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Vampire Weekend have a new album, and everyone wants to know what it sounds like.

So we sent NYLON contributing writer Marisa Meltzer to Paris, where the band premiered their latest tracks. Check out her full report below:

“You’re catching us at a transitional moment,” Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig said shortly after they took to the stage at the Nouveau Casino in Paris last night. He then switched to halting French. “The first album is really old”—he reverted to English—“so we’re going to play some new songs. If they don’t sound familiar, just dance.”

At that invitation, a brunette in a bustier tried to start a mosh pit to “Cousins,” from their forthcoming album, Contra, which sounded much less pop than anything they’d written before. Their next song, “California English,” featured a vocoder, which was enough of a departure from their debut that it prompted one fan to shout “Kanye West” continually. The songs from the first album with the catchiest choruses — in particular, “A-Punk” and “(One) Blake’s Got a New Face” — got the most enthusiastic singalong treatment from the crowd.

It’s not hard to see how the band could be popular in France. In the US, they have been unfairly criticized for being elitist, or at least precious, for name-checking locales like Hyannis Port and Provincetown. But in France, those references to East Coast Americana hold a certain exotic appeal. And they make nice ambassadors: Koenig and Co. all looked relaxed, wearing soft oxfords with the sleeves rolled up, murmuring a polite “merci” after each round of applause.

Their encore began with “Mansard Roof,” a song Koenig described as “a bit Parisian” by way of intro, and then played “Horchata,” the first track on Contra, singing, “In December, drinking horchata/I look psycho in a balaclava.”

The band seems to have looked to the West Coast for their latest inspiration—shortly after they return to the US, they’re embarking on a mini tour of out-of-the-way coastal venues, like the VFW Hall in Lomita, CA. California’s mix of dystopia and idealism seems like fertile ground for a sophomore album, and their new songs feel slightly loucher and appealingly dangerous for it.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Press Play. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.