Completely toss away all that you know about Brooklyn group Vampire Weekend (and at this point, there’s been a proliferation of all things VW in the last few months to make this group the most wanted and blissed about young band in the world) and let the mind wander back to the end of summer, when there was a following across the country of few. Vampire Weekend were out of Gotham for the first time, since forming at Columbia, a matter of fact that has been much-discussed and referenced in writings as they’ve had their clothing – the penny loafers and Dockers, etc. – pegged as the sophisticated, polo-viewing rich boy’s, right or horribly wrong. They were supporting next to nothing, just kicking the tires on the live sound outside home. They had recorded a too short EP and a heavy stock 7-inch, but their following was relatively fictional and limited. The band of four came to Rock Island at the very end of that experience, playing one final show in Chicago and then backtracking to us for a session and a show in our small pizza parlour (Huckleberry’s for those who are sticklers for all of the details) and then red-eyed it back to New York to catch flights two days later. The session was spectacular – all of the evidence in that is following. The show, played before about 50 people who’d never heard one word about the band prior to the night, was much more than that. It was full of so much intangible magic that it felt absolutely impossible. The guys were all smiles as they broke into it. They were all smiles during and huge, gaping smiles after an encore was demanded and they wound up bagging a second taco pizza from the management while they were signing the T-shirts of youngsters and the elderly. It was a dance party that they even recounted for NME a few weeks back. Something as truly memorable as this night doesn’t come along very often. Thank heaven for blue moons. – Sean Moeller

First song
Bryn (Vampire Weekend) [1.99MB] [13732 downloads]


– original version appears on EP
This song was inspired by a friend of ours from college. She’s from LA. This recording sounds pretty different than the version that will be on our album. This was the last day of our tour and we were very excited to try out the different pedals and keyboards. I never use pedals but I was psyched to mess with this phaser-y one. California has always been a mystical place for me.

Second song
I Stand Corrected (Vampire Weekend) [2.28MB] [14059 downloads]


– unreleased
This is one of the older songs in our repetoire. I recorded a version of it a few years before the band got together. We’ve changed it a lot since we first started playing it. We just finished recording it for the album. The vibe we were shooting for was “New England Joy Division.” We’re actually in Manchester right now. We saw “Control” last night. On this recording, Rostam is using a different keyboard than what we usually have live which gives it a distinct vibe.

Third song
M 79 (Vampire Weekend) [3.63MB] [13396 downloads]


— unreleased
We just finished recording this song too. The final version is very different than this one. Rostam played piano here so I feel like it has a kind of honky-tonk vibe. On the album, there are a lot of different instruments and string arrangements. It’s named after a bus in Manhattan that goes across Central Park. There are usually a lot of old people on it — maybe going to a museum or hospital on the Upper East Side. Lexy from the Harlem Shakes told us that he used to take it to school.

Fourth song
Oxford Comma (Vampire Weekend) [3.10MB] [13109 downloads]


– original version appears on EP
This was the closer at our first show. It hasn’t changed at all since then. I always wanted to record a version with piano and I like how it sounds on this one. It’s got a certain regalness.