VAMPIRE Weekend, whose indie rock fusion has found critical and commercial acclaim, will play their first full show in four years at Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival as the band readies a new album.

Announcing the line-up yesterday for the August 2-5 festival, Lollapalooza – conceived in the 1990s as a celebration of alternative culture – named headliners who are among the biggest mainstream names.

Bruno Mars, the funk revivalist who swept the latest Grammys, and R&B sensation The Weeknd top the billing for the festival in Chicago’s lakeside Grant Park, which will also feature high-decibel garage rocker Jack White, indie rock favourites The National and rappers Travis Scott and Logic.

But the name that caught particular attention was Vampire Weekend, whose members have been saying for two years that they are working on their fourth album.

Vampire Weekend, former Columbia University students who have merged world music into their indie pop, last released an album in 2013 – Modern Vampires of the City – which won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

The band has not played full concerts since 2014, although it made two brief appearances in 2016 to campaign for leftist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Frontman Ezra Koenig has said, perhaps jokingly, that the next album will be called Mitsubishi Macchiato and in September tweeted that it was “80% done but the last 20% is always the hardest”.

The album will be the first since the amicable departure of keyboardist and co-songwriter Rostam Batmanglij, who last year put out a solo album that brought an ethereal feel while delving deeper into sonic experimentation. – AFP, March 22, 2018.