So if I wait for a holiday, could it stop my fear?

Powdered wigs and a sweet ride. What else do you need for this upcoming long weekend?

I don't know.

Why don't we check in on Vampire Weekend and see what their Holiday plans look like?

It's a line that is always running.

Just because I'm excited to get to see them again live at The Ogden this spring: Here's my favorite not-so-African popsters Vampire Weekend, who showed up recenly on The Late Show to pimp their new album Contra.



Contra is out Jan. 12. Buy it.

That way you'll know the lyrics in time for the concert.

Me and my cousins and you and your cousins.

What do you get when you mix an empty alley, an improvised rail track, some instruments, chalk and confetti guns?

A new video, finally, from pseudo-afro-prep rockers, Vampire Weekend.



While they've been teasing another track, Horchata, for a few months, Cousins is the official peppy lead single for their sophomore outing, Contra, out in January.

I'm looking forward to it.

Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten...

Afro-Collegiate rockers Vampire Weekend are finally teasing their follow-up to their brilliant 2008 self-titled debut.

The lead single is named after a strange milky concoction originally from Valencia, Spain, whose variants have seeped all over Latin America.

I've tried a few varieties of horchata from either side of the Atlantic, and honestly, I'm not a big fan.

What I am a fan of though, is Vampire Weekend's nifty take on the the traditional drink:

Boys, bring on Contra. I can't wait!

The Best Albums of 2008

Once again here's Nelse with a top notch list of music from the year gone by. If you need some comparison, check out his list from last year.

1. Cut Copy “In Ghost Colours”

The memories of seeing this unknown band open for Franz Ferdinand several years ago at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver still makes me tingle. What an amazing opening act and a great debut from the band from the land down under. This follow-up disc has them experimenting even further with the dance-rock fusion with much success.

2. Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend”

Hands down this is one of my all time favorite records from 2008. From the first listen this album has become a classic with a blend of preppy pop-rock sounds with dash of Talking Heads, a pinch of the early Police sounds, and topped with a sprinkle of the Kinks. This is pop-perfection and easily played on endless repeat all year long.

3. Ting Tings “We Started Nothing”

Forget the hype and just take a second listen to this upbeat album from the Tings. At my first listen I have to admit I was less than impressed by the repeating “the drums, the drums, the drums”. Then came the Apple iPod ad with “Shut Up and Let Me Go” and I was curious. The album has become decidedly perfect party music for the past year.

4. The Killers “Day and Age”

One of the most anticipated of all year. Ahhh, so refreshing to have a delightfully energetic and thunderous third album from the Las Vegas rockers. Definitely another great stop on this bands long future. Are we human or are we dancer?

5. Robyn “Robyn”

A nice departure for this former one hit wonder from the nineties. She is back and totally reinvented. Cool electro-pop with a sharp edge and some tough ass lyrics!



6. MGMT “Oracular Spectacular”

So trippy, so spaced out, so cool, so I want rebel from my office job and play outside!





7. Estelle “Shine”

For me, this was what Lauryn Hill’s follow-up album should have been. I thought Estelle hit it out of the park and I crown her the queen of urban beats with silky smooth edge.


8. Kaiser Chiefs “Off With Their Heads”

Does everything Mark Ronson touch turn to gold? Not that these blokes would do any worse on their own. Definitely a highly rated album that slipped under the radar this year. What did I learn today “I learned nothing!”

9. The Last Shadow Puppets “The Age of the Understatement”

A great side project from the lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys that I discovered over New Year’s weekend after surfing some end of year lists. A groovy set of old school James Bond inspired tracks.

10. Lady Gaga “The Fame”

I have to admit that I was skeptical when this album dropped. After hearing the overplayed first single all summer I wasn’t expecting much else. Surprisingly the album presented some stand out tracks that I have been playing next stop. I also have next year’s summer jam pegged!

The worst of 2008:

Madonna “Hard Candy”: Great to see her play Denver for the first time and she still puts on the best show out there, but can she please stop giving us Spanish lessons while trying to sound urban?

Jem “Down to Earth”: I was expecting so much more from hew follow-up album after an amazing debut. Unfortunately, she sold out to the adult contemporary crowd. A few decent tracks, but sadly this one missed the mark.

Hot Chip “Made in the Dark”: Booooo! Way too many bleeps and blurps! This one gets annoying after the first listen.

Pink “Funhouse”: A good first single, but the rest of the album is quite a frightening funhouse indeed.

Record Delays:

No Annie, Franz Ferdinand, Daniel Merriweather, No Doubt or Lily Allen albums until 2009! Record labels can be mean bastards!

A Monolith Day at Red Rocks

It is easy to forget how lucky we are to have a place like Red Rocks nearby.

There's a reason bands have long made the pilgrimage to our natural wonderland of an amphitheater at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Most famously U2 will always be remembered for belting Sunday Bloody Sunday to the world from Denver foothills.

The venue itself is iconic.

Time after time on Saturday, artists new to the venue stopped to admire with awe the dramatic rock outcroppings rising up high above them. It is no less impressive for the audience. Facing down the mountain onto the stage, the entire city of Denver spreads out before you into the great plains.

It's one majestic place.

Our one day foray into the Monolith Music Festival on Saturday was a great reminder of this.

Exhausted after hiking up and down the amphitheater more than a few times, we went home giddy -- and not too deaf -- after some rousing performances from bands we knew, and some we didn't.

Foals, Cut Copy, Vampire Weekend and The Presets were absolute highlights. Superdrag and The Fratellis, not so much. And our short misguided foray into White Denim was saved by a quick escape.

More on these bands in the days ahead, but here's hoping Monolith lives to play another year. Hat's off to the organizers for putting together such a bang-on lineup on Saturday.

In the meantime you can take a gander at Westword's much more comprehensive take on the two-day event HERE, HERE, and HERE. The Denver Post has photos and links to their still unspooling reviews HERE.

I don't necessarily agree with their takes on the sets I caught on Saturday, but that's the point of a festival like this: With five separate stages, there was plenty for everyone to dig!

It was a rocking good time in a setting that's 100% Colorado.

Look outside at the raincoats coming, say OH

I don't understand the backlash bands get for finding success. I think most artists would gladly trade crossing the plains in a beat up tour van for a larger venue tour and mainstream radio airplay. Good music should simply be heard.

I say this having come a bit "late" in the game to a band that apparently exploded on the fringes of the Internet last fall, only to suffer some backlash now that they are getting some serious mainstream exposure.

You may have seen Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago. Their clever video for A Punk has been percolating on MTV and Fuse for a bit now.



Their self-titled debut album has genuinely hooked me. It is the first great album of 2008.

Vampire Weekend is definitely young, and sometimes pretentious, but always thoroughly engaging. I have yet to find myself skipping past a single track on the CD.

In an era of over-glorified singles, why shouldn't we celebrate an entire solid debut album by an intriguing young band.

Listening to them you definitely see the Talking Heads/David Byrne world beat influences, and there are moments of the early Police clearly cribbed here and there. But considering how much the 1980's are influencing music right now, Vampire Weekend still manages to freshen up the sounds.

Ignore the backlash and believe the hype.

Vampire Weekend is the first must-buy CD of 2008.