Vampire Weekend
EP

Self-Released

By Hunter Stephenson

The band Vampire Weekend consists of four clean cut guys out of Columbia. For now unsigned, they are the embodiment of a freshly discovered summer band, using lyrical badinage and borrowing poppy Afro-beat vibes from Paul Simon to concoct a supreme catchiness. Whether performing at Cake Shop in New York or coming from a CD-R, their specialty is bettering a party by calming everyone’s heartbeats and inane Web-fervor differences.

Their latest EP contains three songs that are also torrenting around on an unofficial full-length at the usual suspects. As Kurt Vonnegut sort of noted, eye-rolling off Vampire Weekend is like putting on armor to attack a hot-fudge sundae. “Oxford Comma” flickers with a what-me-worry mind-set, disarming Ivy-league punctuation and a coke-dabbling girlfriend’s wack effrontery with a swoop of a guitar coming from a stern coasting on equatorial waters.

Mostly, though, at a time when even the ladies are too serious about their music, being able to enjoy a song like “A-Punk,” which bears a slight (what, classy?) ska affliction, just all around outscores snowballing into “this sounds like Op-Ivy wearing Unruly Heir.” Referencing Peter Gabriel and having people Google mansard roofs instead of Neu!: Thank you preps. And the lead singer’s name is Ezra.

This discourse of Vampire Weekend's EP is written by Hunter Stephenson for ignore Magazine, copyright 2007.