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Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
Capecodkwassakwassa.jpg
Single by Vampire Weekend
from the album Vampire Weekend
Released 18 August 2008
Genre Indie pop, Afrobeat
Length 3:34
Label XL
Writer(s) Rostam Batmanglij, Ezra Koenig, Christopher Tomson and Chris Baio
Producer(s) Rostam Batmanglij
Vampire Weekend singles chronology
"Oxford Comma"
(2008)		 "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
(2008)		 "The Kids Don't Stand a Chance"
(2008)
Vampire Weekend track listing
  1. "Mansard Roof"
  2. "Oxford Comma"
  3. "A-Punk"
  4. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
  5. "M79"
  6. "Campus"
  7. "Bryn"
  8. "One (Blake's Got a New Face)"
  9. "I Stand Corrected"
  10. "Walcott"
  11. "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance"

"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" is the fourth single by indie rock band, Vampire Weekend, released 18 August 2008. The song was rated 67th best song of 2007 by Rolling Stone magazine.

Digital Download (iTunes):

Digital Download (Rhapsody):

In 2005, Vampire Weekend vocalist Ezra Koenig travelled through London en route to India and said that the trip got him "thinking a lot about colonialism and the aesthetic connections between preppy culture and the native cultures of places like Africa and India." This inspired Koenig to write a short story exploring those connections, and called it "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", after which the song was named. "Kwassa kwassa" refers to a dance rhythm from Congo (DRC). Koenig told The Daily Mail "The beats make this one of our most African sounding songs, but I think it also sounds Irish. I was listening to accordion music when I wrote it."

The video, directed by British comedian Richard Ayoade (who had also directed the band's video for "Oxford Comma") and set in the 1980s, was filmed in Spring Lake, New Jersey at Kaitlin Files' shore house. It is the first video where Vampire Weekend consciously decided to use a narrative with the band becoming characters, unlike previous videos which were "fairly abstract [with] no narrative". Koenig said he felt there was "a Tim Burton element" to the video, in which the band reinvented their image as goths, "with white faces, spiked hair and black outfits". The characters were created in 2007 by Koenig, who came up with rough ideas and images, and was helped by Ayoade to create a story from them.

Bass guitarist Chris Baio said that the band devotes a lot of time to touring, so "when [they] do something different like this, it is an exciting thing." Keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij said that the band is "interested in visuals, and it's a treat for [them] to get to do this."


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