Vampire Weekend California Dreamin' On Second Album

Although their still-untitled second album is being recorded in a gritty, super-urban part of Brooklyn, Vampire Weekend say the record has a sunny vibe befitting locales far different than the outer borough of New York. "These songs would be perfect for driving up the Pacific coast," guitarist-keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij tells RS in our new issue, on stands now. Singer Ezra Koenig adds, "Or making an egg-white omelet. Basically, doing fresh things."

Rolling Stone visited the band at Brooklyn's Treefort Studios, where they've been nestled since January, just before they hit the booth to record some group clapping, which Koenig notes could really fit on any of the record's crisp, bright songs. "We're taking what we did on the first album to the next level," Koenig says. As on their self-titled debut, Afropop influences (this time more developed) reappear and Batmanglij is once again in the producer's chair. So what's different this time around? The band says they're able to concentrate on the music more. "When we wrote the first album, we all had jobs," bassist Chris Baio says. "This time, we're way more focused." The result: lyrical reference to highbrow and lowbrow topics including a trip to New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The album, expected out this fall, will likely feature the frenzied punk scramble of "California English," power ballad "Taxi Cab" and the polyrhythmic "White Sky," as well as one song that is — prepare yourself — "dead-on" reggae. "Maybe when we're done, I'll have the time to actually listen to the record on the Pacific coast," Batmanglij says as he tinkers with some arrangements. For much more on the highly anticipated second album from Vampire Weekend, be sure to check out the new issue of Rolling Stone, available now.

Related Stories:
• Patti Smith, Vampire Weekend Pay Tribute to Buddy Holly at Tibet House Benefit
• Vampire Weekend Debut New Song as Bonnaroo Kicks Into Gear
• New Music Report: The Mars Volta, Vampire Weekend

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter