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
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”)
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 – UK Telegraph
See more Vampire Weekend 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
Webs: Vampire Weekend’s official website and MySpace page.