Me and my cousins - the band and its fans
You and your cousins - the critics and the music industry in general
It's a line that's always running - the two don't mix with each other, just among themselves: the band will always have its fans and the music business will always have its critics, no mixing and matching.
I can feel it coming - he senses that even this song will be criticized by the very critics against which it protests.
Additionally, I personally always thought he was saying "You and the smart one", and now that I've realized all this stuff in the rest of the song, I believe it's "You and the smart oneS" - meaning a music critic ("you") and the "smart ones" in the band, doing an interview "in a house on a street they wouldn't park on at night" - because of restricted access to the interview. "You found a sweater on the ocean floor" means that the band created a new sound combining the "sweater" feel of Victorian England with the "ocean floor" vibe of worldbeat. And because anyone who now comes out with something that sounds similar will now immediately get compared to Vampire Weekend, they have, in a sense, "closed the door" on the others who hoped to pioneer such a style and who will now never be able to "find it".
I always knew those rhymes were too deliberate to be pure nonsense. These lyrics DO mean something. The band is talking like they're responding to critics' questions by saying, "Fuck you, I can do this and you're not gonna stop me, you mooks." Because us - the fans - their "cousins" - are standing behind them every step of the way. This whole song now makes sense to me. I hope this interpretation was helpful to you as well... let me know if you have a better idea.
I found out what some of the other stuff means:
Me and my cousins - the band and its fans You and your cousins - the critics and the music industry in general It's a line that's always running - the two don't mix with each other, just among themselves: the band will always have its fans and the music business will always have its critics, no mixing and matching. I can feel it coming - he senses that even this song will be criticized by the very critics against which it protests.
Additionally, I personally always thought he was saying "You and the smart one", and now that I've realized all this stuff in the rest of the song, I believe it's "You and the smart oneS" - meaning a music critic ("you") and the "smart ones" in the band, doing an interview "in a house on a street they wouldn't park on at night" - because of restricted access to the interview. "You found a sweater on the ocean floor" means that the band created a new sound combining the "sweater" feel of Victorian England with the "ocean floor" vibe of worldbeat. And because anyone who now comes out with something that sounds similar will now immediately get compared to Vampire Weekend, they have, in a sense, "closed the door" on the others who hoped to pioneer such a style and who will now never be able to "find it".
I always knew those rhymes were too deliberate to be pure nonsense. These lyrics DO mean something. The band is talking like they're responding to critics' questions by saying, "Fuck you, I can do this and you're not gonna stop me, you mooks." Because us - the fans - their "cousins" - are standing behind them every step of the way. This whole song now makes sense to me. I hope this interpretation was helpful to you as well... let me know if you have a better idea.