What Have Vampire Weekend Been Up To Since Modern Vampires Of The City?

What Have Vampire Weekend Been Up To Since Modern Vampires Of The City?

Vampire Weekend released their instant-classic third LP Modern Vampires Of The City on May 14, 2013. It was a different world back then: We were all still wondering what Yeezus would sound like, Arcade Fire hadn’t even announced Reflektor yet, and Miley Cyrus was still a few weeks away from releasing “We Can’t Stop.” A more innocent time, to be sure.

More than 52 months have passed since then with no news of a follow-up besides the occasional assurance that they’re working on it and it will be ready when it’s ready — most recently yesterday, when Ezra Koenig told Zane Lowe the project tentatively known as Mitsubishi Macchiato is “close to being done.”

In the meantime there’s been no shortage of music from the four founding members of Vampire Weekend — including and especially Rostam Batmanglij, who left the band early last year to focus on his solo career (while noting he and Koenig would still collaborate on “future projects + future VW songs”). Rostam’s debut album, Half-Light, arrived last Friday, becoming the latest in a long string of non-Vampire Weekend creative activity from the musicians best known for coming together as Vampire Weekend. Here’s a semi-completist rundown of the public endeavors they’ve undertaken while we awaited VW LP4.

April 16, 2013: Major Lazer release their album Free The Universe, featuring vocals from Koenig on “Jessica.”

Oct. 28, 2013: VW bassist Chris Baio releases Mira, a new solo EP under the name Baio.

Dec. 10, 2013: Baio shares his remix of Cults’ “High Road.”

Feb. 3, 2014: Another new Baio remix emerges, this one for Broken Bells’ “Holding On For Life.”

Feb. 15, 2014: VW drummer Chris Tomson DJs a charity event on NBA All-Star weekend that also features a “reunion” performance from the recently disbanded Walkmen.

March 2, 2014: A tuxedoed Koenig joins Karen O at the Academy Awards to perform “The Moon Song” from the Her soundtrack.

May 12, 2014: White Women, the new album from Chromeo, emerges with a track called “Ezra’s Interlude” featuring Koenig.

June 3, 2014: Walkmen singer Hamilton Leithauser releases his debut solo album, Black Hours. Rostam contributes production to two songs, “Alexandra” and “I Retired,” beginning a creative partnership that will soon become much more expansive.

June 24, 2014: Tomson praises the new Phish album and reveals his history as a Phishhead in a review for The Talkhouse, a website that publishes music reviews by musicians.

July 22, 2014: SBTRKT announce a new album called Wonder Where We Land by releasing a collaboration with Koenig called “New Dorp. New York.”

Sept. 11, 2014: A new version of the play This Is Our Youth starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, and Tavi Gevinson premieres on Broadway with original music by Rostam.

Sept. 29, 2014: Baio releases another new solo EP called On&On&On&On.

Nov. 5, 2014: Major Lazer share “Vegan Vampire,” a song promoting their cartoon TV series from FFX. The song features Koenig in character as Ryland, the titular vegan vampire he voiced on the show.

Nov. 17, 2014: The soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 arrives with the Rostam-produced “Kingdom,” a duet between Charli XCX and Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon. Rostam also produces “Need Ur Luv” from XCX’s album Sucker, which drops the following month.

Dec. 11, 2014: Rostam teams with Diplo and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste on “Long Way Home,” a remix of Ty Dolla $ign’s “Stand For.”

Dec. 20, 2014: Koenig and Despot guest on ILoveMakonnen’s “Down 4 So Long” remix. Ezra raps, “Summer 2014/ Shmoney dancing with some goth teens/ Motherfuckers leaking nudes/ Why they got to be so rude?”

Feb. 2, 2015: Afro-pop duo the Very Best unveil the details of their new album Makes A King along with a Baio collaboration called “Let Go.”

May 13, 2015: Koenig and Tomson guest on the soccer talk show Men In Blazers.

May 26, 2015: Baio releases “Brainwash yyrr Face,” the lead single from his debut solo album The Names. The rollout later includes the release of “Sister Of Pearl,” “Endless Rhythm,” and the the title track.

July 15, 2015: Koenig launches his Beats 1 radio show, Time Crisis.

July 30, 2015: Carly Rae Jepsen releases her Rostam-produced single “Warm Blood” as part of the confusing and disjointed rollout for her fantastic E•MO•TION.

Sept. 15, 2015: Baio’s debut album The Names streams online three days ahead of its official release.

Nov. 16, 2015: Ra Ra Riot — the band fronted by Rostam’s old Discovery bandmate Wes Miles — release “Water,” which features vocals and production by Rostam. The song later appears on their 2016 album Need Your Light, which features another Rostam-produced track called “I Need Your Light.”

Jan. 14, 2016: Rostam releases “EOS,” his first solo material since 2011.

Feb. 26, 2016: Santigold releases 99¢ with three tracks produced by Rostam.

March 11, 2016: Rostam releases another new solo song, “Gravity Don’t Pull Me.”

April 23, 2016: Beyoncé releases her Lemonade album and film. Koenig is credited as a co-writer on “Hold Up,” which he later reveals began as a Vampire Weekend writing session with Diplo.

May 4, 2016: Baio contributes a new song called “Don’t Fight Fate” to Amazon’s Songs Of The Summer playlist.

July 22, 2016: Leithauser and Rostam announce they’re releasing an entire album together and share its lead single, the annoyingly syntaxed “A 1000 Times.”

Aug. 8, 2016: Rostam debuts a new solo song called “Gwan” on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Aug. 20, 2016: Frank Ocean abruptly releases his long-awaited Blonde; the album’s second track, “Ivy,” features production by Rostam.

Sept. 8, 2016: Tomson announces his debut solo album under the name Dams Of The West and releases its lead single, “Death Wish.”

Sept. 23, 2016: Rostam and Leithauser release their collaborative album as Hamilton + Rostam, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine, following a handful of other advance singles: “In A Black Out” (which featured in an iPhone ad), “Sick As A Dog,” and “When The Truth Is…”

Sept. 24, 2016: Tomson competes in the fourth annual Pop Vs. Jock celebrity basketball game in Toronto.

Sept. 30, 2016: Solange’s A Seat At The Table arrives on short notice, with Rostam contributing production to “F.U.B.U.” featuring The-Dream and BJ The Chicago Kid.

Dec. 2, 2016: Tomson releases another new Dams Of The West song called “Tell The Truth.”

Dec. 16, 2016: Netflix premieres The OA, a new fantasy/sci-fi mystery series co-created by Rostam’s brother, Zal Batmanglij. Rostam provides the original score.

Feb. 24, 2017: After one more single, “The Inerrancy Of You And Me,” Tomson’s Dams Of The West debut album Youngish American is released.

April 4, 2017: RAC announces his sophomore LP with the release of Rostam collaboration “This Song.”

May 12, 2017: Baio teases a second solo album with the release of a new solo track called “PHILOSOPHY!”

June 14, 2017: Rostam details his debut solo album, Half-Light, and shares another new solo track called “Bike Dream.”

June 16, 2017: Baio confirms the imminent release of sophomore LP Man Of The World and reveals another single, “DANGEROUE ANAMAL.”

June 30, 2017: A week after final advance single “Out Of Tune” drops, Baio’s album Man Of The World sees official release.

July 7, 2017: Haim’s second album, Something To Tell You, finally comes out, and Rostam’s production is all over it.

July 21, 2017: English singer-songwriter Declan McKenna drops debut album What Do You Think About The Car? featuring the Rostam-produced “Listen To Your Friends.”

Aug. 1, 2017: Baio covers White Town’s “Your Woman” in a Stereogum Session.

Sept. 15, 2017: Rostam’s album Half-Light sees official release, a week after the title track (featuring Wet’s Kelly Zutrau) is released as the final advance single.

Sept. 22, 2017: Netflix will release Neo Yokio, a new anime-inspired animated series created by Koenig and Jaden Smith.

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