On the surface, Vampire Weekend has little in common with Vlad the Impaler, the legendary tyrant who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For starters, Vampire Weekend is a topsider-clad 21st-century American band that has won favor among many with its brand of “polite punk,” while Vlad was a 15th century Romanian prince who won favor among very few by skewering his detractors and displaying the carnage in his front yard. Punk, maybe. But hardly polite.
“It’s a bit out of nowhere, but I think that’s better than something really literal, like The Martha’s Vineyards,” drummer Chris Tomson says of the contrast between his band’s sanguine name and its clean-cut, khaki-clad persona. “But I don’t think that anyone has shown up thinking that we’re a goth band.” Indeed, with breezy lyrical references to obscure punctuation, 17th-century French architecture and Ivy League co-eds, Vampire Weekend’s fusion of retro synth-pop, jangly guitar riffs and Afro-beat ?ourishes is as distant from gothic doom and gloom as Cape Cod is from Transylvania.
But like the Impaler himself, the band understands the benefits of a defined public image. Vlad solidified his own with the help of a few sharp sticks and some unwitting volunteers; Vampire Weekend has spilled no blood, but is no less deliberate. “In the ?rst couple rehearsals, we talked about a vibe that we wanted we have,” Tomson says of the upper-crust aesthetic that permeates the band’s lyrics, onstage dress and even its concert ?iers. “It’s kind of a joke, though I’ve read a couple things where people don’t get that we’re winking, so they’re just kind of upset, like, ‘You fuckin’ rich kids!’”
Lighten up—it’s not like they’ve killed anyone.
