Vampire Weekend appeared as the musical guest on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
The trio delivered polished renditions of “Gen X Cops” and “Capricorn,” two songs from their latest album, Only God Was Above Us. Seated center-stage with a piano, vocalist Ezra Koenig carried the rising and falling melody of “Gen X Cops,” performing the lyrics with a look of urgency in his eyes.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
For the second song, “Capricorn,” Koenig donned a parlor guitar, and a small string section providing the driving engine on the verses. On the choruses, a growling guitar line entered, coloring the arrangement with its distorted wail. Watch both performances below.
Vampire Weekend are currently on the road in support of Only God Was Above Us, which arrived this past April. Up next, they’ll perform at Primavera Sound Barcelona, followed by shows across the US. Check out...
The trio delivered polished renditions of “Gen X Cops” and “Capricorn,” two songs from their latest album, Only God Was Above Us. Seated center-stage with a piano, vocalist Ezra Koenig carried the rising and falling melody of “Gen X Cops,” performing the lyrics with a look of urgency in his eyes.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
For the second song, “Capricorn,” Koenig donned a parlor guitar, and a small string section providing the driving engine on the verses. On the choruses, a growling guitar line entered, coloring the arrangement with its distorted wail. Watch both performances below.
Vampire Weekend are currently on the road in support of Only God Was Above Us, which arrived this past April. Up next, they’ll perform at Primavera Sound Barcelona, followed by shows across the US. Check out...
- 5/12/2024
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
One second, Vampire Weekend are performing a 30-minute jam of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” with Goose, the next, they’re bringing out Paris Hilton for a game of cornhole. The random cameo from the reality TV starlet occurred during Vampire Weekend’s surprise Saturday afternoon performance at Coachella.
To close the set, the veteran indie rockers performed a 15-minute honky tonk mashup dubbed “Cocaine Cowboys,” which featured performances of their own song “Married in a Gold Rush” alongside covers of “All the Gold In California” (Gatlin Brothers Band), “Sin City” (Flying Burrito Brothers), “Cumberland Blues” (The Grateful Dead), and “Possum” (Phish). During the medley, Vampire Weekend invited two special guests to the stage for a game of cornhole: Hilton and an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. For her part, Hilton said she hadn’t play cornhole since her mid-2000s reality show The Simply Life and promptly missed her two attempts.
Get...
To close the set, the veteran indie rockers performed a 15-minute honky tonk mashup dubbed “Cocaine Cowboys,” which featured performances of their own song “Married in a Gold Rush” alongside covers of “All the Gold In California” (Gatlin Brothers Band), “Sin City” (Flying Burrito Brothers), “Cumberland Blues” (The Grateful Dead), and “Possum” (Phish). During the medley, Vampire Weekend invited two special guests to the stage for a game of cornhole: Hilton and an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. For her part, Hilton said she hadn’t play cornhole since her mid-2000s reality show The Simply Life and promptly missed her two attempts.
Get...
- 4/14/2024
- by Scoop Harrison
- Consequence - Music
Fresh off of the release of their new album Only God Was Above Us, Vampire Weekend made a surprise appearance at a Goose show on Wednesday night. To start their second set at the Port Chester, New York, venue The Capitol Theatre, the jam band brought out the indie vets to rip through “Gen-X Cops” and a 30-minute (!) version of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” Stream the entire set below.
“We’re gonna have some special guests come up here,” Goose member Peter Anspach said as the band entered the second hour of their monstrous four-hour-long set. Once Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, and Chris Thomson took the stage, the two bands launched into a jammy, though relatively faithful rendition of the Only God Was Above Us cut “Gen-x Cops.” Vampire Weekend fan-favorite “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” followed, morphing into a half-hour-long jam of grooves and solos.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets...
“We’re gonna have some special guests come up here,” Goose member Peter Anspach said as the band entered the second hour of their monstrous four-hour-long set. Once Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, and Chris Thomson took the stage, the two bands launched into a jammy, though relatively faithful rendition of the Only God Was Above Us cut “Gen-x Cops.” Vampire Weekend fan-favorite “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” followed, morphing into a half-hour-long jam of grooves and solos.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets...
- 4/11/2024
- by Jonah Krueger
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend’s fifth studio album, Only God Was Above Us, has arrived.
Released via Columbia Records, Only God Was Above Us clocks in at 10 songs, recorded in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo with Ezra Koening co-producing alongside Ariel Rechtshaid. First announced this past February, its release was preceded by the singles “Capricorn,” “Gen-x Cops,” “Classical,” and “Mary Boone.”
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
The album is described in a press release as “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.” It takes inspiration from raga singing and 20th century New York City, with lyrics Koening wrote between 2019 and 2020, and then fleshed out with his bandmates in the following years. The title comes from its artwork, a photo of a man reading a newspaper with the headline, “Only God Was Above Us,” a reference to Aloha Airlines Flight...
Released via Columbia Records, Only God Was Above Us clocks in at 10 songs, recorded in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo with Ezra Koening co-producing alongside Ariel Rechtshaid. First announced this past February, its release was preceded by the singles “Capricorn,” “Gen-x Cops,” “Classical,” and “Mary Boone.”
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
The album is described in a press release as “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.” It takes inspiration from raga singing and 20th century New York City, with lyrics Koening wrote between 2019 and 2020, and then fleshed out with his bandmates in the following years. The title comes from its artwork, a photo of a man reading a newspaper with the headline, “Only God Was Above Us,” a reference to Aloha Airlines Flight...
- 4/5/2024
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend’s recordings have frequently been characterized by a kind of tidiness, a clean fusion of Ezra Koenig’s pop songwriting smarts and the group’s instrumental economy. The band’s new album Only God Was Above Us offers something different, pivoting away from the brighter, jammier aspects of 2019’s Father of the Bride with a decided bent toward experimentation and surprising, often harsh, new textures. The results showcase a band that, nearly two decades in, is willing to issue a challenge to its fans and produce a soundtrack...
- 4/3/2024
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
While Vampire Weekend’s prep-school narratives have toyed with subcultural statements and big ideas about youth and love, singer and chief songwriter Ezra Koenig never seems to be revealing much about himself. That admittedly could make the sweeping emotions that the group’s songs tried to invoke feel trapped behind glass, even on a work of pop craftsmanship as stunning as 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City.
Vampire Weekend’s first album in five years and their first with (most of) their original lineup in more than a decade, Only God Was Above Us doesn’t tell us a whole lot more about the interior lives of Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, or drummer Chris Tomson. What it lacks in confessionals, though, it makes up for with a sharp conceit: a Cold War allegory about romance, contrasting references to conflict in Eastern Europe and Russia with domestic issues and memories.
In mounting this framework,...
Vampire Weekend’s first album in five years and their first with (most of) their original lineup in more than a decade, Only God Was Above Us doesn’t tell us a whole lot more about the interior lives of Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, or drummer Chris Tomson. What it lacks in confessionals, though, it makes up for with a sharp conceit: a Cold War allegory about romance, contrasting references to conflict in Eastern Europe and Russia with domestic issues and memories.
In mounting this framework,...
- 4/1/2024
- by Charles Lyons-Burt
- Slant Magazine
Vampire Weekend are back with “Mary Boone,” the latest single from their forthcoming album Only God Was Above Us.
“Mary Boone” features angelic choirs and lush orchestrations, a drum loop sampled from Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me),” and kaleidoscopic synths that drop in at each wordless chorus. The song’s title refers to the art dealer and collector who became well-known in the New York City art scene during the 1980s.
Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig narrates a scene in which a new inhabitant of the city seeks work under Mary Boone, and later expands the subject to include themes of love lost and change. The song’s official visualizer features the rapper Despot as he drives from New Jersey to New York City through the Lincoln Tunnel. Watch the visual below.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
“Mary Boone” is Vampire Weekend’s...
“Mary Boone” features angelic choirs and lush orchestrations, a drum loop sampled from Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me),” and kaleidoscopic synths that drop in at each wordless chorus. The song’s title refers to the art dealer and collector who became well-known in the New York City art scene during the 1980s.
Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig narrates a scene in which a new inhabitant of the city seeks work under Mary Boone, and later expands the subject to include themes of love lost and change. The song’s official visualizer features the rapper Despot as he drives from New Jersey to New York City through the Lincoln Tunnel. Watch the visual below.
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
“Mary Boone” is Vampire Weekend’s...
- 3/28/2024
- by Paolo Ragusa
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend have played around with a slightly “punky,” slightly “jammy”side project in their free time, band members Ezra Koenig, Chris Tomson, and Chris Baio told the New York Times.
According to Tomson, the extra-curriculars began as a way to blow off steam during the pandemic. “The world had stopped working and a lot of what we normally do was just not being done,” Tomson recalled. “There was something about just playing with no expectation — to just play with my two very close friends without an agenda.”
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
Baio added, “It’s very rare for people in a band of our size to be alone together. No engineer, no tour manager, nothing like that. It felt like being at the outset of the band again. And we did that for three years and change, whenever we were all in town.”
And Koenig has even embellished...
According to Tomson, the extra-curriculars began as a way to blow off steam during the pandemic. “The world had stopped working and a lot of what we normally do was just not being done,” Tomson recalled. “There was something about just playing with no expectation — to just play with my two very close friends without an agenda.”
Get Vampire Weekend Tickets Here
Baio added, “It’s very rare for people in a band of our size to be alone together. No engineer, no tour manager, nothing like that. It felt like being at the outset of the band again. And we did that for three years and change, whenever we were all in town.”
And Koenig has even embellished...
- 3/21/2024
- by Wren Graves
- Consequence - Music
To celebrate the 2024 total eclipse — and the release of their new album, Only God Was Above Us — Vampire Weekend will play a special midday show in Austin, Texas, which will also be available to livestream.
The gig will take place April 8 (three days after the album’s release) at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin, which is directly in the path of the total eclipse. To coincide with the astronomical event, Vampire Weekend will start playing at 12 p.m. Ct, with the eclipse expected to reach totality around 1:36 p.m.
The gig will take place April 8 (three days after the album’s release) at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin, which is directly in the path of the total eclipse. To coincide with the astronomical event, Vampire Weekend will start playing at 12 p.m. Ct, with the eclipse expected to reach totality around 1:36 p.m.
- 3/18/2024
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Vampire Weekend make sense of how historical examples of cruelty have become “classical” with time on an upbeat new song, “Classical.” The song comes off their upcoming album Only God Was Above Us, due out April 5.
Between frontman Ezra Koenig’s catchy, squeaky guitar melody and Henry Solomon’s wild saxophone solo, Koenig sings about war, peace, and abandoned ruins of temples, describing history as “a bleak sunrise.” The music sort of falls apart at the end, on purpose.
The video, directed by Nick Harwood, leans on the past by...
Between frontman Ezra Koenig’s catchy, squeaky guitar melody and Henry Solomon’s wild saxophone solo, Koenig sings about war, peace, and abandoned ruins of temples, describing history as “a bleak sunrise.” The music sort of falls apart at the end, on purpose.
The video, directed by Nick Harwood, leans on the past by...
- 3/14/2024
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Vampire Weekend will hit the road this summer for a lengthy tour in support of their upcoming album Only God Was Above Us.
Following the band’s sold-out, album-introducing, solar eclipse show in Austin, the 45-show trek kicks off in earnest April 27 at New Orleans’ Jazz Fest, and loops around North America before concluding back at Austin’s Moody Center on October 17.
Along the way, Vampire Weekend will make stops at Berkeley’s The Greek Theatre, Chicago’s Huntington Bank Pavilion, and New York’s Madison Square Garden, with each...
Following the band’s sold-out, album-introducing, solar eclipse show in Austin, the 45-show trek kicks off in earnest April 27 at New Orleans’ Jazz Fest, and loops around North America before concluding back at Austin’s Moody Center on October 17.
Along the way, Vampire Weekend will make stops at Berkeley’s The Greek Theatre, Chicago’s Huntington Bank Pavilion, and New York’s Madison Square Garden, with each...
- 2/17/2024
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Vampire Weekend have announced a 2024 North American tour and shared the first two singles from their upcoming album Only God Was Above: “Capricorn” and “Gen-x Cops.”
The 39-date tour kicks off in early June, following the band’s record release show in Austin and festival appearances at New Orleans Jazz Fest, Kilby Block Party in Salt Lake City, and Primavera Sound in Barcelona. As part of the North American headlining run, they’ll play multiple shows at Madison Square Garden in New York, Huntington Bank Pavilion in Chicago, KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Mt, and The Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Perhaps most exciting for Jamie Lee Curtis, Vampire Weekend’s visits to New York, Bonner, and Berkeley include matinee shows.
On their upcoming tour, Vampire Weekend will also share the stage with an eclectic mix of support acts, including Phish’s Mike Gordon, Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess, The English Beat,...
The 39-date tour kicks off in early June, following the band’s record release show in Austin and festival appearances at New Orleans Jazz Fest, Kilby Block Party in Salt Lake City, and Primavera Sound in Barcelona. As part of the North American headlining run, they’ll play multiple shows at Madison Square Garden in New York, Huntington Bank Pavilion in Chicago, KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Mt, and The Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Perhaps most exciting for Jamie Lee Curtis, Vampire Weekend’s visits to New York, Bonner, and Berkeley include matinee shows.
On their upcoming tour, Vampire Weekend will also share the stage with an eclectic mix of support acts, including Phish’s Mike Gordon, Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess, The English Beat,...
- 2/16/2024
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
Vampire Weekend are teasing their new album, Only God Was Above Us, with a 30-second clip of a noisy yet upbeat guitar cacophony skating over some funky bass and drums. The clip for the album, due out April 5, shows a man jumping through an old New York City subway car sideways, a French horn, a recording studio, the World Trade Center, and sheet music with the word “Hope,” among other images. “Hope” is the title of the final track on the album, and its lyrics contain the words, “I hope...
- 2/8/2024
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Action thriller “Limbo” and “Anita,” a biopic about the late Canto-pop queen Anita Mui lead the nomination race for this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, which is holding its 40th edition after being postponed from last year.
“Limbo,” a Cantonese noir that follows a cop duo’s hunt for a serial killer, received 14 nominations including best film, best director for Soi Cheang, best screenplay, best actor for Lam Ka-tung and best actress for Cya Liu. The film had earlier won the critics heart at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, which named “Limbo” as best film and Liu best actress for her role as a young addict.
“Anita” received 12 nominations, including best film and best director for Longman Leung. The film’s lead actress Louise Wong, who plays the role of the late superstar in her big screen debut, is nominated for both best actress and best new performer.
“Limbo,” a Cantonese noir that follows a cop duo’s hunt for a serial killer, received 14 nominations including best film, best director for Soi Cheang, best screenplay, best actor for Lam Ka-tung and best actress for Cya Liu. The film had earlier won the critics heart at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, which named “Limbo” as best film and Liu best actress for her role as a young addict.
“Anita” received 12 nominations, including best film and best director for Longman Leung. The film’s lead actress Louise Wong, who plays the role of the late superstar in her big screen debut, is nominated for both best actress and best new performer.
- 2/16/2022
- by Vivienne Chow
- Variety Film + TV
Chan, widely regarded as one of Hong Kong’s leading action directors, became ill while shooting Raging Fire last year.
Benny Chan, widely regarded as one of Hong Kong’s leading action directors, has died aged 58.
Chan was suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer. He had fallen ill while shooting Raging Fire, starring Nicolas Tse and Donnie Yen last year, and handed post-production of the film to his colleagues. He had spent the last few months hospitalised in Hong Kong.
Chan’s career started at Hong Kong broadcaster Tvb where he worked as an assistant director to Johnnie To and later became a director.
Benny Chan, widely regarded as one of Hong Kong’s leading action directors, has died aged 58.
Chan was suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer. He had fallen ill while shooting Raging Fire, starring Nicolas Tse and Donnie Yen last year, and handed post-production of the film to his colleagues. He had spent the last few months hospitalised in Hong Kong.
Chan’s career started at Hong Kong broadcaster Tvb where he worked as an assistant director to Johnnie To and later became a director.
- 8/24/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Nicholas Tse, Jaycee Chan, Shawn Yue, Wu Jing | Written by Benny Chan, Melody Lui, Rams Ling | Directed by Benny Chan
The paths of a renegade cop (Tse), a rookie police officer (Chan) and a veteran detective (Yue) converge with explosive results, as they each take on their most deadly assignment to date: the arrest of Hong Kong’s most lethal mercenary gang and their ruthless leader, played by Kung Fu impresario Wu Jing. The city becomes a battleground, as both sides break all the rules to defy each other in the ultimate fight for survival, justice and revenge!
Director Benny Chan has made some of the best action-packed police dramas in modern Eastern cinema – Man Wanted, Big Bullet, Gen-x Cops, and the superb New Police Story. With Invisible Target he re-teams with Nicholas Tse for what may be his most gloriously over-the-top, action-filled extravangza ever! And like New Police Story,...
The paths of a renegade cop (Tse), a rookie police officer (Chan) and a veteran detective (Yue) converge with explosive results, as they each take on their most deadly assignment to date: the arrest of Hong Kong’s most lethal mercenary gang and their ruthless leader, played by Kung Fu impresario Wu Jing. The city becomes a battleground, as both sides break all the rules to defy each other in the ultimate fight for survival, justice and revenge!
Director Benny Chan has made some of the best action-packed police dramas in modern Eastern cinema – Man Wanted, Big Bullet, Gen-x Cops, and the superb New Police Story. With Invisible Target he re-teams with Nicholas Tse for what may be his most gloriously over-the-top, action-filled extravangza ever! And like New Police Story,...
- 1/22/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.