There has not been a band that has enjoyed such ubiquitous blog buzz since let’s say Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as this week’s Listen Up, Vampire Weekend. Last night this band played a sold-out show in New York’s Bowery Ballroom (home to such greats as The National).

Vampire Weekend - Bowery Ballroom (1/29/08)

The show was their album release party for the self titled debut and featured all of the things that come with such a rapid rise to stardom: screaming fans, hipsters enjoying their last chance to be unpretentious, and a sense of the impending explosion.

This will most likely come in the form of energized fans everywhere dancing to their Smile-pop beats. Vampire Weekend’s stuff will make you feel good!

Here it is: Listen Up to Vampire Weekend

New Album Cover?

Gnarls Barkley, the dynamic duo of costume-changing pop culture freaks, have a new album due out in April. They have kept fairly quiet about everything except the title. The sophomore effort following the crazy (sorry) success of 2006’s St. Elsewhere will be aptly named “The Odd Couple.”

Reports are coming in that a few blogs had the newest Gnarls Barkley track available yesterday. One of them, missionfreak, definitely did. Unfortunately they were shut down temporarily until they removed the link.

For those of you that are cursing yourselves for not getting a download fast enough, you may or may not have to fear. You see, there is this thing called bittorent. SOMETIMES horrible things like LEAKED MUSIC gets put on it. I may or may not have found it where there be lots of booty. yaaarrrrgh *wink*

Hopefully bands can control their urge to cover everything Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo put out. I heard “Crazy” about eight times at Lolla two years ago (Mates of State did a cool one tho).

Pitchfork is streaming one of the newest songs from Headlights‘ soon-to-be-released album Some Racing, Some Stopping. It’s called “Cherry Tulips”, fittingly named when you hear Erin Fein’s sugary vocals.

If you don’t want to sign up for an imeem account listen here.

For those of you that missed my blog (probably only my mom and the one guy that reads the217 who isn’t on Illini Media payroll), I apologize for the 20 day hiatus. I blame a surprisingly busy few weeks back and a strong dose of my own laziness.

World’s First Flying Machine’s Ben Campbell

Honestly though, the beginning of each new year is always a slow time for music. Nobody wants to release albums that are forgotten by the time the award shows come around, not to mention snippy critical end of the year lists (ahem not mine of course). In addition some bands are still recovering from the hangovers they received on New Year’s Eve, or if you saw The Hold Steady you are still recovering from the hangover induced by the alcohol content of Craig Finn’s saliva. Whatever the reason, January is a slow month for musical excitement.

Until this Thursday at the Canopy club.

Dodging the dreary Sunday Night quagmire most promoters make newcomers face, World’s First Flying Machine will be headlining an excellent way to spend your Thirsty Thursday. I’ve made it clear I’m a fan of this class act, and if you want to be cool, you will too. Tickets only $5 chumps. Check it out.

If you still want more music news here is a bunch of useless things to know about the new year so far:

- Chan Marshall now has a mole.

- Girl Talk has a new album coming out. Pee your pants.

- Elvis is dead. So is Heath Ledger. (RIP Heath - I made this pic for you)

I kind of Love Batman

- Ellen Page and Michael Cera are way cooler than The Moldy Peaches.

- M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel have an LP coming out. Hot.

- Star Course has a new show lined up for April. Hint: Rockin’ the middle of nowhere?

Expect more on all of that soon!

For those of you who don’t know about Kanye West’s blog KanyeUniverseCity, you are about to find out it is well worth checking every couple of days.

Apparently Def Jam’s family of lovable producers and artists spend most of their time playing a childhood favorite, Connect Four. Kanye claims to be one of the best, but admits that the true champion is Beyoncé Knowles.

Beyoncé loses to Mr.West only once!

When I was in Europe I would play this game for hours and hours… it helped me zone out. Everybody would get envolved… Derrick Dudley (Common’s manager) and Consequence were the best other than me… I beat Lexi… Don C beat Jay… Tony Williams beat Common… but every now and then people would speak of this legendary connect 4 champion……….. BEYONCE!!! I had 2 play her!…so last night at Jay’s new 40/40 club in Las Vegas (which is sidebar, crazy big w/ 24krt gold flooring, Black Jack tables, $500 slot machines,the biggest projection screen in the universe and the best turkey burgers I’ve ever had in my life) she beat me 9 times in a row! (and I didn’t even spaz lol) here’s a photo of the only game I won!

Here is the full post with more pics of the game.