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Vampire Weekend

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American indie rock band

Key facts

Origin
New York City , New York, U.S.
Genres
Indie rock indie pop art pop baroque pop worldbeat
Years active
2006–present
Labels
XL Columbia
Members
Ezra Koenig Chris Baio Chris Tomson
Past members
Rostam Batmanglij
Website
vampireweekend .com

via Wikipedia infobox

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Vampire Weekend is an American rock band formed in New York City in 2006 and currently signed to Columbia Records. The band was formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig, multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio. Batmanglij departed the group in early 2016 but has continued to occasionally contribute to subsequent albums as a songwriter, producer, and musician.

The band's debut album, Vampire Weekend (2008), incorporated elements of indie pop, Afropop, and chamber music. Featuring charting singles "A-Punk" and "Oxford Comma", it was acclaimed by critics and has been hailed as one of the greatest debut albums. Their second album, Contra (2010), was similarly acclaimed and garnered strong commercial success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200, and featuring well-received singles including "Holiday". Their subsequent studio albums Modern Vampires of the City (2013) and Father of the Bride (2019) continued the band's success, with each album receiving widespread critical acclaim, topping US charts and winning the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in their respective years. They released their fifth studio album, Only God Was Above Us, in April 2024. The album, similar to previous releases, received critical acclaim.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vampire Weekend” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.