Artist Profile: Vampire Weekend
Meet the best unsigned band in New York City. Vampire Weekend are four kids from Columbia University who write fun, shouty, skinny-tie indie rock songs about summertime, Cape Cod, reggaeton and Lil’ Jon. They’ve got this great, distinctly American sound infused with elements of afrobeat (seriously) and all dressed up in whimsical keys, effervescent pop sounds and sing-a-long melodies. Or, as their MySpace puts it, “[they] are specialists in the following styles: ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’, ‘Upper West Side Soweto’, ‘Campus’, and ‘Oxford Comma Riddim’.” I caught them live last month at a party at Columbia where they put on a great show despite a less-than-awesome sound setup (frat houses aren’t really famed for their acoustics) and an audience made up of kids who likely wouldn’t know good music if it beat them up and took their lunch money. But what’s most impressive about this band is the incredibly tight production of their demos, considering their unsigned status. Every song I’ve heard so far is great, with “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, “A-Punk” and, my favorite of the bunch, “Oxford Comma” standing out as their best tracks and showing off a remarkably polished sound for such a young, presumably inexperienced band.
The sound in question is not terribly groundbreaking per se, but at the same time it’s got an extremely unique style about it and is a wonderfully refreshing change of pace in the often uninspired and stale NYC indie-rock scene. One could probably draw comparisons in the vocal stylings of the band to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah if they really wanted to, but I mean, did you read the part where I mentioned the elements of afrobeat? Who the fuck rocks afrobeat in this scene? Seriously, check this out now.
Below you’ll find two of my favorite tracks by the band, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Oxford Comma”, as well as a surprisingly excellent electro-pop remix of another one of their tracks, “Walcott”. These kids play a ton of shows in the NYC area (I’ll be catching them at Merc a week from Thursday), so hit up their MySpace where you’ll find their complete list of tour dates as well as two more songs for streaming, potential singles “Mansard Roof” and “A-Punk”. It’s time to get very very excited about Vampire Weekend for 2007.
MP3s:
“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommended))
“Oxford Comma” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommended))
“Walcott” (Insane Mix #2) - Vampire Weekend