Vampire Weekend stopped by The Daily Show to perform their recent song, “Mary Boone,” and to chat with host Michael Kosta. During the artsy performance, frontman Ezra Koenig sat on a stool in front of the other musicians, who were accompanied by a choir as footage of New York City played behind them.
“Mary Boone” comes off the rock band’s new LP, Only God Was Above Us, which is out now. During the interview, the musicians discussed the album, as well as their newly-launched podcast Vampire Campfire, which finds...
“Mary Boone” comes off the rock band’s new LP, Only God Was Above Us, which is out now. During the interview, the musicians discussed the album, as well as their newly-launched podcast Vampire Campfire, which finds...
- 4/11/2024
- by Emily Zemler
- Rollingstone.com
While Vampire Weekend’s prep-school narratives have toyed with subcultural statements and big ideas about youth and love, singer and chief songwriter Ezra Koenig never seems to be revealing much about himself. That admittedly could make the sweeping emotions that the group’s songs tried to invoke feel trapped behind glass, even on a work of pop craftsmanship as stunning as 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City.
Vampire Weekend’s first album in five years and their first with (most of) their original lineup in more than a decade, Only God Was Above Us doesn’t tell us a whole lot more about the interior lives of Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, or drummer Chris Tomson. What it lacks in confessionals, though, it makes up for with a sharp conceit: a Cold War allegory about romance, contrasting references to conflict in Eastern Europe and Russia with domestic issues and memories.
In mounting this framework,...
Vampire Weekend’s first album in five years and their first with (most of) their original lineup in more than a decade, Only God Was Above Us doesn’t tell us a whole lot more about the interior lives of Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, or drummer Chris Tomson. What it lacks in confessionals, though, it makes up for with a sharp conceit: a Cold War allegory about romance, contrasting references to conflict in Eastern Europe and Russia with domestic issues and memories.
In mounting this framework,...
- 4/1/2024
- by Charles Lyons-Burt
- Slant Magazine
Vampire Weekend make sense of how historical examples of cruelty have become “classical” with time on an upbeat new song, “Classical.” The song comes off their upcoming album Only God Was Above Us, due out April 5.
Between frontman Ezra Koenig’s catchy, squeaky guitar melody and Henry Solomon’s wild saxophone solo, Koenig sings about war, peace, and abandoned ruins of temples, describing history as “a bleak sunrise.” The music sort of falls apart at the end, on purpose.
The video, directed by Nick Harwood, leans on the past by...
Between frontman Ezra Koenig’s catchy, squeaky guitar melody and Henry Solomon’s wild saxophone solo, Koenig sings about war, peace, and abandoned ruins of temples, describing history as “a bleak sunrise.” The music sort of falls apart at the end, on purpose.
The video, directed by Nick Harwood, leans on the past by...
- 3/14/2024
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Vampire Weekend have returned with “Classical,” the latest slice of their forthcoming album Only God Was Above Us.
Built from a rustling acoustic guitar line and a cymbal-heavy drum beat from Chris Tomson, “Classical” is more vibrant and restless than Vampire Weekend’s prior singles. “Untrue, unkind, and unnatural/ How the cruel, with time, becomes classical,” Ezra Koenig sings in the pre-chorus, eventually landing on an anthemic, harmony-laden refrain where he asks “Which classical remains?” The song also features a daring, slightly dissonant bridge with a haywire sax solo courtesy of Henry Solomon.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
The song also arrives with a music video directed by longtime collaborator Nick Harwood and featuring the band, Ray Suen, drum tech Josh Goldsmith, and A-list producer Ariel Rechtshaid. Throughout the green screen-heavy video, Vampire Weekend performs “Classical” amidst clips of classical European architecture — columns, gothic churches, statues, 800 year-old paintings, and even Stonehenge.
Built from a rustling acoustic guitar line and a cymbal-heavy drum beat from Chris Tomson, “Classical” is more vibrant and restless than Vampire Weekend’s prior singles. “Untrue, unkind, and unnatural/ How the cruel, with time, becomes classical,” Ezra Koenig sings in the pre-chorus, eventually landing on an anthemic, harmony-laden refrain where he asks “Which classical remains?” The song also features a daring, slightly dissonant bridge with a haywire sax solo courtesy of Henry Solomon.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
The song also arrives with a music video directed by longtime collaborator Nick Harwood and featuring the band, Ray Suen, drum tech Josh Goldsmith, and A-list producer Ariel Rechtshaid. Throughout the green screen-heavy video, Vampire Weekend performs “Classical” amidst clips of classical European architecture — columns, gothic churches, statues, 800 year-old paintings, and even Stonehenge.
- 3/14/2024
- by Paolo Ragusa
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend are officially back with the announcement of their new album, Only God Was Above Us, out April 5th via Columbia Records.
Marking Vampire Weekend’s first full-length in five years, Only God Was Above Us clocks in at 10 tracks. Inspired by 20th-century New York City, the album was recorded in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo, with vocalist/guitarist Ezra Koenig sharing production duties with longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. It was mixed by Dave Fridmann and mastered by Emily Lazar.
Koenig penned the majority of the lyrics to Only God Was Above Us in 2019-2020, and spent the next five years with bandmates Chris Baio and Chris Tomson fleshing out the lyrical and melodic structures. The album is described in a press release as “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.”
The album’s title comes from the cover artwork,...
Marking Vampire Weekend’s first full-length in five years, Only God Was Above Us clocks in at 10 tracks. Inspired by 20th-century New York City, the album was recorded in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo, with vocalist/guitarist Ezra Koenig sharing production duties with longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid. It was mixed by Dave Fridmann and mastered by Emily Lazar.
Koenig penned the majority of the lyrics to Only God Was Above Us in 2019-2020, and spent the next five years with bandmates Chris Baio and Chris Tomson fleshing out the lyrical and melodic structures. The album is described in a press release as “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.”
The album’s title comes from the cover artwork,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Eddie Fu
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend have revealed they are adding raga singing into their repertoire on their new album. Better yet, the New York indie rockers also promised the project is “close to done.”
In a newsletter (via Vulture) accompanying the first volume of their new vinyl series, drummer Chris Tomson gave fans the lay of the land, saying lead singer Ezra Koenig “took a raga singing lesson with Terry Riley in rural Japan and wrote what he considers to be 7 of his all-time top 10 best songs.” Whether or not the band is replacing guitars with sitars is currently unknown.
Tomson went on to describe being able to “connect, jawbone, and jam” with his bandmates without any responsibilities and compared it to their formation at Columbia University. “I personally found an immense peace and pleasure from creating with the guys like we had in the Ruggles days,” he wrote. “The vibe was strong.
In a newsletter (via Vulture) accompanying the first volume of their new vinyl series, drummer Chris Tomson gave fans the lay of the land, saying lead singer Ezra Koenig “took a raga singing lesson with Terry Riley in rural Japan and wrote what he considers to be 7 of his all-time top 10 best songs.” Whether or not the band is replacing guitars with sitars is currently unknown.
Tomson went on to describe being able to “connect, jawbone, and jam” with his bandmates without any responsibilities and compared it to their formation at Columbia University. “I personally found an immense peace and pleasure from creating with the guys like we had in the Ruggles days,” he wrote. “The vibe was strong.
- 6/27/2023
- by Eddie Fu
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend have released a vinyl-only live album called Frog on the Bass Drum Vol. 01, which pulls audio from a June 2019 show in Indianapolis where there was, in fact, a frog pictured on their bass drum.
The setlist from the show featured songs from all four albums of their discography — 2008’s self-titled debut, Contra, Modern Vampires of the City, and Father of the Bride — plus the official release of a 10-minute long cover of Bob Dylan’s Infidels track “Jokerman.” To boot, vocalist Ezra Koenig dropped a quick flow from “Pizza Party,” the debut track from L’Homme Run, the college rap group he formed with Vampire Weekend drummer Chris Tomson.
Frog on the Bass Drum Vol. 01 also comes with the band’s Quarterly Report newsletter. See the artwork and tracklist below.
2,500 copies of the LP were pressed by the vinyl’s manufacturer, Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit,...
The setlist from the show featured songs from all four albums of their discography — 2008’s self-titled debut, Contra, Modern Vampires of the City, and Father of the Bride — plus the official release of a 10-minute long cover of Bob Dylan’s Infidels track “Jokerman.” To boot, vocalist Ezra Koenig dropped a quick flow from “Pizza Party,” the debut track from L’Homme Run, the college rap group he formed with Vampire Weekend drummer Chris Tomson.
Frog on the Bass Drum Vol. 01 also comes with the band’s Quarterly Report newsletter. See the artwork and tracklist below.
2,500 copies of the LP were pressed by the vinyl’s manufacturer, Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit,...
- 6/7/2023
- by Cervanté Pope
- Consequence - Music
At 18 songs in under an hour, Vampire Weekend’s first album in six years sounds at first like a manic effort to make up lost time. Singer-guitarist Ezra Koenig, the band’s composer-lyricist and a co-producer on virtually every track, has stuffed his hooks and bridges with so many change-ups in rhythm, guitar tone and dramatic instrumental flourish that, by the finish, you feel like you’ve been whipped through a modern-pop homage to the Beatles’ Abbey Road medley – twice over.
Father of the Bride is so zealously detailed and...
Father of the Bride is so zealously detailed and...
- 4/30/2019
- by David Fricke
- Rollingstone.com
Hollywood begins to roll out some of its biggest summer movies during the month of May. The next few weeks will see the release of highly anticipated films such as "The Great Gatsby" and "Iron Man 3." The month of May also boasts the Cannes Film Festival and the Billboard Music Awards. Read on below for 10 things to keep an eye on this month in the world of entertainment.
"Iron Man 3": The third installment in Marvel's "Iron Man" series hits theaters on May 3. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley, and Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man, the action-packed film has already seen major success overseas. "Iron Man 3" opened in 42 territories abroad last weekend, grossing an estimated $195.3 million. Buy a ticket for Downey's slick superhero suit and his quick one-liners.
"2.0": 98 Degrees is back with a new album. The '90s heartthrobs will release a fourth studio album,...
"Iron Man 3": The third installment in Marvel's "Iron Man" series hits theaters on May 3. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley, and Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man, the action-packed film has already seen major success overseas. "Iron Man 3" opened in 42 territories abroad last weekend, grossing an estimated $195.3 million. Buy a ticket for Downey's slick superhero suit and his quick one-liners.
"2.0": 98 Degrees is back with a new album. The '90s heartthrobs will release a fourth studio album,...
- 5/1/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Vampire Weekend have announced that their next album will be released in the spring. The indie band gained their first number one on the Billboard charts with their sophomore album Contra in 2010. Band members Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson, and Chris Baio revealed that the yet-to-be-titled album was recorded in New York and Los Angeles, and is co-produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, known for his work with Usher and Major Lazer In an interview with Q, lead singer Koenig revealed that the new album is "dark" and "organic". (more)...
- 1/4/2013
- by By Zeba Blay
- Digital Spy
Frontman Ezra Koenig says watching 'Love Guru,' 'Bride Wars' is helping band 'think about the art' they want to make.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Matt Elias
Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend performs during Kroq's Almost Acoustic Christmas on Sunday
Photo: Karl Walter/Getty Images
In 2010, Vampire Weekend released a rather amazing album of pan-ethnic pop, debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, showed up on the "Eclipse" soundtrack, hung out with Lil Jon, the RZA, a very drunk Jake Gyllenhaal and a Jonas Brother and even got sued by the unwitting star of their Contra album cover.
Needless to say, it was a pretty hectic year, the kind most bands would follow with a rather lengthy (and well-deserved) break. But, as they told MTV News on Sunday at Kroq's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Los Angeles, Vampire Weekend aren't most bands: They're already in the early...
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Matt Elias
Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend performs during Kroq's Almost Acoustic Christmas on Sunday
Photo: Karl Walter/Getty Images
In 2010, Vampire Weekend released a rather amazing album of pan-ethnic pop, debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, showed up on the "Eclipse" soundtrack, hung out with Lil Jon, the RZA, a very drunk Jake Gyllenhaal and a Jonas Brother and even got sued by the unwitting star of their Contra album cover.
Needless to say, it was a pretty hectic year, the kind most bands would follow with a rather lengthy (and well-deserved) break. But, as they told MTV News on Sunday at Kroq's Almost Acoustic Christmas in Los Angeles, Vampire Weekend aren't most bands: They're already in the early...
- 12/13/2010
- MTV Music News
We all know how popular the Jersey Shore is. Still, while interviewing bands at Austin City Limits yesterday we were a little surprised to find out how much Vampire Weekend loves it. In fact, we’re pretty sure these indie kings could write a dissertation on the MTV reality show. While each band member has their favorite self-described “guido” or “guidette,” it was lead singer Ezra Koenig’s thoughtful analysis of why Jersey Shore works while other reality shows fall short that impressed us the most. According to Ezra: “The Situation realizes he’s playing a character … everyone is self aware … with some reality shows it’s about making fun of people who are hapless and who don’t really know what’s going on. But the Jersey Shore is not really like that. Because everybody is funny. They have a sense of humor. They know when they’re being outrageous.
- 10/9/2010
- by Matt Muro
- VH1.com
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