Fans of New York afrobeat merchants Vampire Weekend have been cheered by the news that members of the group are to launch a side project named Discovery.
Vampire Weekend burst out of New York with a clutch of songs that mixed indie rock with the dance styles of Africa. Plundering rhythms from the world of soweto and kwassa kwassa the band seemed to hit upon a sunshine remedy.
Early single ‘A Punk’ was two and a half minutes of delirious energy, and expectation surrounded the band’s self-titled debut album. Thankfully Vampire Weekend delivered in style, with their debut album showcasing what they labelled in one song as ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’.
Since then the band have toured heavily but returned to the studio recently to being working on new material. Vampire Weekend appeared on television in the United States recently, and instead of trotting out the same old material decided to treat fans by premiering a brand new track.
It seems that some members of the group are prolific that even Vampire Weekend’s work schedule can’t contain them. A new side project named Discovery has been launched, starring the band’s keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles amongst others.
The pair started Discovery back in 2007, when Vampire Weekend were still the play thing of blog writers and indie hipsters. However now it is Discovery’s turn to emerge from the dank indie underworld, with their debut album due for release on July 7th.
BBC Newsbeat reports that the band’s ten track debut album will be released over the summer. Discovery have launched a new MySpace page which contains snippets from the album.
Amongst the guest stars on the self-titled record is Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, who adds his vocals to ‘Carby’.
Fans of the New York group can rest easy, however, as this is not set to affect Vampire Weekend’s new album. The band have confirmed that they remain hard at work on their second album, and have been chosen to support Blur at the Britpop band’s spectacular Hyde Park shows over the summer.
Discovery release their new album on July 7th.
