Here’s your unlikely actor/director and musician pairing for the day: Steve Buscemi and Vampire Weekend. It you believe a recent tweet from the band, Buscemi is a distant cousin of the bassist Chris Baio (who is actually related Scott Baio) but mostly, they were just excited to team up with with actor for some “showbiz synergy.” Well, they have.
The American Express Unstaged series — which in the past has brought together Terry Gilliam and Arcade Fire, David Lynch and Duran Duran and Werner Herzog and The Killers, among others — will now present a Vampire Weekend concert webcast directed by Buscemi. Of course, he’s already an established filmmaker with a fair share of movies and TV shows under his belt, but it will be his first time doing this sort of thing. But at the very least, he appears to be a fan, recently joining the band during an Easter parade in outrageous getup and singing their new single “Diane Young” through an old timey megaphone. And yeah, we’re still figuring out what that was all about too, but it’s pretty funny.
Anyway, the concert will stream on YouTube/Vevo on April 28th, capturing the band’s performance at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom, and there will be some bonus material online in the run-up to the show. So until then, check out Buscemi’s rendition of “Diane Young” followed by the real thing. Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires Of The City streets on May 14th. [Rolling Stone/Pitchfork]