Vampire Weekend have a new song, and tour

October 5th, 2009

Chris

Courtesy of Pitchfork
The tasteful viral build up to Vampire Weekend’s new record, Contra, continues with the premiere of LP opener “Horchata” via their website in mere moments, according a countdown clock ticking down now.

UPDATE: It’s available now! Download/stream the track below!

The track starts frontman Ezra Koenig singing, “In December drinking horchata/ I look psychotic in a balaclava,” before stomping drums, lofty back up vocals, and whimsical strings eventually join him. There’s a lot going on on this song.

In our recent interview with Koenig, he told us all about the strong California influence on Contra, and he’s backing up the claim with a two-week tour of the state come November. The trek finds Vampire Weekend hitting cities without baseball teams like Pioneertown, Visalia, and Lomita, where they’ll play a VFW Hall. A press release hints that daily announcements tipping off fans to “impromptu events” throughout the Cali trek will be found on the band’s website, too.

Contra is out January 12 on XL; click below for all upcoming Vampire Weekend tour dates, which includes gigs in Canada, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney:

http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/Vampire%20Weekend%20-%20Horchata.mp3

Vampire Weekend:

10-06 Montreal, Quebec – Le National
10-08 Toronto, Ontario – Horseshoe Tavern
10-15 London, England – King’s College
10-22 Paris, France – Nouveau Casino
11-02 Long Beach, CA – The Art Theater
11-05 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s
11-07 Lafayette, CA – Town Hall Theatre
11-08 Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst
11-09 Visalia, CA – The Cellar Door
11-10 San Luis Obispo, CA – Downtown Brew
11-12 Bakersfield, CA – Chencho’s
11-14 Lomita, CA – VFW Hall
11-17 Tokyo, Japan – Tokyo Unit
11-21 Sydney, Australia – Oxford Art Factory