Yesterday-o!

Hawksley Workman's latest video, We Dance To Yesterday, features the singer-songwriter as a gum-chewing roadie on a Japanese game show. Will he wear the same rockin' wig when he performs March 14 at the Winspear Centre? Is there any way to see his set, then rush over to the EEC to catch Vampire Weekend?

The first of Workman's two new albums, Meat, will be released next Tuesday, Jan. 19. Vampire Weekend's Contra is in stores TODAY.

No fang you

“Somebody approached us before we signed a record deal (with XL): ‘We have this thing, we’ll buy your songs outright and give you a flat fee for it.’ Then, Ezra (Koenig) and I were hanging out for a second, after we had that meeting, thinking ‘OK, let’s try to demo these songs, see what we can offer to them.’ Thankfully, we didn’t …” -- multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend

Read my interview with Batmanglij and drummer Chris Tomson in Saturday's Edmonton Journal. Vampire Weekend's second album, Contra, is in stores Tuesday, Jan. 12. The band performs Sunday, March 14 at Edmonton Event Centre.

A parade of Vampires

Edmonton is about to be dazzled by another group of bloodsuckers – of the indie-rock variety. Vampire Weekend will perform Sunday, March 14 at the Edmonton Event Centre as part of their first cross-Canada tour. Tickets are $27.50 plus service charges. On sale: Friday, Jan. 8 at Ticketmaster.

The New York hipsters, who owe a huge debt to Paul Simon’s Graceland, released their self-titled debut in 2008. Their second album, Contra, which mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms with Ezra Koenig’s eccentric lyrics, will be in stores Jan. 12. Fans can now listen to it on the band’s MySpace page.