Vampire Weekend
Bookish band creates winsome rock with a global outlook

Fittingly for a band made up of four recent Columbia University grads, a chat with Vampire Weekend feels like a dorm-room rap session fueled by Red Bull and humanities lectures—the conversation jumps from Kate Bush to New York City architecture to the members’ own private-school backgrounds. “People call us Ivy League or preppy or whatever,” says singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig, his raised eyebrows almost touching the tips of his tousled bangs. “But those are such racially and socially loaded terms.”

Loaded, but not necessarily undeserved. Since playing an early show at a yacht-themed campus bash last year, Koenig,

keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio, all ²³, haven’t shied away from challenging expectations. There’s the quartet’s haunted-house handle, so at odds with their sun-dappled sound, which draws from influences as diverse as Madagascan pop, ’50s calypso, and jangle-rock legends the Feelies. There’s the way the Congolese-influenced “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Mansard Roof,” with its reggaeton-like bounce, have injected some tropical heat into the dance-friendly faction of the indie-rock scene. “There’s a concept behind what we’re doing,” says Batmanglij. “One of the things we talked about when we started was that we wanted to avoid ‘rockisms.’”

FAST FACTS

> The group didn’t come by their tricky song structures by accident. “I thought it would be interesting to play classical music on rock instruments,” says Batmanglij, who majored in music along with Tomson. > The band’s name is the title of a bizarro student film that Koenig starred in about marauding creatures of the night.

So far, the plan is working. In addition to becoming blogosphere faves and ascending to headliner status less than four months after forming—with the help of a widely distributed CD-R and a follow-up EP—Vampire Weekend have signed with heavyweight indie label XL, which will release their debut album in January. “The rise has felt very organic,” says Tomson. “We never went around telling record labels we were the new hotness.”

But before they do overheat, Vampire Weekend have one thing to clear up. “I read something that called us prep rock,” says Koenig. “I have no idea what that is.” But given the group’s nautical fashion sense (think boat shoes and button-downs) and lyrical references to WASP havens like Provincetown and Hyannis-port, the tag seems apt. Koenig shrugs: “Maybe we’ve invented a new genre?”

BY DAVID MARCHESE PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN BRAHMS

Chris Baio, Rostam Batmanglij, Ezra Koenig, and Chris Tomson, photographed for Spin at Fort Tilden State Park, New York, Septe5m6 bMerO⁶N, T²H⁰⁰2⁷007 WWW. SPIN.COM

ON BAIO: PERRY ELLIS SHIRT, PERRYELLIS.COM. ON BATMANGLIJ: CONVERSE BY JOHN

VARVATOS SHIR T, $125, BASE, MIAMI. ON KOENIG: POLO RALPH LAUREN S WEATER, $400, RALPHLAUREN.COM; CONVERSE BY JOHN VARVATOS SCARF, $95, GERRY’S, NYC.

ON TOMSON: AMERICAN APPAREL T-SHIR T, AMERICANAPPAREL. NE T.