Both a blessing and a curse, another ¼ of Indie music’s favorite Ivy League graduates has embarked on a solo project. Chris Tomson, otherwise known as “CT,” the drummer in Vampire Weekend, recently decided to come out with a fresh sound during the band’s hiatus. While Vampire Weekend is “on the horizon,” it’s quite far away for Tomson at the moment. His bandmates have been extremely successful on their own; Chris Baio, who’s been touring his solo album “The Names” all summer, Ezra Koenig, who has his own Beats radio show “Time Crisis” that airs every other Sunday, and Rostam Batmanglij, who departed from the band in January to pursue his solo career full-time has an album “I Had A Dream That You Were Mine” which features his friend Hamilton Leithauser, which is due to drop September 23.
Tomson’s solo project, entitled "Dams of the West" is set to release a debut album later this Autumn. The record, entitled “Youngish American” features ten tracks, their new single “Death Wish” included in the list.
The lyric video for "Death Wish" has been live on youtube for about a week now; directed by Emily Tomson, the solo artist’s wife, is a 3-minute piece featuring Tomson doing a series of chores- mopping, folding his large pile of basketball jerseys, even chopping vegetables. The track itself is reminiscent of Vampire Weekend songs, with a staccato drum line with a piano-based melody. However, Tomson’s usage of electric guitar and bass gives the tune a stronger rock ‘n’ roll edge. It’s lyrics focus on “trying to fix the fixable things” of life, which can consist of paying bills, coming to face the truth of reality versus your childhood expectations of it. Tomson seems frustrated with the world and everything he’s accomplished so far in his 3-ish decades on this planet, he’s now just starting to get the hang of it.
Like him, Vampire Weekend fans are just starting to get the hang of how interminable this hiatus has been- three years ago Vampire Weekend released Modern Vampires of the City… hopefully, this album can brighten our spirits, and help us fix the fixable void in our music library.
