I've seen those English dramas too-oo

Vampire Weekend - Live @ The Red and the Black/"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Walcott"

This NYC quartet has been the jewel of the blogosphere for months, so much so that I wasn't going to write about their forthcoming album for fear of redundancy--hell, even The New York Times beat me to them. But after catching them last night on the first date of their first tour, I can't stress this any more fervently: If you haven't heard Vampire Weekend, hear them. And if you've never seen them live, this summer's your chance.

I can't help but worry, of course, that Vampire Weekend will be the next Great Unsigned Band, destined to be worshiped on the up-and-up and maligned by the time it drops an album, a victim of its own (over)hype. Recent years have birthed a plethora of these: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Oh No! Oh My!, Tapes 'n Tapes, V*o*x*t*r*o*t. It'd be nice if that rule only applied to the unfortunately punctuated, but Voxtrot isn't actually spelled with asterisks. Although that would make for an unreadable band name to match the Austin outfit's wholly unlistenable debut.

(It's possible Vampire Weekend was clued in to this grammatical phenomenon. Toward the end of the album, they ponder: "Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?" ...but I digress.)

So, Vampire Weekend: They all graduated from Columbia University in the last year; they play restrained indie pop punctuated by gentle African rhythms (not unlike, but much more convincingly than, Islands); they obviously love Paul Simon's Graceland, as everyone has pointed out, and as the band seems very aware of itself. They try to tell smart jokes, and barely bat .500. They dress in matching button-downs, and frontman Ezra Koenig even tucks his in. They're uncool and they know it.

They look green, but everything on this 10-track album clicks. Vampire Weekend embraces African rhythm without appropriating it. Nor does the band bury the enthusiasm required by their influences, matching the electricity that Simon and the Talking Heads nailed but later acts with an eye toward Africa shied away from. Smart and unassuming, casual, concise, and more than a bit inventive: Finally, indie rock to get excited about in 2007.