• News

• All

Mar 28, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Michael Schmelling

Vampire Weekend are releasing a new album, Only God Was Above Us, on April 5 via Columbia. Now they have shared its fourth single, “Mary Boone.” It features a beat straight out of Primitive Radio Gods’ 1996 hit “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand,” except that it’s actually a sample of the drum loop from Soul II Soul’s 1989 hit “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me).” “Mary Boone” is also backed by a choir. The song is accompanied by a visualizer video featuring the rapper Despot (who, as the song’s press release points out, has never released an album despite releasing his debut single in 2004), driving from New Jersey to Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

The song’s namesake, Mary Boone, is an influential art collector in New York City who was dubbed by New York Magazine, in a 1982 cover story on her, “The New Queen of the Art Scene.” In 2019 she was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison because of tax invasion. The song is about someone trying to get their foot in the door in the New York art world.

Previously the band shared its first two singles: “Capricorn” and “Gen-X Cops.” Both songs made our Songs of the Week list. Then they shared its third single, “Classical,” via a music video. “Classical” also landed on our Songs of the Week list.

Vampire Weekend’s tour will feature various support acts, depending on the date, including LA LOM, The English Beat, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Mike Gordon, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Ra Ra Riot, Princess featuring Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum, Cults, a DJ Set By Mark Ronson, Turnstiles (a Billy Joel tribute band), and The Brothers Macklovitch. In select cities they are doing evening shows on a Saturday night, followed by a matinee show the next day. Check out the tour poster below for info on which artist is opening where.

Previously Vampire Weekend shared a trailer for the album, as well as its tracklist and cover artwork.

Only God Was Above Us is the band’s fifth album, their first new album in five years, and the follow-up to Father of the Bride. Father of the Bride was our Album of the Week, it debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with the largest first week sales for any rock album in 2019, and you can stream it here. It was also nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys.

Vampire Weekend is Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, and Chris Tomson. Koenig wrote most of the album’s lyrics in 2019 and 2020 and the band have been refining the album since then, recording in various cities around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. Koenig produced the album with longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid and it was mixed by Dave Fridmann and mastered by Emily Lazar.

A press release promises that the album is “direct yet complex, showing the band at once at its grittiest, and also at its most beautiful and melodic.”

The album’s cover artwork also inspired its title. It is a photo taken in 1988 by Steven Siegel at a subway graveyard in New Jersey. In the photo is a man sitting in a turned over subway car, reading the May 1, 1988 edition of The New York Daily News. The cover of the newspaper details an airplane accident on Aloha Airlines flight 243, when an explosion tore the roof off. The headline of the newspaper quotes a survivor saying, “Only God was above us,” which is now the title of the new album.

We were the first nationally distributed print magazine to interview Vampire Weekend, way back in 2007, and you can revisit that article here.

Vampire Weekend Tour Dates:

Mon Apr 08 - Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater (Solar Eclipse) - SOLD OUT
Sat April 27 - New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival*
Fri May 10 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Block Party*
Thu May 30 - Barcelona, Espana - Primavera Sound*
Thu Jun 06 - Houston, TX - 713 Music Hall
Fri Jun 07 - Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Sun Jun 09 - Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre
Mon Jun 10 - San Diego, CA - Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre
Wed Jun 12 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
Sat Jun 15 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre at U.C. Berkeley
Sun Jun 16 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre at U.C. Berkeley (Matinee Show)
Tue Jun 18 - Burnaby, BC - Deer Lake Park
Wed Jun 19 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Thu Jun 20 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena
Sat Jun 22 - Bonner, MT - KettleHouse Amphitheater
Sun Jun 23 - Bonner, MT - KettleHouse Amphitheater (Matinee Show)
Fri Jul 19 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Mon Jul 22 - Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
Tue Jul 23 - Lincoln, NE - Pinewood Bowl Theater
Thu Jul 25 - Maryland Heights, MO - Saint Louis Music Park
Fri Jul 26 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Sat Jul 27 - Chicago, IL - Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Tue Jul 30 - Minneapolis, MN - The Armory
Thu Aug 01 - Milwaukee, WI - BMO Pavilion
Sat Aug 3 - St. Charles, IA - Hinterland*
Thu Sep 19 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
Fri Sep 20 - Cincinnati, OH - The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park
Sat Sep 21 - Indianapolis, IN - Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
Mon Sep 23 - Rochester Hills, MI - Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
Tue Sep 24 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage
Wed Sep 25 - Laval, QC - Place Bell
Fri Sep 27 - Boston, MA - TD Garden
Sat Sep 28 - Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion at The Mann
Mon Sep 30 - Washington, DC - The Anthem
Wed Oct 02 - Charlottesville, VA - Ting Pavilion
Sat Oct 05 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
Sun Oct 06 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden (Matinee Show)
Tue Oct 08 - Wilmington, NC - Live Oak Bank Pavilion
Wed Oct 09 - Raleigh, NC - Red Hat Amphitheater
Fri Oct 11 - Nashville, TN - Ascend Amphitheater
Sat Oct 12 - Atlanta, GA - Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
Sun Oct 13 - Asheville, NC - Rabbit Rabbit
Tue Oct 15 - St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Thu Oct 17 - Austin, TX - Moody Center

*Festival date

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.