Vampire Weekend - Self Titled Album
I don’t know if anyone saw these guys on Saturday Night Live the other night but they are a pretty unique bunch of cats. I picked up their album on sale for like 7 bucks which was pretty amazing. I was first introduced to them listening to blog radio station, Left of Center on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Vampire Weekend is from New York City. They all met while attending Columbia University together. They are currently with the label XL Recordings. Other acts that you might know of on this label are The Basement Jaxx, The White Stripes, Radiohead and my new favorite hip hop act from Sri Lanka: M.I.A (she is incredible and I will be doing a review on her).
Their sound is very unique. I don’t know if anyone has ever heard of the band Dispatch, but when I here some of the percussion experiments on the Vampire Weekend album, it reminds me a lot of them. They play a lot of African drums and other obscure instruments like a harpsichord and cellos on a few tracks. The band admits to being influenced by African pop music and Western classical music. The name of the band and the album refers to an independent film that the group made about a boy who chases vampires out of cape cod.
They are on the cover of Spin magazine this month and it calls them ”The Best New Artist Of The Year” or something along those lines. Last year they toured and opened for the band The Shins. You can check out their MySpace page here. I would recommend picking up the album. For a debut album it is absolutely fantastic. My two favorite tracks are “M79″ and “A-Punk.” I realized today while I was catching up on some writing that I had listened to the album about 4 times through in one sitting. I have a feeling that these guys are going to blow up big. They’ve already got a huge fan-base and a bunch of tour dates. I would give up my Hawkeyes hooded sweatshirt for a chance to see them live…and that’s saying a lot.
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