Vampire Weekend’s name is derived from lead singer Ezra Koenig’s amateur film of the same name. The band gained attention via a variety of blogs, such as Stereogum. The band claims to be influenced by both African popular music and Western classical music, describing their genre of music as “Upper West Side Soweto”, with such songs as “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” referencing Congolese soukous music.
“The band’s debut album also came 42nd on NME’s ‘Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade’ list.
The band’s second album, Contra is scheduled for release on January 11th (UK) and 12th (US) 2010. The album includes the tracks “White Sky”, “Taxi Cab”, “Run”, “Diplomat’s Son”, “Giving Up The Gun”, “Horchata”, “Holiday”, “I Think Ur a Contra”, “California English”, and “Cousins”. In an interview by Xfm Chris Tomson stated that their upcoming album will have 10 songs and run around 36 minutes long.
On October 5th, 2009, the first track of their new album “Horchata” was released as a free download on the band’s website. The album’s first single “Cousins”, was released on November 17, 2009.”
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