Sucking the meaning out of “indie”
There’s no doubt that the music industry has changed immensely in the past decade or so, but sometimes it’s difficult to grasp the gravity of the situation. For example, three years ago Vampire Weekend was merely an internet buzz band without a debut album. Their Afro-pop tinged east coast snob-rock caught on, blogs fanned the flames, they toured the summer circuit extensively, and today it’s a much much different story. Not only did Contra, their sophomore effort, sell about 124,000 copies in its first week (an eyebrow-raising effort this day and age), but it apparently became only the fourth time in the 21st century that an independently-released album hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. “Indie” used to have a completely different meaning, one that did not signify whiplash-quick ascension of Billboard charts. Yet, this just adds some more interesting variables to the landscape. It just shows that, with a bit of luck, any band that’s very good can go at it alone without major label fat cats dipping into their pockets. Anyways, here are some recent remixes of the NYC-based quartet’s new album tracks
Vampire Weekend - “Cousins (Toy Selectah remix)”
Vampire Weekend - “Horchata (GMGN remix)”
Vampire Weekend - “Horchata “Christian TV remix)”
