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Vampire Weekend - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Dec 12 2013

Vampire Weekend (Music)

Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten!note 

Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City currently consisting of Ezra Koenig (lead vocals/guitar), Chris Tomson (drums), and Chris Baio (bass/backing vocals). Band co-founder Rostam Batmanglij (guitar/keyboard/backing vocals) has embarked on a solo career and is no longer an official member of the band.

The members of the band met as students at Columbia University and took their name from a short film of Koenig's about an invasion of Cape Cod by vampires on the weekend.

Discography:

  • Vampire Weekend (2008)
  • Contra (2010)
  • Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
  • Father of the Bride (2019)
  • Only God Was Above Us (2024)

Look outside at the redtropes coming, say "Oh.":

  • Album Title Drop: "Father of the bride" are the final words of Danielle Haim's first verse on "Hold You Now".
  • Alliterative Name: The titular Hannah Hunt of "Hannah Hunt."
  • Alliterative Title: "Hannah Hunt", "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Harmony Hall", "Big Blue", "Spring Snow".
  • Audience Participation Song: "One (Blake's Got A New Face)" often has the audience sing the response of "Blake's Got A New Face" during the chorus.
    • "Horchata" is often an audience participation song at concerts too, with directions on when to sing provided by Rostam.
  • Break-Up Song: "Campus". Also a popular interpretation of "Hannah Hunt".
  • Closet Key: "Diplomat's Son," which was actually a reinterpretation of a short story Ezra had written into a love story.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Ezra, especially on his Twitter.
  • Darker and Edgier: Modern Vampires of the City, especially the album art.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: The album art for Modern Vampires of the City, and the Lyric Video for "Step" off the same album.
  • Epic Rocking: "Diplomat's Son" and "Hope".
  • Everyone Went to School Together: The group began at Columbia University.
  • Indecipherable Lyrics: "A-Punk", most of which sounds like gibberish even if you do know the lyrics.
  • Intercourse with You: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
  • Hymn to Music: One interpretation of "Step".
  • Last Chorus Slowdown: "Sunflower".
  • Location Song:
    • "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa".
    • "Step" namedrops numerous locations, from Dar El Salaam to Mechanicsburg.
    • "Hannah Hunt" is set on a road trip "from Providence to Phoenix", and the protagonists wind up in Santa Barbara of all places.
    • "Jerusalem, New York, Berlin".
  • Lyrical Dissonance: "Diane Young."

    Ezra: "I had a feeling that the world is not a number called "Dying Young" (= young die) because it sounded so heavy and seriously, where "Diane Young" sounded like a name of a nice person."

  • Lyric Video: An official one for "Step".
  • New Sound Album: Modern Vampires of the City was more experimental than the band's previous releases.
  • Non-Appearing Title: "White Sky" and others.
  • Not Staying for Breakfast: The Love Interest in "Diplomat's Son".
  • The Oner: In the music videos for "Oxford Comma" and "A-Punk".
  • One-Woman Song: "Hannah Hunt", "Diane Young", "Mary Boone".
  • One-Word Title: "Step", "Giant", “Ottoman”, "Horchata", "Cousins", "Walcott", "Bryn", "Campus", "A-Punk", "Holiday", "Run", "Unbelievers", "Hudson", "Bambina", "Sympathy", "Sunflower", "2021", "Stranger", "Classical", "Capricorn", "Connect", "Pravda", "Hope".
  • "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: "Step".
  • Precision F-Strike: "Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?" from "Oxford Comma".
    • "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" has one in the first chorus, though it's not overt.
    • Two in the last verse of "Walcott".
    • Two in "Ice Cream Piano", which earned Only God Was Above Us a Parental Advisory label.
  • Punny Title: "Diane Young".
  • Queer Romance: The narrator of "Diplomat's Son" has a crush on his best friend (the titular character); the two finally get high and sleep together, but the diplomat's son is gone come morning.
  • Recycled Lyrics: The lyric "This feels so unnatural/Peter Gabriel, too" appears in both "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Ottoman".
    • "Giving Up the Gun" from Contra is a rerecording of "Giving Up Da Gun" by L'homme Run, Ezra's rap group from before the band was created.
    • "I don't wanna live like this/But I don't wanna die" shows up in both the outtro of "Finger Back" and the chorus of "Harmony Hall".
  • Religion Rant Song: "Unbelievers".

    I’m not excited
    But should I be?
    Is this the fate that half of the world has planned for me?
    I know I love you
    And you love the sea
    What holy water contains a little drop, little drop for me?

  • Road Trip Plot: "Hannah Hunt".
  • Self-Titled Album: Their debut.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In "A-Punk," the line, "One half of the ring lies here with me/But the other half lies at the bottom of the sea," is taken from the traditional folk song, "Dark-Eyed Sailor".
    • "We Belong Together" name-drops "Keats and Yeats," which itself is a reference to The Smiths' "Cemetry Gates".
  • Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Almost all of "Worship You".
  • Suddenly Shouting:

    "IF I CAN'T TRUST YOU, THEN DAMN IT, HANNAH!"

  • Title Drop: “I Think Ur A Contra” from Contra.
  • Title-Only Chorus: "One (Blake's Got A New Face)".
  • Word Salad Lyrics: "California English", "Step", "Giant'.