Dancing guitars: Jinja Safari. For Koenig, adulthood has meant worrying about health insurance, working as a teacher, breaking up with his girlfriend, and touring the world following the release of the band's second album, Contra. ''All the albums had a bit of New York, but this one returns home and the New York vibe feels more pervasive,'' he says. The album's title is borrowed from the opening line of It's Okay (One Blood) by West Coast rapper The Game, a song that was also sampled by the Wu-Tang Clan. As the lyrics and arrangements for songs ricocheted between Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij, Vampire Weekend's keyboard player and producer, the album grew into the title.

Smooth: New Navy Pinning Koenig down to a description of Modern Vampires of the City is not easy. There are elements of gospel and country but ''it's a not a particularly rural album'', he says. It has a kind of organic feeling, though that ''is a funny kind of word''. The band loves old music, but Koenig says ''we would be horrified if our music ever sounded retro''. Shared influences: San Cisco. Credit:Marco Del Grande ''It's hard for me to be too specific. It's our most American-sounding album.''

Yet Batmanglij makes the album sound full of contrasts. ''It's tougher than anything we've done before and it's more vulnerable than anything we've done before,'' the producer says, adding that vulnerability can be heard in fumbled piano chords and the way in which instruments and vocals have been manipulated. ''You hear mistakes and you hear mouth noise,'' he says. ''You hear personality coming through. We didn't want the most perfect takes.'' 'I don't know how bands who party really, really hard or do a lot of drugs do it.' Chris Baio, bassist But don't mess with the drums, Batmanglij warns. ''They're here for business. They sound kind of f---ed up, you know? Some people have been like, 'Is it meant to sound like that? Is there something wrong with this master?' '' However, Koenig's lyrics remain as cerebral and cryptic as ever, ranging over grammar, social status and class difference on tracks including Ya Hey, Diane Young and Obvious Bicycle. Batmanglij planted the seed for Obvious Bicycle before the release of Contra with a drumbeat overlaid with piano chords that he sent to Koenig. Eighteen months later, he asked Koenig if he had listened to the arrangement.

''He said, 'Yeah, I listen to it all the time. I've been coming up with something, a melody and lyrics for it'. ''Ezra is very much like that,'' Batmanglij says. ''He won't talk about something, you know, until he's ready to talk about it and he has something substantial to say about it.'' There is also a lingering trace of the band's fascination with world music on Everlasting Arms, which Batmanglij says is ''more African than anything we've ever done''. However, he is not keen on the much-derided phrase ''Upper West Side Soweto'', which the band created in its early days to categorise their music. ''I think that phrase has been so misinterpreted that I don't think it's relevant any more,'' Batmanglij says. Hyped on the internet before they had released their first album, Vampire Weekend were lauded for their sardonic wordplay and homage to Paul Simon's Graceland album on songs such as Oxford Comma and Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.

''The first one was very much a schooldays album,'' Koenig says, ''very collegiate, youthful spring-time feeling of being in college.'' The mood of the band's second album, Contra, which came out in 2010, was similarly ebullient. The album topped charts around the world and Koenig says Vampire Weekend was ''a real band touring the world, seeing new places, branching out in a way''. But success also breeds resentment and the band found itself on the receiving end of a bilious, largely online backlash that focused on their background of perceived class and wealth. Like fellow New York band the Strokes, they were dismissed as a bunch of rich kids and accused of pillaging African culture. One critic described Vampire Weekend as the ''whitest band in the world'' - a comment that rankles Koenig, given his Hungarian-Jewish heritage. Batmanglij, drummer Chris Tomson and bassist Chris Baio claim Persian, Ukrainian and Italian descent. Koenig suspects the racial epithet says more about the accuser. ''You have to wonder why a white person would feel the need to, I don't know, distance themselves from their own whiteness by pointing out this band is whiter than them,'' he says. ''I don't know if this is a form of self-hatred.'' The album cover of Contra, featuring a 30-year-old Polaroid of a preppy polo-shirted blonde model, also landed them in hot water after she sued the band and their label for unauthorised use of the photo in a case that was later settled.

The band might wear the preppy uniform of the WASP elite, but Koenig points out he received a scholarship from his father's trade union and had to pay back hefty student loans after graduation. ''I immediately had to get a job and that gave me more reason to work hard on the Vampire Weekend album,'' he says. After graduation, a ''risk-averse'' Koenig taught English to high school students who, years later, would be watching their teacher on stage. ''I was never ready to risk all for music,'' he says. ''It kind of worked out perfectly. I got a taste of the real world working a real job and playing music at night.'' Koenig says the band has a similar work ethic, which made their many months of touring rather less exciting than you would expect for a group of men in their 20s. ''I think we all have fun, but we don't rage necessarily,'' Batmanglij says. ''Yeah, we hang out in the bus. Everyone's reading, we're watching movies.''

They were certainly not tweeting from the band's official Twitter account @vampireweekend. It was set up in 2010 and has more than 129,000 followers, yet contains fewer than 100 tweets that appear to be written by a bored publicist who revealed on March 30 that Baio had discovered he was a distant cousin of actor Steve Buscemi. He is also related to actor Scott Baio, Chachi from Happy Days. Baio, who majored in Russian studies, shares Batmanglij's sober approach to touring. ''I think of it as work,'' he says. ''It's great work, but it's work. ''I don't know how bands who party really, really hard or do a lot of drugs do it. That's a level of energy I don't have.'' Koenig says the band's sense of humour is lost on some people as well as the irony and elements of self-criticism in their music. ''I kind of realise some people will get it and some people don't,'' he says. ''Enough people get it that we get to tour and we've kind of stopped worrying about it.''

He says the third album strikes a balance in a more elegant way between sarcasm and irony on the one hand and earnestness on the other. ''I consider elements of our first album a little bit smart-arse. But our songs can be very sentimental and emotional, too,'' he says. Modern Vampires of the City will be released on Monday. Vampire vibe: the Afro-Australian connection Either a bunch of Australia's most loveable new acts has been listening to a lot of Vampire Weekend - playing alternative pop through a kind of Afrobeat filter - or they share more than a few influences with the New York City hipsters.

JINJA SAFARI Jinja Safari's Marcus Azon takes his African rhythms and melodies so seriously he's on a constant quest for authenticity. He recently made a pilgrimage to Jinja, the town in Uganda where his grandmother lives. ''Naming the band after a place that we'd never been to, it felt a bit phoney,'' Azon says. ''I think there's still a lot more to learn about these cultures, but just the fact that we've been there now helps give a bit more intention behind what we're doing.'' Azon formed Jinja Safari with Cameron Knight in 2010 and, while the pair remains its core, the three other Sydney musos who started out merely playing live with them are now also card-carrying members. The band won Triple J Unearthed that same year and got to play on the main stage of Splendour in the Grass after only a handful of gigs. They showed promise on their two EPs, Jinja Safari and Mermaids and Other Sirens (compiled on the full-length Locked by Land in 2011), but have very much come into their rich and fascinating own on their eponymous debut album proper, out this month. NEW NAVY

New Navy set sail for numerous exotic locations with their Uluwatu EP - starting with the four friends from Ulladulla High taking a trip to Bali. "It was in that environment that we were able to really capture a smooth and summery vibe that seemed to resonate with a lot of people," they said last year. Not only did they back up that statement with tunes such as the breezy, irresistible Zimbabwe, they earned the ultimate stamp of Australian approval when producer du jour Flume remixed it. A sprightly, acclaimed cover of cult French trio Telepopmusik's Breathe suggested all was going swimmingly, only for a change of lead singer to throw a spanner in the works last year. Then, as recently as last month, a fire at Sydney's Goodgod Small Club when they were soundchecking resulted in the band having to reschedule. But New Navy have taken everything in their colourful stride. So uncanny is the Vampire Weekend vibe on Regular Town, their first single with new singer Luke O'Loughlin, VW bassist and DJ extraordinaire Chris Baio has remixed it. And we have it on good authority their rescheduled Goodgod gig was a cracker. SAN CISCO

''I think when we started we were obviously listening to Vampire Weekend and stuff but that was only just for, like, one summer,'' San Cisco's Jordi Davieson has said. Davieson has previously shown signs of wanting to distance himself from the band's past - he has dismissed everything from their origins as nu-folk outfit King George to what he witheringly describes as the ''Pop Song 101'' of San Cisco's breakthrough hit, Awkward. Nevertheless, he would find it hard to argue with the fact the band's Golden Revolver EP was where things started to fall into place for the foursome from Freo. The dancing guitar lines and perky beats of that debut EP's title track gave the first hint of the breath-of-fresh-air indie pop that would lead to Awkward and three associated ARIA Award nominations last year. San Cisco then stepped up another gear with their self-titled debut album, which emphatically showed they could make an entire collection with some depth to it. George Palathingal