MOG

There is something intriguing and almost unnatural about the fact that I am continuously drawn towards Vampire Weekend. The light-hearted melodies with simple accompaniment of organ, harpsichord, strings, and flute, turn the clock back to the times of invincibility and carefree college days. Vampire Weekend is a four member New York City indie band, that slightly nods towards the afro-pop genre with a hint of ska. The 2/4 percussion, accented with African elements and an occasional conga, bring on that feeling of kwassa kwassa rhythms. Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Tomson and Chris Baio describe their style as "Upper West Side Soweto", with influences from both, Western classical music and Congolese soukous music. After a couple of successful top hit singles on the UK Indie charts, Vampire Weekend got picked up by none other than XL Records. 2008 brought on their debut self titled full length, and by now it may be too late to hail praise to their sound - Spin has already declared them as The Year's Best New Band in March '08 issue. Look, it's been a while since I've written about anything other then instrumental or electronic, and even though I consider my taste pretty wide and open, Vampire Weekend reminds me that there's a whole ocean of untapped genres. Simply put, Vampire Weekend brings back the ease with which The Beatles conquered the world.

myspace.com/vampireweekend | vampireweekend.com
myspace.com/xlrecordings | xl-recordings.com