working on it — we definitely need a break — but the talking about ideas, that's already happened, and there's definitely stuff floating around."

And just where have VW been gathering inspiration for that "stuff"? Why, from the works of noted auteurs Mike Myers, that dude who plays Dwight on "The Office" and, uh, Kate Hudson, of course.

"Collectively, we've been watching a lot of big-budget comedies that may or may not have been successful at the box office," drummer Chris Tomson said with a smile.

"Usually not successful," Koenig added. " 'The Love Guru,' a notorious financial failure, 'The Rocker,' [that] didn't do too well at the box office, 'Bride Wars,' that was the exception. ... Any time you interact with a piece of art — whether it's something that goes on to be your favorite or something that maybe you find issue with — still, that's going to help you think about the art you want to make."

Sounds, uh, interesting. Still, though they're working on a new album, Koenig cautions that it's going to be a while before fans actually hear it. After the year they've had, VW have sort of earned the right to take their time with things — not to mention the fact that they're still waiting for "Date Night" to make it to the top of their Netflix queue.

"Knowing us, it takes us a very long time to make an album," Koenig said. "Is it possible that things from the Vampire Weekend family could come out in 2011? I'm sure, but a Vampire Weekend album ... I don't see any reason to rush it."

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Vampire Weekend's Contra Cover Girl Talks Lawsuit

25 Aug 2010 13:20:46 EDT

Former model and photographer go back and forth in new Vanity Fair over album art.
By James Montgomery

In a new Vanity Fair story, both sides in the ongoing Vampire Weekend Contra cover-girl lawsuit — that would be former model Ann Kirsten Kennis and photographer Tod Brody — sound off. (VW refused to comment.) And judging from what they have to say, this thing isn't going to be resolved anytime soon.

At the heart of the suit (which Kennis' lawyer, Alan Neigher, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court back in July) is a single Polaroid of the towheaded model taken in 1983 and whether Vampire Weekend, XL Recordings or Brody ever attained Kennis' permission to use it on the now-famous cover of VW's Contra album. The band, the label and the photographer all insist they followed the appropriate steps — even getting a signed release from Kennis — while she claims she was unaware that her image was being used by the band and any release is certainly a forgery.

"It felt like someone was exploiting me," Kennis told VF. "Who do these people think they are that they can just take my picture from God only knows where and plaster it everywhere?"

In her lawsuit, Kennis claims that Vampire Weekend purchased the photograph of her for $5,000 from Brody, who claims he took the picture in the summer of 1983 during a casting session for a television commercial. (Over the course of her career, Kennis appeared in print and TV ads for companies like L'Oreal, Revlon and Jordache, to name just a few.) But Kennis disputes that assertion and says Brody didn't shoot the Polaroid — she thinks her mother might have.

"It's not even like it's a Polaroid before a photo shoot, because the hair's not done, the makeup's not done, the lighting's not done. Nothing. It almost looks like somebody caught me by surprise," she said. "The other thing that's strange about this photo is that it's not taken [in front of a] seamless [backdrop] like it would be in a photographer's studio. You can see a doorframe there and hinges right in the background."

Brody, not surprisingly, disagrees, telling VF that there were "probably a dozen people in the room" when the Polaroid was taken, among them representatives for the ad agency and the commercial's director.

"We probably saw 20 or 30 [models] that day," he said. "I don't think I held on to any of the other [Polaroids] from that day. I wish I had, frankly, because they all would have been taken up against the same wall."

Brody's claim is backed up by Kennis' former agent, Sue Charney, who said: "To me, it is very clearly a Polaroid taken at a casting session."

Brody adds that he kept the photo of Kennis because he "thought it was a cool photo" and that it had been tacked onto a wall in his studio, along with "hundreds of Polaroids." But he wouldn't comment on the contested photographic release form or how the photo ended up in Vampire Weekend's possession, saying, "I'm not going to address the merits of her case or anything else ... we will try that in court, not in Vanity Fair or in the media."

Kennis' suit was filed in California, one of the 28 states in the U.S. that honors the right of publicity, which makes the release form all-important. If it is found to be authentic by a judge, Kennis will likely have no legal claim. But if a judge decides the release is fake, she may have a very strong claim to misappropriation of identity, and therefore could be entitled to millions. In a 2005 California case, a jury awarded ex-model Russell Christoff $15.6 million after concluding that an unauthorized image of his face accounted for 5 percent of sales of Taster's Choice coffee.

What do you think about the suit against Vampire Weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Kid Cudi, Vampire Weekend & Best Coast Stars Talk 'All Summer' Collabo

22 Jul 2010 19:16:27 EDT

Occasional 'frustration' of fusing their varied musical styles makes it 'a good summer song,' says VW's Rostam Batmanglij.
By Mawuse Ziegbe, with reporting by Matt Harper

Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij didn't really know what to expect when it came to collaborating with Kid Cudi and Bethany Cosentino of surf/pop outfit Best Coast. But the star was taken aback by how chill it was to make their song "All Summer," their breezy contribution to Converse's "3 Artists 1 Song" series.

"I was nervous, so I had a couple ideas. I had some production ideas and some lyrics ideas and some melodies," Batmanglij told MTV News on Tuesday at New York's Music Hall of Williamsburg, where Cudi and Cosentino joined him to perform the song, which can be downloaded for free at Converse.com. "Bethany and I just started ... vibing off each other. It actually was kind of scary how easy it was."

When Cudi came into the recording process, Batmanglij and Cosentino had already had their initial vibe session, but the Cleveland rapper decided to shake things up a bit and put his stamp on the collaboration.

"I was surprised when Cudi was like, 'I wanna rap over that.' I was like, 'You wanna rap over that part? That's not the part [for you],' " Batmanglij laughed. Eventually, Batmanglij let the "Day 'N' Nite" MC approach the track his way, admitting that the final result worked out. "He was so right," the VW multi-instrumentalist said.

Combining the beachy rock of Best Coast, the hazy hip-hop of Kid Cudi and the sunny, tribal-pop of Vampire Weekend to create the ultimate summer jam is a tall order. And the trio knew it.

"[There were] moments where it could have gone all bad ... just all of us just being creative people," Cudi observed. "But I think since the energy was good ... we all found a way and we hit a couple brick walls but we found ways around it."

Batmanglij thinks those bumps in the road actually brought some character to the record. "I think that's what kinda makes the song a good summer song because there was frustration and there was tension," he said. "Hopefully, that's a little bit captured in the song. Summer's, like, f---ed up; it has its ups and downs."

But don't think the trio won't get back in the studio together. Cudi said he'd love to work with the musicians again and Bethany already has an idea for the next collaboration: "The sequel to this song is called 'Next Summer.' "

Is "All Summer" the perfect song for the season? Tell us what you think in the comments!

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Vampire Weekend 'Look Forward' To Resolving Contra Lawsuit, Label Says

19 Jul 2010 13:43:48 EDT

Frontman Ezra Koenig calls album-cover suit 'a little frustrating.'
By James Montgomery

Last week, Ann Kirsten Kennis — the cover star of Vampire Weekend's Contra album — filed suit against the band in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that her signature was forged on photographer Tod Brody's photographic release.

At the time, VW's label, XL Recordings, told MTV News they had "no comment" on Kennis' lawsuit, and the only comment from the band itself was a winking emoticon tweeted by frontman Ezra Koenig.

Since then, things have changed.

First, Entertainment Weekly spoke to Kennis' attorney and Brody, who, somewhat understandably, had differing opinions about the suit.

Alan Neigher, who is representing Kennis, said his client was unaware that a Polaroid of her was being used by the band until her daughter told her, adding that the picture was "taken by her family" in 1983 and Kennis "has no idea how that photograph got into the photographer's hands."

Brody — the photographer — laughed when he heard Neigher's claims, maintaining that not only did he take the photo, but that it "was in my possession the entire time, for 26 years, until it was delivered to Vampire Weekend."

And late Friday, reps for XL sent a statement about the lawsuit to MTV News, saying they did their due diligence when securing the rights to the photo and that they "look forward" to proving that claim in court.

"As is standard practice, Vampire Weekend and XL Recordings licensed the rights to use the photo on the cover of Contra pursuant to a license agreement that contains representations and warranties authorizing this use of the photo," the statement read. "Now that a lawsuit has been filed, we look forward to having the matter resolved in Court. We will be filing our response after we have had an opportunity to review the allegations. Consistent with our practice, we will not be commenting further about the pending litigation at this time."

And finally, during a talk with British mag NME at this past weekend's Latitude festival, Koenig broke his silence, saying he and his bandmates found the entire experience — and the inability to speak openly about it — "a little frustrating"

"I think I can speak for all of us and say this is the first time any of us have ever been sued, so we're still learning how it works," he said "There's so many things we could say about it, but given we have no experience of it, we're just keeping conversations to a journal for now, which is a little frustrating.

"There's nothing we can say about it," he continued. "We're not trying to be mysterious. I imagine in the next few months, there'll be plenty to talk about. Given it's our first time, we just want to do it properly."

What do you think about the suit against Vampire Weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Vampire Weekend's Contra Cover Girl Sues The Band

15 Jul 2010 17:41:00 EDT

Ann Kirsten Kennis claims her signature was forged on the photo release.
By James Montgomery

Well, after months of speculation, we finally know who the wide-eyed WASP-y girl on the cover of Vampire Weekend's Contra album is — but the guys in VW probably would have preferred if everyone were kept in the dark.

That's because on Wednesday, the blond, Polo-wearing woman on the cover of the album — her name is Ann Kirsten Kennis, btw — filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming the band (or, as they're referred to in the suit, "Vampire Weekend, Inc") and photographer Tod Brody used her image without her permission.

At the heart of the suit is a photographic release VW obtained from Brody, one Kennis claims contains her forged signature. Kennis — who is suing the band and the photographer for more than $2 million, on the grounds that neither party bothered to verify the legitimacy of the release — also said she took the original photo back in 1983 but had no idea it was featured on the cover of Contra until the band began promoting the album in November.

On Thursday (July 15), an officer in the Public Information office of the L.A. Superior Court verified to MTV News that the suit had been filed. A spokesperson for Vampire Weekend's label, XL Recordings, told MTV News she had no comment about the suit.

Contra was released back in January and debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart. Back in October, the band stopped by the MTV Newsroom to talk about the album — and the iconic cover image — but they played things close to the vest:

"We haven't met her, we don't know her," bassist Chris Baio laughed.

"We're not being very specific about it. The picture is from 1983, but the last album cover was from 2006, and they kind of look like they both inhabit the same world," frontman Ezra Koenig added. "When we saw this image, we just found it very striking. And part of it is the look on her face. It's not about the color of her hair, or the fact that she's wearing a Polo shirt. What makes it interesting is her face."

What do you think about the lawsuit against Vampire Weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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The Best Albums Of 2010 (So Far)

30 Jun 2010 06:52:15 EDT

Vampire Weekend, Janelle Monáe and more have provided the soundtrack for the first six months of the year, in Bigger Than the Sound.
By James Montgomery

The first half of 2010 is in the books, and if you're a fan of oil spills, Tea Parties and vuvuzelas, well, congratulations on having the best six months of your entire life.

For the rest of us, January through June has been a bit of a bummer. If you're like me, you've found refuge from the bad news in good music, and thankfully, there's been a whole lot of that so far this year too.

If you've been asleep at the switch (or hiding out in your bunker), I don't blame you. But there's really no excuse for missing out on soul-charging, life-changing music — even if some of it really is pretty sad. So, as a public service to the trembling masses, here are my picks for the Best Albums of 2010 (so far).

10a. The Wave Pictures, If You Leave It Alone/Instant Coffee Baby
Ultra-literate, supremely swoony Brit pop, courtesy of Morrissey-in-the-making David Tattersall, this double album collects two of their most recent (and best) LPs for the first time here in the States. Of course, given that they came out in 2006 and 2008, respectively, it feels sort of like cheating to include all of this on a Best of 2010 list, so, instead ...

10b. Kate Nash, My Best Friend Is You
The sound of being young and brilliant and tormented and so wonderfully, frighteningly in love that you don't know whether to scream or cry, My Best Friend Is You represents Kate Nash at her most scattershot, squeaky and downright smart. Ditching the studio polish that dragged down her debut (2007's Made of Bricks), she teamed up with Bernard Butler to make an album that's rough, sprawling and unafraid to get plain weird, which is probably how we ended up with songs like "Paris" "Kiss That Grrrl" or "Don't You Want to Share the Guilt," which ram together '60s girl groups, '90s riot grrrl and '70s boho spoken-word punk. Confident one minute, conflicted the next, Nash is a complex gal, indeed, and while it's hard being young and gifted, for the first time, she seems ready to accept the responsibilities and carry the mantle.

9. Tobacco, Maniac Meat
As the frontman of Pittsburgh weirdos Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tom Fec buries his vocals in a marshmallowy mash of vocoders and buzz. As Tobacco, well, he pretty much does the same thing, only he's somehow upped the weirdness. Maniac Meat is a twitchy, witchy listen, darker and more perverse than anything he's previously done. Kind of like a mohair sweater on bare skin, the tracks here itch and irritate (in the best way possible), and you're probably gonna end up with a rash. But you listen anyway. Throw in a couple of Beck cameos (on "Fresh Hex" and the excellently named "Grape Aerosmith") that find the former Odelay madman sounding fresher than he has in years, and Meat only continues to fester. Don't pick at the scabs.

8. Yeasayer, Odd Blood
What happens when one of Brooklyn's brightest bands decides "Screw this, let's make a pop record"? Odd Blood, of course. Perhaps the most fittingly titled album in recent memory, it's a wavy, dreamy listen, full of supple, electronic fields that undulate and dip, creating precipitous peaks and delving canyons, with frontman Chris Keating's otherworldly vocals floating above it all like plump clumps of cumulonimbus — all of which is a rather bookish way of saying that Britney, Katy and Gaga wish they could sound this good. Pop music for the 22nd century and beyond.

7. Against Me! White Crosses
Just as polished and unabashed as their divisive 2007 major-label bow New Wave, still as snarling as 2005's Searching for a Former Clarity, White Crosses somehow also ushers in a brand-new chapter for Gainesville, Florida, punkers Against Me! Frontman Tom Gabel has settled down, gotten married and welcomed a child into the world, which is perhaps why, here, he seems a tad bit, well, reserved. But it could also be that, after more than a decade spent raging against the machine, he's finally realized that the problems haven't changed, the enemies have multiplied, and the rich just keep on winning. So instead, he turns his ire inward, railing against pinheaded crust punks he used to run with (on unlikely radio staple "I Was a Teenage Anarchist") and the suffocating Florida suburbs of his youth. Turns out, the past sucks just as much as the present. And in the process, the snarl somehow only gets fiercer.

6. Sleigh Bells, Treats
Sounds like: cheerleader camp, power tools f---ing, the "level-up" music on any NES game (circa 1988), a really sh---y Sanyo boom box, double Dutch, hyperspace, hellfire, hurricanes, a more polite Motörhead, Three 6 Mafia's "Stay Fly," Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That" ('cause they sample it), Brassy (thanks, Weingarten), Crystal Castles on Quaaludes, Link Wray on Amphetamines, the impending robot apocalypse, "Top Gun," summer, guard dogs, drugs and joy. In theory, Sleigh Bells are just a guy, a girl, a guitar, some (seriously) overworked machinery and a whole lot of distortion. But in actuality, they're so much more.

5. LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening
In 2007, James Murphy wrote the coda for New York's once-bright electroclash scene with "All My Friends," a bittersweet beauty of a song that also doubled as a rather perfect rumination on the unstoppable advance of middle age (something he's been dreading for a while now, actually). Thankfully, he hasn't shuffled off into pleated-khaki obsolescence just yet, and, if anything, on This Is Happening, he seems to be coming to terms with his lack of cool, lamenting, "Everybody's getting younger" (on album-opener "Dance Yrself Clean"), rolling his eyes at the drunk girls on the dance floor, extolling the virtues of finding "good places to eat" in his neighborhood, and picking fights with Village Voice gossip columnists — just because. Acerbic, sarcastic, downright hilarious (and, sometimes, even downright sad), Murphy's like Randy Newman, only for bloggers and kids who still take drugs and dance all night, and minus the paunch and the Hawaiian shirts. For now, at least.

4. Janelle Monáe, The ArchAndroid
So far, it's the year's most un-categorizeable album, a conceptual cluster-frick that leaps between genres with the same glee Monáe seemingly gets from pulling her hair up in that outrageous pompadour. Sweaty funk, honey-dripping soul, pastoral folk, paranoid psych — it's all here, and it's all great. Over the course of 18 tracks, the pint-size Monáe weaves a dystopian narrative that's part "Blade Runner," part "Metropolis," managing to out-Badu Erykah and out ATL-ien Outkast ("Cold War," which just might be the year's best song, rages and wails like the baby sister of Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad"). Ambitious, impressive stuff, even if you can't adequately describe it to anyone who may be interested.

3. Titus Andronicus, The Monitor
Sure, it's flawed — a tad too long, a bit unfocused, a little muddied, production-wise — but one expects those sorts of things, especially when a band this young attempts an album this ambitious. The Monitor is, after all, a concept album, though said concept is sort of hard to define: In part, it's about the Civil War (it takes its name from the first ironclad ship built by the U.S. Navy), but it's also about wild-eyed frontman Patrick Stickles' quest to figure out life in the 21st century, a journey that takes him from the safe confines of New Jersey to the unfriendly confines of Boston and back again. He never quite finds what he's been searching for and, in the end, learns that things are just as fractious as they were 150 years ago — perhaps even more so. Tent-poled by three truly epic tunes ("A More Perfect Union," "Four Score and Seven" and "The Battle of Hampton Road") that keep the whole thing from sagging in on itself, The Monitor is the kind of album so big, so bold and so unabashed that you learn to love it, warts and all. Sometimes it pays to dream big.

2. Vampire Weekend, Contra
Four years ago, Vampire Weekend were thrust into the spotlight with their self-titled debut and suffered all the slings and arrows that come with that kind of overnight success. Sure, with their pique polos, boat shoes and penchant for, uh, borrowing from the Soweto sound of South Africa, they brought a lot of it upon themselves — but you couldn't blame them for being a bit taken aback by it all. After all, one can only be picked apart by critics (and anonymous blog commenters) for so long before they snap. And, well, Contra is the result. It's by no means an angry album; rather, it's a determined one, a well-conceived, flawlessly executed "f--- you" to their detractors. From the WASPy gal on the cover to the culturally loaded content of tunes like "Horchata" and "Holiday," this is VW at their most resolute. "This is who we are," they seem to be saying. "Deal with it." Of course, they back it all up with a boatload of really great tunes — "Cousins," "Giving Up the Gun," the album-closing ti

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27 May 2010 00:44:58 EDT

Low-budget clip for Contra single shows band dressed in powdered wigs and stockings and ordering burgers.
By James Montgomery

Vampire Weekend's "Holiday" is a rather cutting assessment of capitalism and colonialism and the special sort of cocoon both those things help create. With lyrical nods to republics on the beach, the tea trade and a girl who decides to protest the war by going vegetarian (as opposed to, you know, doing anything that may actually help), it's the kind of whip-smart pop that's in short supply these days — a cranky and clever tweaking of hideous Americans abroad, and equally hideous Americans at home.

Needless to say, "Holiday" probably won't be burning up the nation's airwaves anytime soon, but that hasn't stopped VW from releasing it as the third single off their surprisingly successful Contra album. And you can sort of understand why. After scoring a #1 album and a pair of unlikely rock-radio hits, they're playing with house money at this point anyway.

To accompany their odd choice for a single, the band has delivered an equally odd video, a delightfully low-budget clip (no Jake Gyllenhaal here) that sees the Vampire guys parading around Southern California dressed as dandy, European gentlemen of leisure. Powdered wigs, waistcoats, breeches, stockings and a whole lot of ruffled accoutrements — it's all there.

And while it may be hilarious to watch them prance around SoCal, order In-N-Out Burger (at least, I think it's In-N-Out Burgers) and pound on surfers down by the beach, there's probably a deeper message here: These are exactly the same kind of out-of-touch, entitled intellectuals frontman Ezra Koenig is singing about in the song — only from about 300 years ago. These powdered ponces conquered, enslaved and trampled those less fortunate than them, and did so for centuries, before they were eventually overthrown (and mostly beheaded) by the same folks they'd been subjugating.

I'll let you draw the comparisons to, say, the last 50 years of U.S. foreign policy or the creeping advance of capitalism on the undeveloped world ... and what may very well be waiting around the corner for us one day if we keep it up. Or, you know, you could just laugh at the dudes in the funny wigs. It kind of works either way.

And that's sort of the brilliance of Vampire Weekend. "Holiday" might not be the same kind of hit as "Cousins" or "Giving Up the Gun," but that's hardly the point. Just by getting this one out there, they've already won, even if it's just a tiny victory. Don't let the boat shoes and pique polo shirts fool you — Vampire Weekend are downright dangerous dudes. That you can dance to, of course.

Do you think "Holiday" will be another Vampire Weekend hit? Let us know in the comments.

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Jake Gyllenhaal Channels John McEnroe For Vampire Weekend Video

13 May 2010 15:05:32 EDT

'I basically changed into a tennis outfit, and I got down,' he tells MTV News of 'Giving Up the Gun' cameo.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Vanessa White Wolf

Vampire Weekend's "Giving Up the Gun" video is a smorgasbord of thoroughly WTF cameos — everyone from Joe Jonas to Lil Jon shows up at one point or another — but perhaps no guest star is as perplexing as Jake Gyllenhaal. After all, with a relatively huge summer movie to promote (the swords-n-sandals epic "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"), you'd think he'd have more important things on his schedule.

Turns out, nothing could be further from the truth.

"That was just amazing, because I love that band, and I love their first album, and I had recently just got their second album," Gyllenhaal told MTV News. "I got a call from the directors, who are friends of mine ... and they were like, 'We're doing this thing, and we heard you're a big fan of the band. We didn't know if you wanted to come down.' I was actually in San Francisco, and they were shooting it in Los Angeles, and they were like, 'We're shooting it this evening,' so I said, 'All right, I'm there.' So I drove down from San Francisco to this soundstage in downtown L.A., and I basically changed into a tennis outfit, and I got down."

In the clip, Gyllenhaal plays a hard-swinging, even harder-boozing tennis pro, a role that, surprisingly, wasn't that much of a stretch for the Oscar-nominated actor.

"Well, that's the only way anyone's going to beat me, if I'm that wasted," he joked. "They call me, like, the John McEnroe of action films."

And though, yes, he does have a film to promote, Gyllenhaal said he'd drop everything if the guys from Vampire Weekend came calling again. Just as long as "Gun" co-stars Jonas, Jon and the RZA are involved. After all, he's old pals with all of them.

"It was really fun. I met the band and hung out with them. They're all really cool guys ... and the Jonas Brothers, the RZA and Lil Jon, we all usually chill anyway," he joked. "Actually, we were up in San Francisco, and I was like, 'You guys, do you want to come down with me?' And Lil Jon was like, 'I'm busy,' and I was like, 'Come on, man, get in the car!' So we all chilled out, listened to the whole album, and the RZA was dope. He was great. He sat shotgun, because that's where he likes to sit usually. ... We all hang out because we're all really good friends."

What did you think of the cameos in the Vampire Weekend video? Let us know in the comments!

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Vampire Weekend

'Eclipse' Soundtrack Includes Band Of Horses, Sia, Cee-Lo

12 May 2010 18:52:05 EDT

Previously announced artists include Vampire Weekend, Muse, Beck and the Dead Weather.
By James Montgomery

We already knew about Muse, and, then, throughout the day on Wednesday (May 12), we gradually added even more names to the list — Vampire Weekend, Beck and the Bravery, to rattle off just a few. And now, finally, we know it all: every artist that will contribute a song to the much-anticipated "Eclipse" soundtrack.

Yes, over the course of seven very long hours, the folks at MySpace Music gradually revealed the list of artists and songs that would appear on the album, due June 8. Now, that list is complete.

From the looks of things, it's shaping up to be a pretty excellent affair. In addition to the previously announced artists, we get a whole lot of indie (Florence and the Machine, Metric, Sia and Band of Horses); genuine fist-pumping, throat-ripping rock and roll (from Jack White's the Dead Weather and Akron thumpers the Black Keys); ominous electro (UNKLE, who team up with the Black Angels on a track); oddball hip-hop (from Cee-Lo Green); and even some of the classy stuff, courtesy of Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore, who weighs in with "Jacob's Theme."

As announced on author Stephenie Meyer's website last week, the first single from the "Eclipse" soundtrack is slated to be Muse's rather epically titled "Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)," which will hit radio Monday.

The "Eclipse" soundtrack complete track list:

1. Metric, "Eclipse (All Yours)"
2. Muse, "Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)"
3. The Bravery, "Ours"
4. Florence and the Machine, "Heavy in Your Arms"
5. Sia, "My Love"
6. Fanfarlo, "Atlas"
7. The Black Keys, "Chop and Change"
8. The Dead Weather, "Rolling in on a Burning Tire"
9. Beck and Bat for Lashes, "Let's Get Lost"
10. Vampire Weekend, "Jonathan Low"
11. UNKLE (featuring the Black Angels), "With You in My Head"
12. Eastern Conference Champions, "A Million Miles an Hour"
13. Band of Horses, "Life on Earth"
14. Cee-Lo Green, "What Part of Forever"
15. Howard Shore, "Jacob's Theme"

What do you think of the "Eclipse" soundtrack lineup? Sound off in the comments!

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse."

For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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