Vampire Weekend Pays Tribute to Indie Rock’s Golden Era at Just Like Heaven Fest

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May 202025
 
vampire weekend

At the recent Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena, Vampire Weekend stepped away from their signature sound to pay homage to the indie hits that defined their generation. The band delivered a series of electrifying cover performances that revisited the raw, unpolished energy of early-2000s indie rock and post-punk revival. Dubbed a “salute to indie” medley, they covered iconic tracks from their contemporaries, including Phoenix’s “Lisztomania,” Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better,” Beach House’s “Space Song,” Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks,” and finished off with TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me.” Continue reading »

The Best Vampire Weekend Covers Ever

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Jul 262024
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

This spring, Vampire Weekend released their fifth album, Only God Was Above Us. Like all their albums, it was extremely well-received (“Universal acclaim,” says Metacritic), and they’re currently in the middle of a year-long tour supporting it. They take so long between albums that we wanted to strike while the iron was hot and celebrate some of the great covers of their work.

To state the obvious, five albums is not a huge discography. Last month we did The Kinks, and they’ve got 26 studio albums to cover songs from, and that’s not even counting all the non-album singles that include many of their biggest hits. But Vampire Weekend are beloved in a way few modern indie-rock bands are. So even though they don’t have that many songs, and even though they’re hardly in the game of making inescapable pop hits, they get covered a fair amount. And often in unexpected, inventive ways. Fitting for one of the most unexpected, inventive bands in the game.

Read on for our favorites.

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Vampire Weekend Curate 20:21 Long Covers of “2021” from Sam Gendel and Goose

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Feb 082021
 
Vampire Weekend releases 40:42

On February 1, 2021, a mysterious and unplayable album appeared on Spotify. Most people didn’t see it at all, and it disappeared as quickly and inexplicably as it had arrived. For fans of Vampire Weekend, however, it was a tantalizing enigma. Titled 40:42, it contained two covers of the song “2021,” each clocking in at 20 minutes and 21 seconds. Although leaks became available if you knew who to ask, it finally had its official release on February 4. Continue reading »

Vampire Weekend Close Tour with Dusty, Bruce, “Little Drummer Boy” Covers

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Dec 122019
 
vampire weekend dusty

Vampire Weekend closed out the US portion of their Father of the Bride tour in Cover Me style. Performing at the intimate Mcmenimans Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon, the band played several crowd requests and special covers during a special one hour acoustic set for radio station 94/7’s December to Remember series. Continue reading »

Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig Changes Up His Paul Simon Roots with “Papa Hobo”

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Apr 072011
 

When they broke out in early 2008 with their self-titled debut, Vampire Weekend‘s champions and critics made essentially the same claims about the band. Detractors accused the band of stealing elements of world music, while fans heralded them as the heirs to Graceland-era Paul Simon (who faced similar accusations). Perhaps that made frontman Ezra Koenig an obvious choice to take on Paul Simon’s “Papa Hobo” for the soundtrack to the upcoming movie Ceremony, but the track is actually a bit of a departure from the typical Simon influence in Vampire Weekend’s music. Continue reading »