The Gap Bands

Vampire Weekend

Lounging on an overcast East Coast beach, scarves flapping in the stiff New England wind, the band Vampire Weekend laughed at the mere mention of the term “prep rock” in their SPIN interview last month. How they manage to scoff at this label while having a song called “Cape Cod Kwasa Kwasa” I’ll never know. (Pssssst, their self-titled LP drops today.)

Meanwhile, on the third coast, during the last day of Schubas' Tomorrow Never Knows Festival earlier this month, the White Rabbits played a solid, raucous, and slightly exotic-sounding set opening for the Walkmen. The well-clad quintet occasionally broke into tropical flavored rhythms -- armed with two percussionists (sometimes three), maracas, plus an arsenal of ties, sportcoats and sweater vests -- it was as if an L.L. Bean photoshoot had gone horribly right.

People fling terms like "bourgeois rock" around as if that’s dismissive, but really privileged rock kids are nothing new. It seems charming, mussed-up preppies lifting “exotic” sounds have been a rock 'n' roll staple since the term rock 'n' roll existed.

May I remind those detractors that those well-spoken Liverpool lads rode into town as a Brit R&B “mercy beat” group, and the Kingsman’s “Louie, Louie” won over America (and the FBI) with just some indecipherable lyrics and a mediocre calypso progression. Even the beloved Stones (and later the Strokes) had to bury their boarding school rep ties under the old quad oak tree before transforming themselves into grimy, white blues-rock icons.

Sometimes rock needs a cultural kick in the pants, and if it’s done by some guys in oxfords and docksiders, so be it. -Brian Howe Battle