The Story of Vampire Weekend

If you are into indie rock, you’ve heard of Vampire Weekend. They are THE buzz band of the last little while.

A lot of bands are probably envious of their quick rise to indie fame, but I figured there’s got to be a little more to the story.  I was doing a little digging and quickly came across a recent article from SPIN magazine on the band.

After recording, they knew they had to get the real hype starters, the bloggers, on board. Offering a fresh sound to the scene, they made contact with people from Stereogum, Good Weather for Airstrike, and other influential music taste makers that weren’t traditional media. They didn’t even go after record labels cause they were smart enough to build a buzz first and then use that buzz to build negotiating strength in any industry deal that was offered.

A quote from the article:

As for the perception that Vampire Weekend, who like to toy with a children-of-privilege image, haven’t worked hard for their success, XL’s (their label) Chen disagrees vehemently. “They’ve done more than what a lot of bands do a couple of years into their careers,” says Chen. “Three tours driving around the country with no tour manager, pooling their money to buy a minivan — they made these decisions because from the gut they knew it was the right thing to do. Some people will stress over whether Vampire Weekend have ‘paid their dues’ — all it takes is a little Googling to see that they have.”

In short, they hustled.

Read the article. It’s a good read.

Take Control of Your Music,

Hoover

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