They’ve toured the U.S. and Europe without even having released one album — but that’s about to change.

After months of hype, Vampire Weekend is finally unleashing its self-titled debut in stores on Jan. 29, where it’s sure to be met by high expectations.

“I feel like a lot of people have heard of us, starting in the summer, and they’ve been writing about a speculative way,” bassist Chris Baio told Billboard recently. “Maybe they’ve only heard three MP3s or seen us live. I think we’ve all been pretty anxious to have it out there.”

The New Yorkers’ sound has been described as indie rock with an Afro-Caribbean vibe akin to Paul Simon’s “Graceland.”

Their recent tours through the U.S. and Europe gave the band a chance to road-test most of the tracks on their debut.

“I think this version represents our full sound,” Baio says. “There were some sections where drum parts were changed; some vocals might have been redone, and I re-recorded bass for one song. Little touch-ups [like] that might not make a difference to most listeners but made a difference to us.

“We’ve had most of these songs out for over a year,” he continued. “We have one full new song that we play live that’s going to be on the next album. Maybe [we'll] do an EP in between the two albums. We just need to figure out what our tour commitments are. We’ve definitely been talking about [recording], though.”

Vampire Weekend will stop by Toronto on Feb. 11 for a show at the Horseshoe Tavern, and in Vancouver on March 27 at Richard’s On Richards.

They will also swing by Austin, Texas in mid-March to play at the South By Southwest Music Festival.






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