Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band known for their intricate lyrics and unique production style. Consisting of Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, and Chris Tomson, they have released four albums: Vampire Weekend, Contra, Modern Vampires of the City, and Father of the Bride, which initially had the working title Mitsubishi Macchiato. The last two debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making them the first previously unknown independently signed band to achieve this.

Rostam Batmanglij was a member (primarily focusing on production and synths throughout his tenure) until January 2016, when he departed to pursue solo endeavors. Nonetheless, he contributed to their fourth album, Father of the Bride, released in Spring 2019.

The band got their name the summer before Koenig’s sophomore year of college. He imagined an East Coast version of the 80s vampire film The Lost Boys and titled his concept Vampire Weekend. They initially considered naming themselves Weekend, but there was another band with that name, likely referencing the Godard film Week-End, which is about dissolute youth revolutionaries in the 1968 turmoil in France. They nod to the film both in the “Mansard Roof” and “Oxford Comma” videos.

With the release of Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend has suggested their first three albums form a trilogy. Koenig expressed this to Jon Pareles of the New York Times in May 2013:

It reminded me of Brideshead Revisited. The naïve joyous school days in the beginning. Then the expansion of the world, travel, seeing other places, learning a little bit more about how people live. And then the end is a little bit of growing up, starting to think more seriously about your life and your faith. If people could look at our three albums as a bildungsroman, I’d be O.K. with that.

Flavorwire has assembled a map akin to our Rap Map of every location mentioned in Vampire Weekend songs.