Vampire Weekend’s New Raga-Inspired Album “Close To Done”

Earlier in June, Vampire Weekend announced a vinyl-only live album series beginning with the already released Frog On The Bass Drum Vol. 01 Live In Indianapolis, which is made up of recordings from the band’s June 2019 show in Indianapolis, and includes their cover of Bob Dylan's "Jokerman." Though the accompanying newsletter would have come out on June 7, it contains updates around what Vampire Weekend have been up to, and those updates are now beginning to circle the internet.

In that vinyl-accompanying newsletter, drummer Chris Tomson talks about how "Ezra [Koenig] took a raga singing lesson with Terry Riley in rural Japan and wrote what he considers to be 7 of his all-time top 10 best songs." Tomson continues, writing about how getting "to connect, jawbone, and jam" with his bandmates without pressures or responsibility made him think about their early days at Columbia University. "I personally found an immense peace and pleasure from creating with the guys like we had in the Ruggles days," he writes. "The vibe was strong."

This unnamed album, ostensibly the follow-up to 2019's Father Of The Bride, is apparently "close to done." In a PS, Tomson promises further updates by the end of the year. "I feel like it just might be our best yet," he ends. "10 songs, no skips."

The next volume in the vinyl series -- From On The Bass Drum Vol. 02: Una Notte A Milano Con Vampire Weekend -- will be announced soon.