Whether or not Vampire Weekend's recently delayed Modern Vampires of the City will burn up the charts remains to be seen, but car enthusiasts are currently fuming up at the sight of a Saab 900 getting scorched in the troupe's new "Diane Young" video.
As Spinner reports, following the clip's premiere, auto website Jalopnik printed a piece titled "Vampire Weekend Are a Bunch of Dicks," scolding the combo for lighting up two of the discontinued automobiles for the shoot. The publication then points to a Facebook post from New Jersey's CBR Towing, the company that hauled off the two Saabs, that explains the previous owners of the cars had no idea the band would destroy their vehicles.
"Ready for a Saab story? These two cars will be lit on fire in a music video on Saturday," reads the post from the towing company. "The previous owners I picked them up from were telling me all of the nice times they had in them and to make sure to take care of them. Little do they know they will be charcoal in 2 days. Both said they wanted to see the finished video. It was hard to keep a straight face while they proclaimed their love for these Junkers."
Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has now gone into damage control mode, telling Spinner that the band and label XL tried their best to find clunkers for the shoot, though he understands the ire the stunt has raised.
"I want people to understand that we do respect cars and the last thing we want to do is to fuck up a collector's item or something like that," Koenig said. "Hopefully people believe me when I say that our record label was looking to purchase the cheapest, oldest cars possible; they weren't trying to buy a beautiful perfect condition car."
As previously reported, Modern Vampires of the City will now hit retailers May 14 through XL. You can see the controversy-stirring "Diane Young" video down below.
As Spinner reports, following the clip's premiere, auto website Jalopnik printed a piece titled "Vampire Weekend Are a Bunch of Dicks," scolding the combo for lighting up two of the discontinued automobiles for the shoot. The publication then points to a Facebook post from New Jersey's CBR Towing, the company that hauled off the two Saabs, that explains the previous owners of the cars had no idea the band would destroy their vehicles.
"Ready for a Saab story? These two cars will be lit on fire in a music video on Saturday," reads the post from the towing company. "The previous owners I picked them up from were telling me all of the nice times they had in them and to make sure to take care of them. Little do they know they will be charcoal in 2 days. Both said they wanted to see the finished video. It was hard to keep a straight face while they proclaimed their love for these Junkers."
Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has now gone into damage control mode, telling Spinner that the band and label XL tried their best to find clunkers for the shoot, though he understands the ire the stunt has raised.
"I want people to understand that we do respect cars and the last thing we want to do is to fuck up a collector's item or something like that," Koenig said. "Hopefully people believe me when I say that our record label was looking to purchase the cheapest, oldest cars possible; they weren't trying to buy a beautiful perfect condition car."
As previously reported, Modern Vampires of the City will now hit retailers May 14 through XL. You can see the controversy-stirring "Diane Young" video down below.
