Idina Menzel

Much has already been written about the shape-shifting youngsters who met and formed a band at Columbia University, which they called Vampire Weekend. Their first album, in stores today, has that aura of inevitable popularity about it. But they're also good. (They're the best band to emerge from the Upper West Side since the Plastic Ono Band!) Their sound has been likened to everyone from Paul Simon (circa Graceland) to "New England Joy Division" (according to them). Their first full length album is self-titled and it features such Manhattan-friendly songs as "M 79," a bus they accurately described as usually having "a lot of old people on it—maybe going to a museum or hospital on the Upper East Side." If you haven't heard of them—it's okay, I won't tell anyone—this Daytrotter session provides a nice introduction. And their video (after the jump) for "A-Punk" is a studied piece of lo-fi goofiness—just try to resist them, it's impossible!  read more »