# NYC’s Vampire Weekend Continue Relentless Touring

- Link: https://indierockcafe.com/2008/05/nycs-vampire-weekend-continue-relentless-touring/
- Published: 2008-05-15T08:05:00-04:00
- Author: Max Hammer

With a catchy name and unique sound that combines indie rock-pop and Afro influences,
New York’s collegiate ‘indie’ sensation Vampire Weekend have managed to become one
of the the hottest bands during the past two years, selling out shows, performing
on Saturday Night Live and garnering a massive amount of buzz in the mainstream 
press and on countless music blogs.

But there are disadvantages of being so popular; there are music fans who absolutely
love the band, and there are others who declare VW are vastly over-rated.

**Live MP3:** Vampire Weekend [performing “M79” at SxSW 2008](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2003781.01.mp3)

Yet the soaring popularity of the band appears to be unabated. That can be a good
and a bad thing, as we’ve seen so many times before. Nonetheless, I’d bet my Cadillac
that many record labels are in a bidding war for these guys right now.

The band has toured relentlessly since early 2007, and there is no sign that they
intend to take a break. In fact, VW are booked solid through the end of September
when they will play at the famous Austin City Limits festival.

Here’s Vampire Weekend’s tour dates for the next four months. It seems as if they
are playing nearly every music festival this summer, not just in the U.S., but worldwide:

If you’d like to see the band live, it is strongly recommended to get tickets once
they go on sale, since tickets have regularly gone for double and triple the price
on eBay and other third-party ticket auction sites.

One of the most interesting things about a band from New York City is that they 
have a number of songs about Massachusetts in their limited music repertoire (“Boston”,“
Ladies of Cambridge” and “Cape Cod Kawasa Kawasa”)

Related Post:  Vampire Weekend Members Release New Musical Projects With Other Popular
Indie Artists

The band describes their sound as “Upper West Side Soweto” – a reference to their
early gigs playing at frat and literary parties for NYC social elites where people
began to take notice of their unique blend of joyous indie rock infused with melodic
Afro-beat rhythms.

Vampire Weekend’s band members are Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, Rostam Batmanglij, and
Chris Tomson. The group derived their name from a college film project shortly after
forming in 2006.

Their first release, the EP Mansford Roof, caught the attention of music critics,
including The New York Times. Word spread quickly about Vampire Weekend’s unique
sound and lyrics (the track “Oxford Comma” refers to a comma use in a list of three
items), buoyed by the band’s self-released EPs, which they recorded in locations
spanning their Columbia dorm rooms to a family barn.

The buzz around Vampire Weekend reached a feverish peak in 2007; that summer, the
band embarked on a seemingly endless tour in 2007, made several appearances at that
year’s CMJ Music Marathon, and eventually signed with XL Records that fall.

Since then, Vampire Weekend has continued to grow in popularity, evidenced by the
fact that most of their shows for this spring and summer have already been sold 
out.

Some worthwhile VW links, including audio and video performances:

[Vampire Weekend: Fresh blood on campus](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/bmvampire1081.xml)–
UK Telegraph

See more [Vampire Weekend](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/Vampire%20Weekend1.html)
on IRC including a special and exclusive video performance shot at San Francisco’s
Rickshaw Stop show on Easter Sunday.

**Streaming Video Session**: [Vampire Weekend live on KCRW](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/vampire-weekends-amazing-free-40-minute1.html)

[[Webs: Vampire Weekend’s [official website ](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/vampireweekend1.com)and [MySpace
 page](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/vampireweekend1).

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