Vampire Weekend have revealed they will start releasing music next week. Ezra Koening (vocals, guitar and piano) released a statement on Instagram last night, where he addressed the reasons for the 6 year gap since 2013’s ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ .The announcement states that the new album, currently called ‘FOTB’ will be around 59 minutes long and contain 18 songs. In even more exciting news he also announced there will be 6 songs released every month until the album’s release, with the first two to be unveiled next week. Koening’s full post can be found at the end of this article.
Vampire Weekend have released three albums since their 2008 self titled debut, which Rolling Stone magazine placed at 24 on their list of 100 greatest debut albums of all time. Koening explained the name ‘FOTB’ is the initials of the album name, with the full name currently unknown to the public. Fans are now speculating on Twitter as to what ‘FOTB’ could stand for.
New #VampireWeekend album is called “FOTB”. I wonder what that stands for…. @arzE
— Jacob Sloan (@JacobSloan22) January 17, 2019
the title of vampire weekend’s upcoming 18-track double LP is initialled “FOTB” which i can confirm will be 18 unique renditions of Flight Of The Bumblebee — joeg (@gojarbe) January 17, 2019
FOTB stands for “Front of the Bus.” Mark me. #vampireweekend #fotb
— James Peach (@MrPeachAV) January 17, 2019
The band are giving no secrets away about the album’s full name, or when it will be announced. ’18 unique renditions of Flight Of The Bumblebee seems unlikely’, but with Vampire Weekend constantly ripping up the rule-book when it comes to music, anything is possible. In December 2017 Koening confirmed, in an interview with The NME, that although founding member Rostam Batmanglij had left the band he would be appearing on the band’s next album, so it may be safe to assume he will appear on FOTB, although it is unknown how regularly or in what capacity.
Vampire Weekend are already confirmed to be playing at Open’er Festival, Mad Cool Festival and NOS Alive Festival across Europe so expect to see them at more events across Europe as line ups are confirmed. With the band previously playing the Pyramid Stage in 2013, a return to UK dates seems likely.
(Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat)
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To the fans: I know that 5-6 years is considered a long time between records. Personally, I think it’s a dignified pace befitting a band that’s already placed three albums in stores but everyone has their own sense of time. (I swear the time between 3 & 4 felt shorter to me than 2 & 3. I may be in the minority on this one.) This album didn’t really take any longer to write/record than MVOTC. We just took more time on the front end to chill. I’ll admit I may have stretched out the mixing/mastering process (aka THE END) a little bit cuz spending half the day with my family & half the day at Ariel’s is my ideal life-rhythm & it’s painful to say goodbye to that rhythm. Many of you have been hungry for information and we’ve given you very little. I don’t like talking abt a project while in the middle of making it. I usually regret everything I say cuz it turns out to be wrong (so disregard anything I may have said in the past 5 years.) I thought abt making a recording diary to tide over the people leaving intense comments but…to me, the album IS the recording diary…man. It’s called “FOTB” (well those are the initials – that’s a VW tradition) and it’s 18 songs. Picked the name a few years ago. At some point early on, the album drifted from the Mitsubishi Macchiato aesthetic. It was a helpful guiding principle tho. Working titles are important too. It’s a lot of songs but they all belong there. (If you disagree, you can always say it was 6 songs too long & make a lil 12-song playlist version of it.) At first, I wanted to make two 23-song albums on some human chromosome shit but then 23&me started doing Spotify playlists and I don’t know…felt we’d been scooped. Is it a double album? The vinyl will be double so…yes? It’s about 59 minutes long. We can talk more abt that later – if u care. To me, it’s just FOTB. Anyway, we’re gonna start releasing music next week. After all that waiting, you should have the general schedule: -There will be three 2-song drops every month until the record is out. 1. hh/2021 2. s/bb 3. tl/uw. (plans can change that’s the plan) Thank you for ur patience, Ezra A post shared by Ezra Koenig (@arze) on
