With "Horchata," Vampire Weekend offered up an even-keeled primer to their forthcoming Contra alongside an expanded instrumental palette that featured marimba, kalimba, and an eBayed Yamaha VSS-30. For fans of Ezra's more frantically paced guitar picking there's the more familial and festive "Cousins": The African instrumentation is left in favor of clanging bells and a more manic BPM, caffeinated rhythm section work and trilling guitars, yelps, more along the lines of
"California English" (which came live from California). You saw it live, now have a listen to the studio iteration.
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Buy it at iTunes, get ready for these shows to be sell-outs:
12/10 - Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom (94.7FM "A December To Remember" concert series)
12/11 - Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena (Live 105 "Not So Silent Night 2009")
12/12 - La Jolla, CA @ RIMAC Arena/UC San Diego (FM949 "Holiday Hootenanny")
12/13 - Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheater (KROQ "Acoustic Christmas")
12/15 - Seattle, WA @ WaMu Theater (KNDD The End's "Deck The Hall Ball '09")
01/12 - Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theater
01/17 - New York, NY @ United Palace Theater
01/18 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
01/19 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Radio, radio. Contra is out 1/12 via XL.
[Photo from Vampire Weekend @ Long Beach Theater 11/2/09 by Andrew Youssef]
