Vampire Weekend have released a new single ‘Mary Boone’ and announced a UK and European tour for the end of 2024. Read on for all the details.
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‘Mary Boone’ is the fourth and final single to be shared ahead of the release of their fifth studio album ‘Only God Was Above Us‘, which comes out on April 5. It follows on from ‘Capricorn’, ‘Gen X Cops’ and ‘Classical’.
The new song is named after one of the leading lights of the ’80s art scene in New York, and it features a sample of the drum loop from Soul II Soul’s ‘Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)’.
Listen to the song here:
The band will also play nine dates in the UK and Europe later this year, kicking off in Dublin’s 3Arena on November 29 and wrapping in Amsterdam’s AFAS Live on December 15.
Tickets for the shows go on a fan pre-sale on April 3 from 10am, with general sale beginning at the same time on April 5 – visit here for tickets. Fans who pre-order the album here will receive early access to tickets.
Vampire Weekend will play:
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NOVEMBER
29 – Dublin, 3Arena
DECEMBER
1 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
2 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
4 – London, Eventim Apollo
6 – Wolverhampton, The Halls
8 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
10 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
13 – Paris, Adidas Arena
15 – Amsterdam, AFAS Live
‘Only God Was Above Us‘ has been described as a “10-track magnum opus”, the “product of five years spent refining, reworking and gradually shaping those lyrical and melodic structures to take Vampire Weekend to a new creative peak.”
To mark the album’s release, they will play a livestreamed concert in Austin, Texas on April 8, which will take place during a total solar eclipse. The band will livestream the show via the streaming platform Veeps. Tickets are free and can be claimed here.
The band also recently teased a new offshoot project with an “imaginary backstory”.
Drummer Chris Tomson explained its summer 2020 inception: “The world had stopped working and a lot of what we normally do was just not being done. There was something about just playing with no expectation — to just play with my two very close friends without an agenda.”
Frontman Ezra Koenig further revealed an “imaginary back story” for the band, calling them a “band that came out around 1989, 1990, and they were a little bit too punky for the jam scene and a little bit too jammy for the punk scene. And there’s a little bit of the Minutemen in there.” However, he admitted the band is “still hashing out its sound”, adding: “I don’t want to say too much”.
He also responded to questions about whether the new project could open for Vampire Weekend, saying: “That has been discussed.”