When I'm travelling, as I have been recently, I usually take a wide variety of music along for the ride. For our extended Europe trip, I filled my 4gb Creative Zen with everything from Arcade Fire to Keith Jarret, The Strokes to Ron Sexsmith, and even threw a little Beethoven on there just for fun. Out of all that, I played two bands 90% of the time, Foals and Vampire Weekend.
The former I have been listening to for a while now, since I brought them to your attention more than a year ago (in this post). Vampire Weekend I was a little later in coming to, largely because I'm stubborn and strenously wanted to avoid the hype of the band that was the darling of Pitchfork readers everywhere. I paid for that stubborness by not having listened to them for months that I could have. Months that I could have enjoyed their quirky blend of east-coast intellectual pop (I only learned what a Mansard roof was while traveling through Slovenia).
Both these bands were my traveling staples because they were though provoking without being background music. The intricate arrangements of Foals caused me to question my own guitar songwriting, and to relish in counterpoint and harmony. Not to mention that the energy they provide was more than enough to get me going on those mornings when travel-lag had set in and I was more than ready to sit and enjoy doing nothing for an extended period of time. On those days when I was a bit down, whether it was due to weather, fatigue, or scurvy from a lack of fruit and veg, Vampire Weekend's eccentric lyrics would always cheer me up (fuck the Bears in Provincetown).
I guess you could say that as a music lover, between these two albums almost all of my musical requirements were met, there was saucyness, swagger, introspection, and fine fine musicianship. I highly recommend either of these groups to any intrepid travellers. They make great travel companions.
