User talk:Musicdc/ Vampire Weekend

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This page is about the band. For the band's self-titled album, see Vampire Weekend (album).

Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend, performing in Hamburg, 02. November 2007
Background information
Origin	New York, NY
Genre(s)	Indie rock Afro-pop Indie pop^[1]^[2]
Years active	2006 - present
Label(s)	XL Recordings
Website	http://www.vampireweekend.com/
Members
Ezra Koenig Rostam Batmanglij Chris Tomson Chris Baio

Vampire Weekend is an indie rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings.

1 History
2 Band members
3 Previous bands
4 Discography
5 Interviews
6 External links

[edit] History

Vampire Weekend came to public attention via a variety of blogs, first on the African music audioblog "Benn loxo du taccu",^[3] and then six months later on Stereogum,^[4] leading many to cite them as another example of the "blog band" phenomenon. The band is influenced by both African popular music and Western classical music. They describe their genre of music as "Upper West Side Soweto", performing such songs as "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", which references Congolese soukous music.

The members of the band met while attending Columbia University. Lead vocalist Ezra Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson first collaborated as members of the comedy-rap band "L'Homme Run".^[5]

The band takes its name from a film they made together with members of the band Ra Ra Riot entitled Vampire Weekend. The film told the story of a boy named Walcott charged by an elder to dispatch a vampiric horde in Cape Cod and escape. The song "Walcott" from their debut album details the plot of the film.^[6]

In 2007 their hit "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was ranked 67th on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of the year as they toured the United Kingdom with The Shins.^[7]

In 2008, the band played “A-Punk” while making television appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. In the same month, their song 'Walcott' appeared on an episode of Skins.

They played on the BBC TV program Later with Jools Holland on Friday 29th February alongside Supergrass and The Kills.

They were declared "The Year's Best New Band" in the March 2008 issue of Spin magazine and were the first band to ever be shot for the cover of the magazine before releasing their debut CD.^[8]

They were also MTV's Artist of the Week for the week of March 3, 2008, being featured during commercials and show credits.^[9]

Bassist Chris Baio is the nephew of actor Scott Baio.

[edit] Band members

Ezra Koenig (lead vocals, guitar)
Rostam Batmanglij (keyboard, guitar, vocals)
Chris Tomson (drums)
Chris Baio (bass guitar)

[edit] Previous bands

The most notable previous project of the band is L'Homme Run, a rap group that Ezra Koenig formed during his time at college. The group was meant to be funny, but not actually a joke, a distinction which Ezra says ultimately doomed the project.^[5]