VAMPIRE WEEKEND Headlines Barclay Center Tonight

VAMPIRE WEEKEND will headline tonight, September 20 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn NY. Vampire Weekend has also confirmed its return to Saturday Night Live: The band will play NBC's hallowed Studio 8H for the third time on May 11, with host Kristen Wiig.

The SNL and Barclays confirmations come in the wake of the recent announcement of Vampire Weekend's highly anticipated third album, Modern Vampires of the City. Already hailed in a 4.5 star Rolling Stone lead review raving "dark but beautiful... Vampire Weekend have gotten better at just about everything they do... pushing into awesome new directions," Modern Vampires of the City is scheduled for release May 14 on XL Recordings. The new album is the band's first full length collection of new material since its gold-certified sophomore album Contra, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart upon its 2010 release.

Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij worked more closely than ever on Modern Vampires of the City. Most songs began one of two ways: either with Rostam creating musical beds over which Ezra would lay lyrics and melodies, or with Ezra providing lyrics and melodies around which the instrumental setting for the track would be sculpted. In the summer of 2012, the two traveled to Los Angeles to collaborate with Rostam's longtime friend Ariel Rechtshaid, who shares production credits on Modern Vampires... marking the first time Rostam has had a co-producer on one of the band's albums. Bringing along the results of sessions from New York and Martha's Vineyard, the three began to stride towards realizing the finished album and were later joined by drummer Chris Tomson and bassist Chris Baio. A recently released double A-side single "Diane Young"/"Step"-which can be heard at: http://www.vampireweekend.com/-provides a first glimpse into an album flush with grandeur and romanticism evocative of the city where it was conceived. Church organs, deep synth bass, booming drums, choirs chanting in Latin are combined combined with classic Vampire Weekend joyfulness and spry humor, resulting in an album that expands the band's sonic and intellectual palette into surprising new realms.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

On Tour

September 20th, 2013 - Barclays Center, Brooklyn

September 28th, 2013 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles

October 8th, 2013 - Midland Theater, Kansas City