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Vampire Weekend Spook ‘Unbelievers’ With Jaunty New Song on ‘Kimmel’

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A new song that Vampire Weekend previewed over the summer in Cleveland now has a title and a full-fledged TV studio recording.

The cosmopolitan New York City guitar-poppers brought a horn section, a cellist, and Halloween-appropriate makeup to a performance of clappy “Unbelievers” on last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which is being shot in Brooklyn all this week. The guitar chords feel like a knowing riff on the Monkees’ Neil Diamond-written “I’m a Believer,” and otherwise the song is in keeping with the band’s previously lyrically dense, melodically bouncy style, complete with a bridge where all but drums and vocals drop out. “I’m not excited,” lilts frontman Ezra Koenig. “But should I be?”

Vampire Weekend also performed “Oxford Comma,” the F-bomb-laced, Lil Jon-alluding tune from their self-titled 2008 debut album, complete with a little of the ol’ fake patois (“It’s no trick”).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uQvM6bdYrrM%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_detailpage