Artist:Vampire Weekend
Song:Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Album:Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend is a very successful album and touring band. They have never had that big hit single but at this point they don't need one. The members of Vampire Weekend were all students at Columbia University in New York. Bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson had been in a band together. Tomson met lead singer and guitarist Ezra Koenig and they recorded some rap. Koenig became friends with keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and he was studying music at Columbia. Vampire Weekend was the title of a film that Koenig made but never released. Koenig wrote the songs and Rostam produced. Vampire Weekend are a standard indie band with African music elements. Koenig is a big African music fan. They started playing shows locally. They signed with the British label XL Recordings which is also the home for Adele. Their New York office actively seeks out acts. After graduation, the guys worked day jobs while recording the 2007 album Vampire Weekend. The album was released in 2008 and was highly acclaimed by Time Magazine and Rolling Stone. The album did very well for and indie band on an indie label. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa is typical of Vampire Weekend's music which they jokingly describe as Upper West Side Soweto. The song name checks Peter Gabriel. He liked it enough to record a cover. After appearing on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, Vampire Weekend toured. I guess they were the "it" band for a while. They became famous without a hit single. That alone was a big plus. After three albums for XL, Vampire Weekend signed with Columbia in 2016. This is when Rostam left the band. He wasn't replaced but the band hires musicians for touring. Koenig took over as producer for the 2019 album Father of the Bride. The album was successful. After releasing an EP in 2021, it may be time for Vampire Weekend to record a new album. Here's the video for Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by Vampire Weekend.
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