Original Video for our chosen song: Vampire Weekend- Cape cod kwassa kwassa

Why?
I think it's important to include the bands original video on the blog because it will help us as a group to understand how the band is portraying the song and how we can use our own imagination to hopefully create something different and unique. It will also provide us with a "feel" of what the band is about.
The video is mostly narrative based and also concept driven. It's about a punk girl entering a world of a different genre of people- she is the outcast and the audience are persuaded to sympathise with her because of her situation. The costumes connote her as a goth/punk (she is wearing black) and the people around her are wearing bright colours. This could also represent the social groups present amongst this age group in American society.
The group are present in the video, this enables the audience to relate to the band and understand what they are about. The main singer acts within the music video as well, and this shows that they are active within their own music video and they think they can convey the emotion for their song.
Concerning the music, it has been refered to "as if imitating 1950s calypso" by musicOMH (a UK-based website which publishes independent reviews). The band refers to this song as having connections with African sounding songs and "Kwassa Kwassa" refers to a dance rhythm from Congo.


Some background information on the song...
In 2005, vocalist Erza Koenig travelled through London en route to India and said that the trip got him "thinking a lot about colonialism and the aesthetic connections between preppy culture and the native cultures of places like Africa and India." This inspired Koenig to write a short story exploring those connections, and called it "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", from which the song was named.


From the music video and various background information, Vampire Weekend seem to put a lot of thought into their songs, and they may not be as random as they sound. They use mostly concept-driven themes but sometimes include a narrative to cover the themes. There is humour in their videos and they seem to promote a fun attitude as well.

Peter Gabriel?

Within our chosen track “Cape cod kwassa kwassa” it mentions the name ‘Peter Gabriel’ within the lines:

“But this feels so unnatural
 Peter Gabriel too”

So I decided to look him up on the internet because I didn’t know who he was, here is some information I found on wikipedia:

He is an English singer, musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. In 2007 Gabriel was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.” Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

He seems like an inspirational person.

(Source: Wikipedia)