It seems like the hot indie rock band of the moment comes along every few months or so. And for the most part, they don’t sound or look that much different from one another.

Then, New York’s Vampire Weekend came along in 2007 and pretty much screwed all that up in the most audibly enticing ways possible.

The band’s music was the buzz of the blogosphere at the end of 2007. Before its self-titled debut album was released in Jan. 2008, Spin Magazine did a cover story on the group calling them “The Year’s Best New Band... Already!?”

These critical and musical accolades are enough to go to anybody’s head, but drummer Chris Tomson isn’t quite sure he’s felt that effect.

“I’d like to say no, but honestly, I have no idea,” drummer Tomson says. “For us, I feel like we are more or less doing the same thing we did last year.”

Tomson, along with Ezra Koenig (vocals and guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboards and backing vocals) and Chris Baio, formed Vampire Weekend while attending Columbia University from 2005 to 2007. It was here where their academic and musical interests met; where a love of classical music, African guitars and Caribbean rhythms met the propulsive energy of New Wave and indie rock, not to mention lyrics that prefer to discuss summers in Cape Cod and Oxford commas over emotional angst.

Vampire Weekend

“We didn’t necessarily have an idea of what we wanted to sound like, but we had an idea of what we wanted to avoid,” Baio says. “After we had a couple songs down, we felt like we had a distinct vibe emerging.”

That vibe was crafted meticulously over an 18-month period in the recording of their self-titled debut album. The visual style was also realized within the band. With members adorned in boating shoes, cardigans and sweater vests, they look more at home on a sail boat than playing to sold-out crowds in rock clubs.

The image and sound were conscious choices and established the band’s identity early on, but the band also owes a lot to growing up in the multi-cultural metropolis of NYC.

“It was living in New York that was a bigger thing,” Tomson says. “I think that was kind of more of a thing that was ultimately a little more informative.”

After returning from their first European tour, Vampire Weekend will end the whirlwind ride with one last tour of the states through the end of 2008. The group performs at 8 p.m. Sept. 11 at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kan. From there, the group will go into the studio to record a new album and hopefully continue to build an audience after the wave of buzz crests.

“Ultimately, if we are out playing a show and kids are there to see it, that’s all we can ask for and all we can hope for,” Tomson says.