It’s all been a bit quiet in the world of Vampire Weekend of late. Since the release of 2013’s ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’, the New York quartet have contributed a couple of songs to soundtracks – a cover of Springsteen’s ‘I’m Going Down’ for Girls and a cover of opera singer Andrea Bocelli’s ‘Con te Partiro’ to a Valentine’s Day compilation. But aside from that – nothing.
Thankfully, though, the band haven’t just been kicking back and working their way through the entire Netflix catalogue. Frontman Ezra Koenig last summer contributed vocals to SBTRKT banger ‘New Dorp, New York’ and now bassist Chris Baio is readying the release of his debut solo LP ‘The Names’ – due on September 18 via Glassnote Records.
Released under the name Baio, ‘The Names’ is a brilliantly eclectic offering ranging from dancefloor-ready, throbbing beats (‘Brainwash Yyrr Face’) to Caribou-style sampling (‘I Was Born In A Marathon’) to the more familiar, Vampire Weekend-ish leftfield, preppy pop of ‘Sister Pearl’. It’s an impressively curious and diverse listen and one that’s sure to tide you over until they get the old gang back together for Album Four. Listen to a stream of the full record below.