Vampire Weekend - College Kids Rock Out

When you download an album on iTunes or buy it in the store, what do you expect to find? You just paid $9.99 (maybe more, maybe less). The cost could have been well worth it, or you could have been ripped off. Buying a new CD is always a risk, but it's a risk I am always ready to take.

I first heard about Vampire Weekend through my weekly radio show on Grove City College's 91.1. I didn't know what they sounded like, but I threw one of their songs onto the playlist and hoped for the best. It was about 10 seconds through the song "A-Punk" when I realized that these guys had an extremely catchy sound.

Their songs are perfect for the sunny afternoon stroll through campus, for a nice, relaxing summer nights drive with the windows down, etc.

However, I have heard people say bad things about this album. They say that every song sounds exactly the same. And you know what, they're right! But really, who cares? The unique quality of their sound allows for a repetition of sound. If I didn't like the way they sounded, why would I have bought the entire CD as opposed to just one or two songs?

Vampire Weekend is a diamond in the rough. I give this album four stars and recommend that you pick it up for a listen. Or forty.

Why I Don't Want to Write This Blog

At first I was really excited to start writing here. I was going to express all of my random and eccentric thoughts about anything that came to my mind...and people were going to love it. I would find out how to advertise my blog, build up a steady audience (an audience who would worship me for my witty ways with words), start selling ads on my blog, make money and buy a bunch of cool new stuff.

Then I sat down to put all of these incredibly wise words onto the World Wide Web and realized I really don't want to do this. Why? I tried really hard to understand. I thought, "I need to work on taking my inspirations and putting them down on paper." Then, shazzam! A topic suddenly popped into my head. My muse had spoken quickly and quietly into my ear.

I don't want to write this blog because I am lazy. Laziness, oh laziness, you are my guilty pleasure. And why am I lazy? I think you know why.

I am an American and I love to have other people do my work for me. As a culture, we outsource any job that we think is mildly boring. The low grade jobs (i.e. picking fruit and cleaning toilets) are being given to the illegal immigrants and the service jobs that are behind the curve of modern technology (i.e. manufacturing plants and call centers) are being shipped overseas to India.

We Americans are so materialistic and feeble-minded. However, this materialism has proved strangely beneficial in recent years because we have become the global trend-setters in both the business and pop-culture worlds.

The question is, are we going to stay on the edge of this curve or are we going to get left behind by the rapidly industrializing countries of the developping world?