vampire weekend

Vampire Weekend channelled their ivy league intellectualism and classical roots into the indie Afro-pop of their conspicuously catchy cross-cultural commencement.  The band formed while studying at Colombia University and played around campus before recording their eponymous debut themselves after graduation at basements, apartments, a barn, and Tree Fort Studio in Brooklyn while some of them worked full time jobs.  'Vampire Weekend' featured Ezra Koenig on lead vocals, guitar, piano, and hand drum; Rostam Batmanglij on organ, chamberlin, piano, harpsichord, guitar, vocal harmonies, drum and synth programming, shaker, production, string arrangements, engineering, and mixing; Chris Baio on bass; and Christopher Tomson on drums and guitar; with Hamilton Berry on cello; Jonathan Chu and Jessica Pavone on violin and viola; Jeff Curtin and Joey Roth on hand drums; and Wesley Miles on vocals. 

Batmanglij recalls:   "We all had a strong feeling about the band from the early days.  We had this opportunity to be really out there and avant-garde, but also commercially successful...As a songwriter and producer in our band, I get to be the composer I always envisaged for myself. I get to sample M.I.A. There probably are a bunch of contemporary composers who wish they could do that but don't have the balls."

The band jokingly describes their sound as "Upper West Side Soweto".  Koenig says:   "We'd known each other for a long time.  We'd worked on music together and knew each other's interests, so it just seemed like it would be exciting to start a band with rock instruments – even though we wouldn't really call ourselves a rock band – to get something together and start playing live. African music is definitely something that influenced us from the very beginning. We had a compilation of music from Madagascar that we were very excited about when we started. I listen to all sorts of stuff, though, like the New York New Wave scene of the late Seventies and early Eighties – that's a sound I really like."

Batmanglij considers:   "The African influence comes from being interested in different sorts of music, and just going out to find it. Discovering it, and saying, 'This is something interesting and new to us, so let's try to bring it together in a way that hasn't been done before.'"

Koenig adds:   "We bonded over things we were interested in and we were all pretty much uniformly agreed on the things we didn't like. Of course, we don't want to make difficult music, because we also like catchiness and pop appeal. But it was important for us not to be using the same rhythms, the same styles of playing that so much rock has used. When you hear the same drumbeat in five songs that are really popular, it's kinda like, 'What's the point?' You have to go try your own thing."

 'Vampire Weekend'  generated extensive internet buzz and the group was voted "The Year's Best New Band" by Spin magazine before the album was actually released.  They also drew criticism for what was perceived as their appropriation of African music.   'Vampire Weekend'  went to number forty-four in Sweden, thirty-seven in Australia, seventeen in the US, fifteen in the UK, and number one on the UK indie chart.  






1. "Mansard Roof"   2:07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgNFwoApec


2. "Oxford Comma"   3:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g


3. "A-Punk"   2:17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ


4. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"   3:34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wHl9qRsMzw


5. "M79" (Batmanglij, Koenig) 4:15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvNR8Hc13Y


6. "Campus" (Batmanglij, Koenig) 2:56
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugcVwE1jmXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa9Ry7BxTJk


7. "Bryn"   2:13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpN5DuffebM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn50LgdkxgM


8. "One (Blake's Got a New Face)" (Koenig, Slinger Francisco) 3:13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HN_zAN1qbE


9. "I Stand Corrected"   2:39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNzUhIUyhbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqK-0JDkqhw


10. "Walcott"   3:41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abNc1gLig3s


11. "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance"   4:03
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-w35Z16zg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_MhjbpWa8Y



bonus tracks

12. "Ladies of Cambridge [a.k.a. Boston]"   2:40



13. "Arrows"   3:04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC5TccoGBO4