Vampire Weekend Share New Song 'Mary Boone'
Only God was above us Out April 5 via Columbia
March 28, 2024
Photo by Michael Schmelling
Vampire Weekend release a new album, Only God was above us, out April 5 via Columbia. Now they've shared his fourth single, “Mary Boone.” It features a beat from Primitive Radio Gods' 1996 hit “I'm standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand” except it's actually a sample of the drum loop from the 1989 hit Soul II Soul “Back to Life (Any Way You Want Me).” “Mary Boone” is also backed by a chorus. The song is accompanied by a visualization video featuring rapper Despot (who, as the song's press release points out, has never released an album since debuting as a single in 2004), driving from New Jersey to Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel. Check it out below, followed by the band's upcoming tour dates.
The song's namesake, Mary Boone, is an influential New York art collector dubbed by New York Magazine, in a 1982 cover of her, “The New Queen of the Art Scene.” In 2019, he was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for tax fraud. The song is about someone trying to get their foot in the door in the New York art world.
The band previously shared their first two singles: “Capricorn” and “Gen-X Cops.” Both songs made our list of songs of the week. They then shared his third single, “Classical,” via a music video. “Classical” also landed on our song of the week list.
The Vampire Weekend tour will feature various supporting acts, depending on the date, including LA LOM, The English Beat, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Mike Gordon, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Ra Ra Riot, Princess with Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum, Cults, a DJ Set by Mark Ronson, The Turnstiles (a Billy Joel tribute band) and The Brothers Macklovitch. In select cities they do afternoon shows on Saturday night, followed by a matinee show the next day. See the tour poster below for information on which artist is opening where.
Vampire Weekend previously shared a trailer for the album, as well as its tracklist and cover art.
Only God was above us is the band's fifth album, their first new album in five years, and its follow-up Father of the Bride. Father of the Bride was our album of the Week, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with the biggest first-week sales of 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 Thomson. Koenig wrote most of the album's lyrics in 2019 and 2020, and the band has 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 “immediate yet complex, showing the band at their most intense as well as their most beautiful and melodic”.
The album cover also inspired its title. It's a photo taken in 1988 by Steven Siegel in a metro cemetery in New Jersey. Pictured is a man sitting on an overturned subway car, reading the May 1, 1988 edition The New York Daily News. The newspaper's cover story describes a plane crash on Aloha Airlines Flight 243, when an explosion tore the roof off. The headline of the paper 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
Saturday, April 27 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival*
Fri May 10 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party*
Thu May 30 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound*
Thu June 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 June 10 – San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Outdoor Theatre
Wed June 12 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
Sat June 15 – Berkeley, CA – The Hellenic Theater at UC Berkeley
Sun June 16 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theater at UC Berkeley (Matinee Show)
Tuesday, June 18 – Burnaby, BC – Deer Lake Park
Wed June 19 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater
Thu June 20 – Seattle, Washington – Climate Pledge Arena
Sat June 22 – Bonner, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater
Sun June 23 – Bonner, MT – KettleHouse Amphitheater (Matinee Show)
Fri July 19 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater
Mon July 22 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
Tuesday, July 23rd – Lincoln, NE – Pinewood Bowl Theatre
Thu Jul 25 – Maryland Heights, MO – Saint Louis Music Park
Fri July 26 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Saturday July 27th – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Tuesday, July 30 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory
Thu Aug 01 – Milwaukee, WI – BMO Pavilion
Sat August 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 Amphitheater
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 8 – Wilmington, NC – Live Oak Bank Pavilion
Wed Oct 09 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Auditorium
Fri Oct 11 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
Sat Oct 12 – Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park
Sun Oct 13 – Asheville, NC – Rabbit Rabbit
Tuesday, October 15 – St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheater Augustine
Thu Oct 17 – Austin, TX – Moody Center
*festival date
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