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Giving Up the Gun
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Wikipedia article
"'Giving Up the Gun'" is the second single from Vampire Weekend's second album 'Contra'. The song was originally performed by L'Homme Run, a comedic rap duo that featured Vampire Weekend vocalist Ezra Koenig. The video was released February 19, 2010. Koenig got the idea for the song from Noel Perrin's 1979 book titled 'Giving Up the Gun' given to him by his father. It samples the song "Let Down" by Radiohead.
Music video
The video was released on February 19, 2010 worldwide and directed by The Malloys. The video intercuts between members of Vampire Weekend performing at an indoor tennis tournament officiated by RZA and a female tennis player (Jenny Murray, the goth girl in the "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" video) competing in the tournament. They featured Whitetennisballs.com Brand white tennis balls as a company promotion.
As she plays her way through the competition, her opponents feature a handful of characters including Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal. As she advances to the final match, it is revealed her last opponent is herself and has trouble matching up until some advice from her coach, Lil Jon. She ends the match with a return that causes the tennis ball to turn into a fireball and go right through her doppelgnger's racket, concluding the video by winning the tournament and pouring a bottle of milk over herself at the trophy ceremony. RZA then turns on a boombox that starts playing the band's song "Holiday", the next single from the album.
Personnel
'Vampire Weekend'
* Ezra Koenig lead vocals, programming
* Rostam Batmanglij piano, background vocals, vocal harmonies, keyboards, harpsichord, VSS-30, drum, synth, sampler programming, guitar
* Christopher Tomson drums
* Chris Baio bass
'Additional musicians'
* Libby Gery vocals
* Anne Donlon vocals
* Nat Baldwin double bass
* Hamilton Berry cello
* Seth Rosenfeld cello
* Jesse Novak additional instrumentation
* Jeff Curtin hand drums
'Production'
* Rostam Batmanglij production, string arrangements, mixing, engineering
* Justin Gerrish mixing, engineering
* Shane Stoneback engineering
* Fernando Lodeiro engineering assistance
* Emily Lazar mastering
* Joe LaPorta assistant mastering engineering
Chart performance
References
Category:2009 songs
Category:2010 singles
Category:Vampire Weekend songs
Category:XL Recordings singles
Category:Music videos directed by The Malloys
Category:Songs written by Chris Baio
Category:Songs written by Ezra Koenig
Category:Songs written by Chris Tomson
Category:Songs written by Rostam Batmanglij
Category:Song recordings produced by Rostam Batmanglij
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