One commenter has pointed Bwog in the direction of Vampire Weekend's latest concert video/interview with Pitckfork.tv, which takes place in the ADP house. The band characterizes their ADP shows as some of their most memorable: ADP is "not really a rock club, and there's something I like about that," says keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij. Bedecked in obligatory sweaters and polos, the band chronicles their creation story for the camera: VW was born on February 6th, 2006 in singer Ezra Koenig's dorm room. You can watch the video in its entirety below.

For careful listeners, the best soundtrack on campus is the rotation of Vampire Weekend, Radiohead and other indie darlings at Cafe 212. Bwog cultural correspondent Merrell Hambleton sits down with the man behind the mix.

I find Café 212 manager Robert Bell working to hang up two small bulletin boards. "I'm actually doing something with the music," he says. "The music" he's referring to is precisely the reason for our meeting—Bell, tall with longish brown hair, dark framed glasses, and a neatly trimmed chinstrap, has earned a reputation in his year at Columbia for playing some non-traditional Muzak. In fact, its not Muzak at all, it's actually, well, good. If you're haunted by memories of 212's old soundtrack, you'll likely be pleased to hear the likes of Radiohead, Cat Power or the of-late-ubiquitous Vampire Weekend while you wait in the sandwich line.

So what prompted Bell to buck the trend of non-descript instrumental world music and hit-or-miss pop (read: Ferris Booth)? The Virginia native moved to New York (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to be specific) in 2004, where he first "got excited by working with food" while working at an Au Bon Pain branch. But chain stores don't offer a whole lot of flexibility. According to Bell, "One thing that really bothered me... was they had this Frank Sinatra thing going on. They had it very carefully orchestrated, so in Hong Kong they had an Au Bon Pain that was also playing Frank Sinatra at 8 AM."

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Columbia's current favorite sons, Vampire Weekend, seem to be doing pretty well for themselves lately. With their full-length album coming out in three days and two sold-out shows at Bowery Ballroom kicking off a national tour next week. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was Rolling Stone's 67th best song of the year, and a snarky Pitchfork review can't be more than two weeks in coming, considering the backlash that we've seen -- without an album even having been released!

On the local front, Columbian Jared Hecht passed along his interview with the group, over at Jambands. The phrase "Upper West Side Soweto" appears more than once.

(If you still haven't heard VW, there are some pretty good free samples on Daytrotter.)

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of Vampire Weekend. Whether you saw them at ADP or Saint A's or read the Bwog interview (their first, I think), these four boys were definitely in the business of invigorating the (almost nonexistent) campus music scene.

So here we are, just a little more than a year and a half after their first performance in Lerner's party space during the SEAS Battle of the Bands (they didn't win) and the band is riding high. REAL high.

Besides this write-up as "Hot New Kids" on Rolling Stone's "Hot List," VW has recently been signed to XL Recordings (joining M.I.A. and the White Stripes, among others), mentioned in the New Yorker, and provided some blog fodder for David Byrne (FUCKING DAVID BYRNE LIKES VAMPIRE WEEKEND!). They just opened for one of two Animal Collective shows at Webster Hall last week and, oh yeah, they're opening for the Shins(!) in a series of November shows in England and France.

It's hard not to be happy for Koening C '06 and company (the band actually incorporated themselves this summer, making them Vampire Weekend, Inc.), but I think it's safe to say that Bwog is jealous (at least I am). While our rock star dreams might never fade, let's rejoice in VW's success. After all, they invented African pop.

-JAG

P.S. IN RAINBOWS! (and a VW cover of "Exit Music (for a film)")

It's happening right now in front of Low. Clipse and Vampire Weekend! Go, go, go!

UPDATE, Sunday, 9:35 AM: See great photos of the concert here!

Vampire Weekend is having a moment. Just today, Kelefa Sanneh of the New York Times wrote a glowing piece about them, and they've recently appeared in Rolling Stone, L Magazine, and on hundreds of indie-rock blogs. (Also, they played Bowery, like, omg!)

In case you've forgotten who they are (and if you missed their hot beats at St. A's and ADP during the year), here's an old Bwog interview to jog your memory (and perhaps induce indie fan-girl squeals).

ALSO: Genre magazine did a fabulous cover and spread on Jake and Marty LaSalle: brothers, Adonis-like figures, jugglers, and soon-to-be Columbia seniors recent graduates. They can show us lunges any day.