“Sunflower” feat. Steve Lacy - Vampire Weekend

Originally published by Alt Citizen

The Upper West Side moves at a different pace than the rest of New York City but is still very quintessentially New York, and similarly Vampire Weekend has always vibed differently from other New York bands but still exudes the same unflappable cool exhibited by their harder edged peers.

In the video for “Sunflower,” Ezra Koenig leads The Internet’s Steve Lacy on a tour of the neighborhood in exchange for lending his characteristic guitar tones to the song’s Sunday afternoon atmosphere brought to life under the sepia toned direction of Jonah Hill. The lazily rolling camera follows the pair through a checklist of Upper West institutions straight out of a 90s Nora Ephron film; The Vampire Weekend boys put in some time behind the famous fish counter at Zabar's, order a bagel with lox at Barney Greengrass, and eavesdrop on Jerry Seinfeld not even pretending to enjoy an unsolicited joke from an enthusiastic deli employee.

One of Vampire Weekend’s biggest strengths is their ability to blend a myriad of influences together to create something wonderfully unique while remaining inherently referential. Like the Beastie Boys mined dusty record crates for obscure sonic samples, Vampire Weekend draws from the world around them for inspiration and uses established institutions (yes, Jerry Seinfeld counts as an institution) as anchor points to craft a new, modern sound that respects the past as much as it looks toward the future. A musical melting pot like the city itself.