Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend is one of the few Columbia bands that have become insanely successful outside the campus' gates. Members include Ezra Koenig (vocals), Rostam Batmanglij (keys & vox), Christopher Tomson (drums), and Chris Baio (bass). All graduated from Columbia College in 2006 except Baio, who graduated in 2007. They describe their own sound as "African preppy".
Although its members had been part of the campus music scene for years, some even in groups with one another, and some living together as suitemates, Vampire Weekend did not form until spring 2006, the semester before most of its members graduated. The band played its first show at the SEAS Battle of the Bands in Lerner Party Space. It expanded its audience by playing at Alpha Delta Phi's Coffee Haus shows and even a "yacht themed party" at St. Anthony Hall.
Befitting their preppy image, the cover of their first album shows the chandelier inside the St. Anthony Hall house on Riverside Drive.
