Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Release date: 28/01/2008
Label: XL

Four well educated preppy boys make up the quartet that is Vampire Weekend, named after a movie made by lead singer Ezra at college. Now graduates Ezra Koenig (vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keys & vox), Christopher Thomson (drums) and Chris Baio (bass) formed at Columbia University, where their fan base grew strong through campus gigs and then more widely by internet exposure on blogs and MySpace. It's here they proclaim to be “…specialists in the following styles: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Upper West Side Soweto", "Campus", and "Oxford Comma Riddim." Some of these also happen to be the names of their songs.

"...a global patchwork sheet, eccentrically woven into something bohemian and refreshingly different."

United by a love of African music, their sound is primarily based around Afrobeat percussion - this reflects moments of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” and could be seen as jumping on the "tribal pop" band wagon of, the successful Brooklyn band, Yeasayer. To be fair to them though, they do demonstrate a wealth of other influences that will detach them from this pigeon hole. You will notice elements of Brit-pop, American Indie, Reggae and New Wave. There are even moments of Baroque, courtesy of Rostam’s keyboard. This may sound like a strange combination but it all comes together really well, like a global patchwork sheet, eccentrically woven into something bohemian and refreshingly different.

They definitely paid attention during class, with songs like, “Oxford Comma” Ezra comments on the use of grammar and descriptivism. Expressing why there should not be just the one way of doing anything. In their first single "Mansard Roof" they even drop a little bit of history into the equation with the line “The Argentines collapse in defeat / The admiralty surveys the remnants of the fleet”.

Their wealth of influences and clever lyrics will no doubt impress a lot of people but will inevitably leave many others baffled. Some may even write them off as being a novelty, a flash in the pan even. The “Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” if they want straight-up indie, but, only time will tell if that's what they truly want.

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