XL Recordings

Discovery is the recording project of Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot. Today through July 7, when you purchase Discovery, LP through Amie Street, $2 per album will be donated to Oxf...

You can hear the new joint project from Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot on NME.COM a week early right now.

UPDATE: It turns out the Vampire Weekend cover band is real, or at least real-ish. According to an email from manager Katharine Brandes, the band now has a name, the VW Bugs, and four members, all of whom are former Princeton students. In your face, Columbia! They've also got a MySpace page and a Twitter and everything, and they "are now busy practicing up, tacos in hand." Brandes reports that they're in talks to throw a party at the New York nightclub Santos Party House in August, and a documentary about the formation of the band is already in pre-production. Amazing.

Are you nostalgic for 16 months ago? Do you miss those carefree days of presidential primaries and Josiah Leming and still having a job? Do you have vaguely wavy hair and at least one pair of fake Wayfarers? Well, then you could relive those long-gone glory days as a member of the Vampire Weekend tribute band!

As Idolator points out, some aspiring Brooklyn-based hipster svengali has posted a Craiglist ad looking for members of a Vampire Weekend cover band. Applicants should be able to play their instruments and should also look at least a little bit like the member of the band they're supposed to be emulating.

The ad also says "tacos will be provided," though if they eat enough of those, they probably won't look like members of...

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Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig is set to feature on The Very Best's new album.

The folks behind Lollapalooza have just posted the schedule for the Chicago festival, which goes down in Grant Park August 7-9.

Time to start making some tough decisions! Fleet Foxes or Crystal Castles? TV on the Radio or Lykke Li? Dan Deacon or Gang Gang Dance? Vampire Weekend, Neko Case, or Passion Pit? Andrew Bird or Of Montreal? Depeche Mode or the Kid Cudi/Crookers party apocalypse? Deerhunter or Lou Reed (or, um, Snoop Dogg)? You've got almost two months, so start planning. (via Chicagoist)

This week, it's all about Francophilia as we head across the channel and embrace the language of our Gallic cousins

So, what have I learned this week? I have learned the sad story of Tijuana, a town that became a city for all the wrong reasons. I have learned that royal decree trumps the presence of a cathedral. I have learned who John Renbourn is and of his finger-picking skills.

I suppose I've also learned that I might need to be more specific in my instructions â€' the ghost of the mighty Lynskey lingers over these pages still, and his attention to detail does, I'm afraid, not come naturally to me. I will, however, try my damnedest to sharpen up from this week's topic onwards; but first, the B-list.

Vampire Weekend â€' Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Cape Cod isn't a town, it's a Cape. But it's not that big, and in this song at least, it's a homogenous whole â€' marked out by beaches and Benetton.

Goodbye Toulouse â€' The Stranglers
A city, not a town, and a real, big one at that, but I liked the way Hugh Cornwell rails at it as if at a lover. And, yes, worra bassline.

Statesboro Blues â€' Blind Willie McTell
He lost out in the blues-off against John Lee Hooker, but only marginally. Hooker won for his arpeggios and for singing a song about the town it was named after.

The Proclaimers â€' Sunshine On Leith...

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Side projects are often insipid and indulgent wrecks-- random noise/techno/weird experiments tossed off by people who should know better. Thankfully, Discovery-- featuring Vampire Weekend keyboardist/producer Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles-- is not one of those side projects. Started as a fun, electro-pop hobby four years ago, the duo are finally ready to release their debut album, simply called LP, on July 7 via XL.

The Daft Punk reference is no coincidence. With its heavily effected vocals, synth overload, and general sense of giddiness, Discovery sounds like a direct descendant of Discovery. There's a little Postal Service, Janet Jackson, Hot Chip, and T-Pain mixed in, too. I recently dialed into a conference call with Batmanglij and Miles to chat about Auto-Tune, Usher, and the quest to make serious music that's a lot of fun.

Pitchfork: When I told a friend that a guy from Vampire Weekend and guy from Ra Ra Riot were putting out a pop/r&b album, he was like, "Is it like a Lonely Island thing?" Are you guys worried that people will think this project is a joke?

Wes Miles: Hmm. [pause] Well, we definitely had a sense of humor when we were creating the music. But it's serious, too. It's not, like, serious serious, but, um....

Rostam Batmanglij: Actually, at one point, there was a song called "Seriously", spelled S-R-S-L-Y. But that was just way too serious. [laughs]...

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The side project of Vampire Weekend keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles have announced that they will release their first full album this summer.

We've found your electro-pop summer soundtrack-- thank us later. The self-titled debut LP (called, um, LP) from Discovery-- aka Vampire Weekend keyboardist/producer Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot singer Wes Miles-- is due for release on July 7 via XL. (For a taste of the record's fizzy, pure-pop vibe, check out "Orange Shirt" and the recently reviewed "Osaka Loop Line" currently streaming on their MySpace.)

The album features vocal contributions from Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian-- along with an AutoTuned cover of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (!), a space-pop remix of Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell" (re-dubbed "Can You Discover?"), and a song called "So Insane" that is actually very insane-- in a Paula Abdul-meets-"Umbrella"-meets-Dexy's-meets-"The Electric [Fucking] Slide" kinda way.

We're not making this shit up, people. This is not a test.

Look out for an interview with the Discovery dudes right here soon. In the meantime, check the tracklist below:

LP:

01 Orange Shirt
02 Osaka Loop Line
03 Can You Discover?
04 I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend [ft. Angel Deradoorian]
05 So Insane
06 Swing Tree
07 Carby [ft. Ezra Koenig]
08 I Want You Back
09 It's Not My Fault (It's My Fault)
10 Slang Tang

"Say what u will about modernist architecture, I love the UN building. it's like the Miami Sound Machine of glass towers."

-- Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, dancing about architecture. (via @arzE)