VAMPIRE WEEKEND DEBUTS VIDEO FOR 'GIVING UP THE GUN'

Vampire Weekend's bizarre new video features a lot of tennis and some guest appearances by the likes of Rza and Jake Gyllenhaal. Without further ado, check out Vampire Weekend's video for 'Giving up the Gun':

PLAYLIST: SNOW-DAY, FEB 10

Here in DC (and across many parts of the country) we've been on the ass end of a winter blizzard pound-fest. This past weekend's snow-tally (between 2 and 3 feet!) topped all previous records for the DC Metro area and prompted virtually everything in the area to shut down for multiple days. If that wasn't enough? Just as DC started to pick itself back up from the snowy ground... Wednesday brought even more snow. It's still falling as I type this, but it seems as though we may be in store for another 20 inches.

What's this have to do with music? Obvious. Music- like fireplaces and Baileys- is crucial to snow days. The best way to avoid cabin fever is with a cuddle-buddy, a handle of booze and some snowy-day tunes. Click 'Read More' below to take a listen to our 12-track snow-day playlist.

The Very Best Debut New Video Featuring Ezra Koenig

The Very Best hold claim to one of our very best songs of 2009.  With a little help from Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig (no stranger to afro-beat music), Very Best's very best track on their recent album is unquestionably 'Warm Heart of Africa'.  Today, they released a music video that features Ezra Koenig doing his best white-boy-dance alongside Esau Mwamwaya and has a lot of fun with a green-screen.

Check it out:

Review: Vampire Weekend - Contra

Vampire Weekend’s second album, Contra, comes as one of 2010’s most anticipated releases and only misses a few notes on the harpsichord.  The band hardly departs from their noted Reggae and Afro-Beat 'roots' (um, ya know... from growing up on the streets of suburban New England or from enduring the rough and tumble bedlam of Ivy League dorm-life) as Contra successfully continues the quartet’s unique style of academic-rock fused with world rhythms in a way that is more mature, layered and complex than their original, genre-defining release.  Yet, the band remains true to their initial mission statement: to create music you hadn’t already heard a thousand times- or even once- before.

(Vampire Weekend's new album Contra review after the jump.  Click below to READ MORE.)