Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band known for their complex lyrics and unorthodox production. Consisting of Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, and Chris Tomson, they have released four albums: Vampire Weekend, Contra, Modern Vampires of the City, and Father of the Bride, which was originally known under the working title Mitsubishi Macchiato. The latter two debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making them the first previously unknown independently signed to do so.

Rostam Batmanglij was a member (mainly working on production and synths throughout his time) until January 2016, when he left to pursue solo projects. However, he contributed to their fourth album, Father of the Bride, which released in the Spring of 2019.

The band got their name the summer before Koenig’s sophmore year of college. He wanted to make an East Coast version of the 80s vampire film The Lost Boys and titled his version Vampire Weekend. They originally considered calling themselves Weekend, but there was another band with that name. It was probably in reference to the Godard film Week-End, which is about dissolute youth revolutionaries in the 1968 tumult in France. They allude to the film both in the “Mansard Roof” and “Oxford Comma” videos.

With the release of Modern Vampires of the City, Vampire Weekend has likened their first three albums to a trilogy. Koenig told Jon Pareles of the New York Times as much in May 2013:

It reminded me of Brideshead Revisited. The naïve joyous school days in the beginning. Then the expansion of the world, travel, seeing other places, learning a little bit more about how people live. And then the end is a little bit of growing up, starting to think more seriously about your life and your faith. If people could look at our three albums as a bildungsroman, I’d be O.K. with that.

Flavorwire has compiled a map similar to our Rap Map of every location mentioned in Vampire Weekend songs.