We were just thinking about the fact that two of the hottest young buzz bands right now, and another cult-status type who's been bubbling under for awhile, all seem to have an unexpected influence in common.
From the abundance of ambivalent-at-best reviews (by anyone other than corporate buttkissers Rolling Stone) of anything Paul Simon has done in the last 20 years, you'd be within your rights to assume that by this point in time, his cool factor had dropped to a level roughly somewhere between Mitt Romney and the current Deep Blue Something (ask your older brother, kids) reunion tour. This is, of course, in direct opposition to the fact that (with the exception of the execrable Capeman) he's produced nothing but brilliance throughout his entire solo career. Freakin' critics.
That said, it tickles Music Geekery pink to observe that aforementioned hotsh*t twentysomethings Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend both sound like they spent the time between forwarding Onion articles to their friends in their formative years locked in their bedrooms with nothing but Graceland for company. We're hardly the first to note that the lilting South African-tinged guitar lines, polyrhythmic grooves, and general grad-school sensibilities of these guys bear distinct trace elements of Forest Hills' favorite son. And Bonnaroo-friendly singer/songwriter Brett Dennen has frequently attested that Graceland-era Simon is a primary influence (it's pretty apparent upon listening to his album, So Much More). The only downside to this is the fact that the late, lamented Actual Tigers, who worked a similarly Simon-indebted sound on their lone, great album in 2001, turned out to be a little too far ahead of the curve. Somebody find AT frontman Tim Seely, who kicked off an equally unfortunately under-the-radar solo career in 2005, and tell him the zeitgeist is finally upon his ass.
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