Vampire Weekend Raise The Stakes

Vampires are big business these days, and that’s good news for indie kings Vampire Weekend. The NY foursome have announced the existance of Contra, the follow up their much ballyhooed 2008 debut, which has sold 466,000 copies . The album is being put out by XL, but won’t arrive until January 12 (probably around the same time as the new Twilight DVDs.)

Is Contra an ’80s reference from the boat shoe-wearing band? At press time it was unknown.

In a post examining the band’s new album cover, MTV wrote “If there’s a better way to sum up Vampire Weekend’s entire musical output — nay, the totality of their aesthetic and world view — than with a picture of a towheaded Connecticut WASP wearing a piqued Polo, well, then I am not aware of it.”

Though their profile has dipped of late, the VW have remained active. They toured Mexico earlier this year, took the stage at the All Points West Festival, and also hit up Jimmy Fallon, where they previewed the Contra track “White Sky.”

Here’s the track list for Contra:

“Horchata”
“White Sky”
“Holiday”
“California English”
“Taxi Cab”
“Run”
“Cousins”
“Giving Up the Gun”
“Diplomat’s Son”
“I Think Ur a Contra”