Fridae | Listen to Vampire Weekend

News & Features

14 Feb 2008

Listen to Vampire Weekend

After Chester French, Anouk, Isabel Guzman, Adele and Temposhark, Vampire Weekend is another hot new act to look out for that will likely break out in 2008. People are buzzing about the New York City quartet who combine melodic indie rock, new wave pop with traditional African rhythms. The group likes to describe their fresh new sound as "Upper West Side Soweto" and that sums it up pretty nicely.

Vampire Weekend are Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio who met while attending Columbia University in 2006. "We're looking to make new things," explains keyboardist Batmanglij in
an interview with the BBC. "We want to bring things together that
haven't been brought together before (. . .) We don't want to be like
bands who take the most boring things about grunge or late ''70s rock
and then make the same music again, but with bigger-sounding drums."

The group was first noticed by indie music bloggers last year who latched on to Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwasa Kwasa." It is a song named after a Congolese dance style about seducing a girl on her fancy Benetton linens.

This week marks a big week for Vampire Weekend. Their self-titled debut was released on iTunes on Tuesday, and tonight they will be presenting their sound to a national late night audience on David Letterman.

One of my favorite tracks from their album is the charming ditty "M79" that has an invigorating classical slant. It's Mozart meets Talking Heads meets Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Stream the song below. If you like what you hear, you can listen to their entire album on MuchMusic's web site. As a special bonus, you can download an MP3 of their breakout tune "Cape Cod Kwasa Kwasa" totally guilt-free in M3 format here.