The last couple of Three Tune Tuesdays went down the rock route so I am gonna bring it back a bit and present to you a more modern band that I really love. I am big into Paul Simon and his kind of happy tropical music. I love the jingle jangle guitar and the upbeat tempo and there is no modern band that carries this on other than Vampire Weekend.
Vampire Weekend are the kind of band that takes you out of cold rainy Ireland and plonks you travelling down the Hamptons mid summer. I think this is why their music is always on in the likes of Hollister and A&F. Now you may think they are a bit teeny bopper for me but I first seen Vampire Weekend at a festival in Ireland and I could not get over how accomplished the entire band were musically. They were like synchronised swimmers. One band member would play a melody, the other guitarist would play it an octave above or an octave below.
They were just absolutely brilliant. It was their first ever album and I have been into them ever since. They have matured alot from their first album but each album is excellent in its own right. I even fell in love with one of their album covers Contra. The lady in question did not know she was on the cover of a critically acclaimed album and sued soon after.
So the three songs I am going to go for are 3 close to my heard.
So this one is my holiday song. I play it before I go on holiday and when I am on holiday. Holiday holiday holiday. It's just my happy holiday song. I remember being on a beach in Aiya Napa, the song playing, sun shining. I think it was the most perfect few minutes of my life.
As a young girl
Louis Vuitton
With your mother
On a sandy lawn
As a sophomore
With reggaeton
And the linens
You're sitting on
Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to fuck?
Like you know I do
Like you know I do
But this feels so unnatural
Peter Gabriel too
Can you stay up
To see the dawn
In the colors
Of Benetton?
Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to
Like you know I do
Like you know I do
But this feels so unnatural
Peter Gabriel too
Is your bed made?
Is your sweater on?
Do you want to
Like you know I do
Like you know I do
When I spoke earlier about melodies and the band being in sync. This song just proves how good these guys are. I have been trying to nail this intro now for a while. It would be a perfect one to get down for a session in a pub. This intro us unreal.
An ancient business, a modern piece of glasswork
Down on the corner that you walk each day in passin'
The elderly sales clerk won't eye us with suspicion
The whole, immortal corporation's given its permission
A little stairway, a little piece of carpet
A pair of mirrors that are facing one another
Out in both directions, a thousand little Julias
That come together in the middle of Manhattan
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
Around the corner, the house that modern art built
A house for modern art to keep it out the closets
The people who might own it, the sins of pride and envy
And on the second floor, the Richard Serra Skate Park
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
Sit on the park wall, ask all the right questions
"Why are the horses racing taxis in the winter?"
Look up at the buildings, imagine who might live there
Imagining your wolfords in a ball upon the sink there
You waited since lunch
It all comes at once
I can't have a vampire weekend medley without A-punk. I t was hard to pick the last one because they have so many songs but it always gives me a little pep up this one.
Lyrics
Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson river all filled with snow
She spied the ring on His Honor's finger
Oh, oh, oh
A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lily white hand
Showed no fear, she'd seen the thing
In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
His Honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh, whoa, oh
I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half's at the bottom of the sea
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey
