Nine billion blogs have gushed about them. Everyone’s saying they’re gonna be huge. They’re cute, young, white boys — from NYC, no less — playing inoffensive little pop songs. And their influences apparently include WORLD MUSIC.

“Vampire Weekend.”

To a grump like me, these guys sure had a lot of strikes against them. But damned if they didn’t hook me. And I’ve tried to put my finger on exactly why, and I can only come to one conclusion: it’s because they really are good. Really.

::: Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma :::

They don’t even have a record out, but there’s an 3-song Other Music (exclusive) Digital EP. And there’s one more song, streaming on their Myspace, plus a few others scattered about on the file-swapping netherworld. I’m guessing, though, that the best way to get their music is probably to go see them play live; their tour kicks off in DC on July 6th, and you should really probably go see them now, because by the next time they hit your town, they’ll probably be playing much larger venues.

Also: here’s Kelefa Sanneh’s NYT piece on them.