Like the Arctic Monkeys before them, Vampire Weekend rose to fame thanks to a flurry of postings and recommendations salivating over them in the blogosphere long before they even had a record in stores. But dont hold all that hype against them. Sure, the band frontman Ezra Koenig, keyboardist/guitarist Rostam Batmanglij, bassist Chris Baio (aka Scott Chachi Baios nephew) and drummer Chris Tomson began to attract immediate buzz in the wake of their earliest shows and demos in 2006, but its not hard to understand what all the fuss about. New York City may be overrun with hipster-baiting new bands these days, but Vampire Weekend offered a refreshingly new variation on the form: ultra-catchy, hyper-literate Afro-pop delivered by preppy-sweater-sporting Columbia University grads. Even rarer was the fact that, when Vampire Weekends self-titled, full-length debut finally made it into stores this January, it fully delivered on all critical expectations. NME gave it a whopping 8 out of 10 stars, Spin put them on its cover and declared them The Years Best New Band right in time for South By Southwest and Vibe approvingly quipped, Vampire Weekend have succeeded in putting the hips back in hipster.