Vampire Weekend was in Chicago this weekend for Lollapalooza - and did NOT play any new songs during their set.
But.
During an intimate after-show performance at The Metro - Ezra came out and played the crowd 4 1/2 new songs of his PHONE. Here's a description from someone in the crowd:
The new stuff was very cool and def good…The best way I could describe the sound is a more spacey and empty sounding record, almost reminiscent of [Fleet Foxes’] Crack Up in parts, but VERY bright and sunny – a summertime sound with almost a protest song sound vibe to them (no political lyrics I heard or anything like that), and then big dense flashes of instrumentation with heavy percussion and a slick almost sexy taste of 70s funk licks. Going to be an interesting record. They haven’t mastered anything but said they have a big amount of material with many different versions they are sorting through.