Step Oxford Comma Harmony Hall A-Punk Vampire Weekend

Step Album: Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
Oxford Comma Album: Vampire Weekend (2008)
Harmony Hall Album: Father of the Bride (2019)
A-Punk Album: Vampire Weekend (2008)
by Vampire Weekend

Step has a Hip-Hop element. Singer Ezra Koenig told NME: "It's a sample from a (rapper) YZ song, and I came to know his lyrics through a Souls Of Mischief song called 'Step To My Girl' – and the melody they sampled is from a '70s song called ' Aubrey' by Bread."

Step concludes with a low-pitch vocal similar to that of New York MC A$AP Rocky. Digital Spy asked guitarist/keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij if it was inspired by the rapper? He replied: "We've worked on music for a long time together and we've experimented with pitching down vocals a bunch. It's not something that's inspired us recently; we've done it for ten years, if you could dig up all our experiments together!"

Asked if this meant Vampire Weekend were A$AP Rocky before he was, Batmanglij laughed and continued: "Yeah. That's not to say he doesn't bring his own style and courage to the way he does it. I think he's pushing boundaries with the extent to which he's doing it. But yeah, it's nothing new."
Batmanglij told NME: "That song is about people who can be possessive over music they love, and it's also about other songs."

Koenig told the story of Step to MTV News: "That song started through this Souls of Mischief rarity, called 'Step To My Girl;' I discovered it and I really liked the line 'Every time I see you in the world. You always step to my girl,' so I found myself writing some other melodies and lyrics, writing this other song inspired by it," he explained. "And then Rostam cooked up these harpsichord parts, these new harmonic identities for it. And then we went backwards, and we had to find out who wrote that line, it got even more interesting, because it turns out Souls of Mischief didn't write that line, that actually came from this other guy, YZ ... so it was kind of perfect, because that's how everything is, throughout time, ideas take on new forms."

Rapper Danny Brown featured on a remix of this song. He told NME about the collaboration: "I've been a fan of theirs for a nice length of time now," he said. "I'm always talking about them - maybe they got wind of it! It was all done over email. I met Ezra at A-Trak's house for a Christmas party one time. Were cool!"

Speaking in an interview with The Irish Times, Koenig said that Vampire Weekend do collages rather than tell stories. He cited Step's hook as an example.

"The chorus is just a series of little phrases: 'the gloves are off, the wisdom teeth are out,'" Koenig explained. "That's a collage, two little clichéd phrases stuck together that creates a feeling, maybe about aging, maybe about a relationship to music. But it's a feeling that is bigger than its units."

The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the comma that comes before a grammatical conjunction (generally 'and' or 'or') in a list of three items. For instance "Paris, New York, and London" is written with the Oxford comma, while "Paris, New York and London", identical in meaning, is written without it.

In this number about linguistic imperialism, the New York band appear to be criticizing the 19th century English intellectuals that created and enforced such rules of language as the Oxford comma. As far as Vampire Weekend are concerned content should come before structure.

The lyrics refer to Lil' John, surely the only instance of a song about punctuation to reference the Atlanta crunk maestro. Singer/guitarist and lyricist Ezra Koenig admitted in an interview with Aversion to being a fan of Lil' Jon. The Vampire Weekend frontman said: "I love him. Well, I specifically like "Get Low" a lot. I like the dance where you point your hands to the window and to the wall. I don't dance a lot, but I did have a couple of experiences dancing to it."

Vampire Weekend have been criticized for producing "lifestyle music." Koenig told About.com this is a misconception, citing this song as an example. He explained: "With 'Oxford Comma,' to me it's very obvious that it's about elitism, and dealing with someone who thinks they're better than you, and who tries to criticize you in bulls--t ways. I know it's not the most straight-forward song in the world, but to me it's pretty obvious that that's the tone of it. But some people would say that by even naming a song 'Oxford Comma,' all we're doing is reinforcing elitism, because, in theory, only the privileged classes know what an Oxford comma is. That, to me, is a classic example of how people misinterpret our songs. Some people just hear certain words and think: 'these guys must think they're so smart!' But, my family history has pointed to the idea that you don't have to be rich to be educated, to care about books, to know obscure words."

Harmony Hall was the first single released by Vampire Weekend since "Unbelievers" was dropped in 2013. A 5-minute tune that retains the band's spring-like signature sound, it was written by frontman Ezra Koenig and produced by the singer with their usual collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. Vampire Weekend's former multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij supplied additional production.

Harmony Hall is about how feelings can change over time. It kicks off with Koenig declaring:

We took a vow in summertime
Now we find ourselves in late December
I believe that New Year's Eve
Will be the perfect time for their great surrender
But they don't remember

Koenig explained the lyric in a Beats 1 interview, saying: "There was something about taking a vow in summertime and now it's the end of the year, that there was like a feeling I related to."
The song title features in the first line of the chorus.

And the stone walls of Harmony Hall bear witness

The lyric likely refers to the undergraduate dormitory building of the same name situated at Ezra Koenig's Alma Mater of Columbia University.
The chorus also includes an interpolation of the lyric, "I don't wanna live like this, but I don't wanna die," originally found in the band's Modern Vampires Of The City track "Fingers Back."

Another Vampire Weekend song whose title references Koenig's time at Columbia is "Hannah Hunt" (she was a classmate of his).

Harmony Hall's music video was directed by Emmett Malloy, who has previously helmed visuals for Vampire Weekend's singles "Holiday" and "Giving Up the Gun." Malloy has also shot music clips for The White Stripes, Weezer, and Metallica.

The video stars Ezra Koenig hosting a cooking show while a green coiled snake crawls around the kitchen. The reptile also appears on the single's cover and is referenced in the song's lyrics.

Anybody with a worried mind can never forgive the sight
Of wicked snakes inside a place you thought was dignified

Later, we see Vampire Weekend performing Harmony Hall in a candlelit room. Actor and director Jonah Hill makes a brief appearance at the end of the clip.

Harmony Hall climbed to #1 on the Adult Alternative Songs tally dated March 2, 2019. It was Vampire Weekend's first ever visit to the summit of a Billboard airplay chart.

Vampire Weekend first appeared to a coast to coast American audience when they performed A-Punk, dressed in sweaters, on the February 1, 2008 Late Show with David Letterman.

Garth Jennings directed A-Punk's video and Nick Goldsmith produced it. Working under the pseudonym of Hammer and Tongs, they are best known for directing the promo for Blur's "Coffee & TV," which won the 1999 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video. The duo also directed and produced the 2005 film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Frontman Ezra Koenig told the Daily Mail May 23, 2008: "We had a riff that sounded like a Punk song, but we played it on the high notes to make it sound more interesting."

Vampire Weekend performed A-Punk three times in a row during their March 23, 2019 gig at the Islington Assembly Hall gig in London.

After their first attempt, Koenig said: "Hmmmm that song is too short." After the second, he added: "These shows are essentially attended rehearsals, we've got a lot of shows to play this year. I'm sorry, but..." The band then played the song for a third time.