Vampire Weekend

 

In English sentence structure, when listing three or more people or things in a series (e.g. Vampire Weekend's songs are fun, original, and intelligently written), the comma that sometimes immediately precedes the word "and" is known as a serial comma or an Oxford comma. Vampire Weekend does a song about an Oxford comma. They also do a song called "Mansard Roof," a type of roof first made popular in 17th-century France. These tidbits tell you quite a bit about the four ex-Columbia University students who formed Vampire Weekend in 2006: they're a bit high-brow and not at all prone to writing about heartache or other standard pop fair. What these tidbits don't tell you, nor does their ambiguous name, is what Vampire Weekend sounds like. They're not punk, though you'll hear elements of that in their music. They're not ska or dance, and yet their songs certainly incite dancing. And they're also not African, but their riffs, licks and rhythms are seriously indebted to Afro-pop. So what we have in Vampire Weekend is a new, Afro-pop-influenced, well-read rock band that recalls Talking Heads-meets-Paul Simon's Graceland. Sort of. The band calls what they do "Upper West Side Soweto," and who can argue?

 

Vampire Weekend — their name comes from a film made by singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig — created quite an underground buzz in 2007, thanks to their live shows and self-released EPs, compelling the New York Times to write, "Even without an album, Vampire Weekend have made one of the most impressive debuts of the year."

 

Provenance: Brooklyn, New York

 

Latest release: Vampire Weekend (2008)

 

© 2008 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.