WHERE I HEAR YOU CRY, NOT MORE JOHNNY FOREIGNER!

but this is my blog and I'll rave about whoever I want to, as often as I want to. No, I'll let up on the Johnny Foreigner now (although I just read a bad review of the album and that upset me a bit, frankly) but I'd just like a second of sheer, unadulterated GLEE about the fact that they're apparently playing Latitude Festival. I didn't go to any festivals last summer, so this summer I'm camping out at Latitude for the whole weekend. This is a big deal for me, I've never actually camped at a festival before. Exciting. AND JOHNNY FOREIGNER WILL BE THERE.

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Sometimes I feel like the only person who doesn't give a shit about The Apprentice. It sounds so BORING. Why the fuck do I care who gets a horrible boring job doing horrible boring things? Business? Whatever. STOP TALKING ABOUT THE APPRENTICE. I know this is a blog about music, but I feel it needs to be said.

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Now, the reason I've been watching Jonathan Ross: Vampire Weekend! Vampire Weekend have managed to somehow become really popular without becoming annoying or shit. I'm not quite sure how they managed it, since Pitchfork readers seem to still like them while Radio 1 Listeners (not necessarily mutually exclusive, I know) get to join in the fun.

I'm not sure why Vampire Weekend are so appealing. I read something about how they're just so charming that it's hard not to like them. I think that's partly it. Reminds me a bit of Frank O'Hara I guess, there's something about the personality that just makes you want to like them. They seem like nice boys. That isn't really enough though, but the music manages to endure...

I haven't given the album enough of a listen yet. What I do know is that Oxford Comma, A-Punk, Walcott and ESPECIALLY The Kids Don't Stand A Chance manage to be catchy, a bit different but also totally pop. I'm not tired of them. I don't know Graceland, I don't know afrobeat at all, I'm sorry, but they manage to make slightly leftfield pop like it's completely natural, like it's summer and they're happy and they're drinking lemonade and ice and just want to let you in on the fun. They don't make music to sit in your room and think about the universe to. But then, their music's not dumb, their music's smart and yes, a bit different (not wildly, but enough) but it manages to reconcile this with having a good time. It's a bit like this B. S. Johnson book I read the other day, which was innovative and intelligent but also really easy to read and a lot of fun (unlike that book, though, Vampire Weekend don't have extreme anger and violence that their core, as far as I can tell).

Then there's the name. Vampire Weekend, I've heard a lot of people complaining, is a shit name. And it doesn't really fit. I quite like it, simply because it is so incongruous. I'd quite like to see the film that Ezra was making under the title, too. He's cute, in a very wide eyed way. Vampire Weekend are quite a cute band in general, music and look, but they manage not to ever become really annoying about it. I guess they might not stay so fresh for long, as the inevitable copycats are probably about to start, but for now I'm hoping that they endure and that we see more of their silly cute faces on television instead of those fuckers from Scouting For Girls.