(Credit: Daniel Arnold)

Vampire Weekend have quickly gotten to be such a big deal that you need a three-day pass and binoculars to see them. The calypso-grooving Columbia grads' summer plans include All Points West, Lollapalooza and Ibiza Rocks. That's why last night's Happy Ending performance at Joe's Pub was a serious can't-miss.

Vampire Weekend accompanied three authors -- Wells Tower, John Wray and Arthur Phillips -- all of whom read from their work. John Wray, who wrote a novel called Lowboy about a sixteen-year old paranoid schizophrenic who believes that only he can save the world, was the most Buzzworthy of the bunch, if that makes sense.

Exciting as all that was, the night's highlights all came from Vampire Weekend, who tweaked their big singles ("Oxford Comma," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," etc.) just enough to make them sound totally new. The theme of the event was "risks," and VW took a major one by closing with a cover of Tom Petty's "Walls," sung over a wide-smiling piano riff borrowed from Arcade Fire's "Tunnels." It paid off big time. By the first chorus, the whole place was singing along.

Wish you coulda been there. Maybe you would've gotten nicer photos than I did :-/. Next time! Watch Vampire Weekend's "Mansard Roof" below and get a better look at a great night, after the jump.

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MTV News Segment Producer Christopher "CJ" Smith was one of a handful of MTV News staffers who headed down to Austin this past week for barbecue, beer, and bands, while we stayed back at MTV HQ in New York City with our cafeteria sandwiches, Coke Zero, and good old-fashioned CDs. Here's CJ's wrap-up of his favorite bands from SXSW.

You could probably stick a fork in me from all the sun (and delicious BBQ) I got down in Austin. So thankfully, South By Southwest is done and over. Let me run you through my top 5 sets from SXSW.

1. Metallica -- I really didn't expect the hard rockin' legends to blow me away like they did; but I couldn't help pointing out to my friends that even at their worst, they're still more talented, tighter, better songwriters than 95% of the bands that litter the indie landscape today. 'Nuff said.

2. Dirty Projectors -- I've been a fan since the release of the terrific "Rise Above" back in 2007; lucky for me, SXSW marked the premiere of material from their forthcoming effort, Bitte Orca (along with their newly expanded lineup), that quite simply, sounded monstrous. They're sort of in the same vein as Vampire Weekend, but with much much more musicality and depth (Ezra Koenig of VW actually even toured with the DPs at one point). The group received deafening applause from the packed house at the Press Here garden party, and I've seen reports that this was true of all the sets they played at SXSW (frontman Dave Longstreth even had to cover his ears at the Pitchfork/Windish party as the crowd was so uproarious). They're in for a heck of a ride this year -- well-deserved after what I witnessed -- and are not to be missed.

3. Little Boots -- Lady Gaga watch out, Victorai Hesketh (aka Little Boots) is coming. She's already been heavily written about in the English press getting called "the savior of pop music" by some excitable journalists and is most certainly going to take both sides of the Atlantic by storm this year; she's got a ton of talent, is classically trained, extremely passionate about making music and, if her set at Emo's is any indication, knows how to work a stage. She appeared over at the Perez Hilton party and took the stage with Kid Cudi to perform her cover of his track "Day 'N' Nite" alongside the rapper. She's just wrapping up her debut LP, so be sure to watch out with this one in '09.

4. Woods -- Tons of great acts played the Woodsist/Todd P. showcase at Mrs. Beas (Wavves, No Age, Crystal Stilts, Blank Dogs, Los Llamarada, Thee Oh Sees, just to name a few), but the one that struck the biggest chord with me was this Brooklyn group. Crafting tight and beautifully lighthearted ghostly folkish songs -- they are one of the finest bands playing in the unbelievably deep Brooklyn scene. I've seen them a bunch, and each time I get more excited about their sound. They're pretty hard to Google, so be sure check out their MySpace.

5. Tyvek -- Tyvek was featured last year in my piece looking at some of the modern purveyors of lo-fi. This year, Tyvek managed to surprise me with how good they sounded as a three-piece. Kevin Boyer can definitely hold his own on guitar in the stripped-down line-up. They had the crowd of weirdo (and weirdo lovers) rockin' out during their afternoon Beerland set, and you can look for their debut LP to finally drop sometime this year.

Enough of me, our whole MTV News team saw a slew of shows between us, and we put together a video explaining each of our faves from the fest; check that out here.

Company Of Thieves is a band out of Chicago made up of Genevieve Schatz on vocals, Marc Walloch on the guitar, and Mike Ortiz playing drums. Their sound is kinda Feist-y. Soft, throaty melodic vocals over jagged, bluesy riffs and rhythms. Just a pinch of attitude.

But before you get to all that, you're much more likely to hear of Company Of Thieves as the band behind "Oscar Wilde," basically a musical remake of Rushmore with the band cast in all the leading roles. Lady-in-chief Genevieve Schatz plays Max the choirmaster, JV boys' basketball manager and kung-fu yellow belt, to name a few. The video is so engrossingly true to Wes Anderson's quirky masterpiece that you'll have to watch it twice before you even hear the song. Why don't you go ahead and do that right now?

+ Vampire Weekend love Wes Anderson, too.

Have you read this gossip that Michael Jackson has approached a Broadway production company in hopes of translating his musical career -- specifically Thriller -- into a musical? Obviously cruel jokes are already forming in your head, but that's just because you're super immature. Just kidding. They're in my head too. But for once, let's take the high road and think about this instead: Who else's music/life is fit for a musical? Weirdly enough, I have a few ideas...

First of all, I don't care if they're too new to draw a crowd, or too indie for a scandal. I don't care if their music is antiseptic and intellectual. Hell, I don't even care if the musical is about them. If there was a play called Vampire Weekend, that's a play that I would definitely attend. You?

Going a more substantive route, recent hip-hop offers endless possibilities. If Notorious can be a movie, certainly it can be a musical (sooorry Lil' Kim :-/). Also, Beyonce's latest, I Am... Sasha Fierce, begs for a showstopping dance number, a dream sequence and a subplot involving a ring of lady spies. And speaking of dream sequence, Kanye's epic, auto-tuned bum-out 808s & Heartbreak is practically already set for Broadway. So much drama!

Finally, the worst idea ever: How about Katy Perry uses her big... name to take on Broadway AND global warming with a charmingly choreographed musical called Hot & Cold? Are you puking? Do you have any better ideas? David Archuleta: 'Wicked' Cute? Comment!

What'd you guys do Wednesday night? Nothing? Sounds like fun! Hey! Wanna know what we did?? We went to mtvU's 2008 Woodie Awards, flirted with Boys Like Girls on the red carpet, got rejected (and un-rejected!) by the All American Rejects, found out Paramore's favorite movie and sat with Locksley and Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin.

Okay, rewind. We've (occasionally) been known to exaggerate (or, as we like to call it, "make the story better') so we should probably back up and start at the beginning. Which brings us back to 5:45pm yesterday, the time we arrived at the mysteriously dark/freezing place called New York's Roseland Ballroom, grabbed our press pass and saw Santogold (looking super cute n' cozy in a gray hoodie and hoop earrings!) rehearsing on stage with Spank Rock.

Note: There were no pictures allowed inside before the show (Not that they would've come out, anyway -- mysteriously dark place, remember??) so you'll have to settle for this red carpet shot of Santogold wearing a shiny, silvery dress by Marc Jacobs that appears to be made from 100% Reynold's Wrap (though Santo swears it's actually way "softer" and more skin-friendly). And she's posing with Lykke Li. (LOVE her!)
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Okay, we know what you're thinking: Why would we be heading off the to the red carpet right now if the 2008 Woodie Awards aren't airing til NEXT Wednesday, November 19th? The short answer is, the show's being taped tonight (HOLY CRAP! What are we gonna wear??) which means in a less than an hour, we'll be rubbing elbows with Vampire Weekend, chatting it up with Hayley Williams from Paramore -- that is, assuming she's feeling chatty -- and catching live performances by Santogold and Lykke Li! Wheee!

So wish us luck, and stay tuned for a recap later on this week! Oh, and keep your heads in the game by checking out our fave videos from all five "Left Field Woodies" nominees (that's No Age, Chromeo, Yelle, She and Him and The Cool Kids) ... after the jump.

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From a Grace Jones-soundalike on horseback, to "A Punk" prepsters, Talkboxing two-steppers, and an all-American pop-rock band with a penchant for holding grudges -- that's Santogold, Vampire Weekend, Chromeo, and OneRepublic, for the uninitiated -- we're taking a look back at the MTV Artists of the Week who've become the breakout artists of 2008.

+ Vampire Weekend: The Columbia U. prepsters made libraries, chinos, and Paul Simon cool again! Fittingly, their Artist of the Week videos were shot at Columbia and inspired you to look up the meaning of "kwasa kwasa." Watch Vampire Weekend's Artist of the Week videos here.

+ Santgold: The electro-pop shapeshifter graduated from A&R chick to the reason all those record industry types and music bloggers were tapping away furiously on their BlackBerrys. Less afraid of Spandex than M.I.A., Santogold took a head-on approach to her Artist of the Week videos, getting behind the wheel of some old-school bumper cars in Coney Island. Watch Santogold's MTV Artist of the Week videos here.

+ Chromeo: Forget the Naked Cowboy. Dave 1 and P-Thugg totally ruled Times Square, pumping their thinking man's sexy-chromatic hits through the heart of NYC from atop a Big Red Bus. That's one small step for keytars, one giant leap for Arab/Jewish relations. Watch Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork" and "Momma's Boy" videos.

+ OneRepublic: The Colorado fivesome, known for their mega hits "Apologize," and "Stop and Stare," got the royal treatment in their Artist of the Week videos, jousting Cable Guy-style at Medieval Times. By the way, this past September, "Apologize" became the #1 most (legally) downloaded song ever. Who's sorry now? Read an exclusive interview with the band, and watch OneRepublic's MTV Artist of the Week videos here.

With only two weeks standing between us and the Woodie awards (well, two weeks and two days for those of you keeping track) we figured we'd take a closer look at one of our favorite categories: Best Video Woodie. And since we have this thing about waiting (as in, we don't like doing it) we thought we'd help kill the time finding out who you guys think deserves to win. So take our informal survey now then watch it Wednesday, November 19, on mtvU.com to see how your picks match up with the actual results.

Bonus: For those of you need a refresher course (or a mid-afternoon work distraction), we're posting all five videos! Check out Gnarls Barkley and Erykah Badu's vids below, then catch the one from Vampire Weekend, Adele and Motion City Soundtrack -- after the jump.

+ Keep reading to watch the rest of the Best Video Woodie nominees! And don't forget to go to the official Woodies website to cast your vote for realz!

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Last week, we told you all about the 2008 Woodie nominations and encouraged you to do your civic doodee and hit the polls. And this week, we're upping the ante by hitting you with a list of the evening's all-star performers: UWS darlings Vampire Weekend, Swedish popper Lykke Li, hoodied hotties All Time Low and Santogold-en girl, Santi White.

(Credit: Lyndsay Siegel, Ben Ritter)

And since we know three weeks is a long time to wait (the Woodies aren't until Wednesday, November 12th) we're ever-so-graciously helping you pass the time by posting our favorite videos from each Woodie-inducing artist. Enjoy our vershe of an early-fall mix tape, and if you haven't already, check out the official Woodies Blog, and vote for your fave would-be Woodies now!

++ WATCH MORE VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMPOFF! ++

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We're still recovering from that crazy, sleep-deprived time in our lives we like to call the 2008 VMAs (and, more recently, from VH1's Hip Hop Honors bonanza), but that doesn't mean we're not already gearing up for the next big televised awards show. Fortunately, we don't have long to wait, seeing as the mtvU Woodie Awards kick off Wednesday, November 19th.

And whether you're a sorority girl (like Elle Woods!) a pre-frosh (like Serena and Blair!) or someone who religiously watches Hannah Montana, we have a feeling you're not gonna want to miss THE definitive college awards show (where all the nominees are chosen by poor, ramen-noodle-eating university types!) And since the polls are officially open from now through November 7th, here's a painstakingly complete list of the categories and nominees. You're welcome!

+ Lil Wayne, Paramore, Tokyo Police Club, MGMT and Santogold duke it out for Woodie of the Year. Note that as much as we would love to see the nominees breakdance fight, the winner for this category (and all subsequent categories) will be chosen solely on the basis of your votes.

+ We love charity. Just today, we selflessly scarfed down three oatmeal raisin cookies (purchased from a Breast Cancer Bake Sale!) all in the name of good health -- and late-afternoon sugar rushes. Now, cheer on your fave do-gooders as Eddie Vedder, Ludacris, Jack's Mannequin, Mary J. Blige and Emmanuel Jal fight for the right to take home the Good Woodie.

+ Ever heard that song "Video Killed the Radio Star?" Yeah, that's a bunch of bull. So hit the polls to see Adele and Motion City Soundtrack take on heavy hitters like Gnarls Barkley, Vampire Weekend and Erykah Badu for the Best Video Woodie.

+ We've always had a secret soft spot for the New Kid. So we'll definitely be checking back to find out which of these rookies (All Time Low, We The Kings, There For Tomorrow, Lykke Li and Tyga) is gonna walk out of here with the title of Breaking Woodie.

+ You know those amazing can't-live-without artists you never heard of 'til, like, yesterday? Well, you still have three more weeks to choose between No Age, Chromeo, Yelle, She and Him and The Cool Kids for Left Field Woodie.

+ And you gotta give it up for the performers who ALWAYS know how to put on a good show. Or as we like to call them, "the Michael Jordans of music." Yeah, we're talkin' about you, Kanye West, Atmosphere, N.E.R.D., The Ting Tings and Simian Mobile Disco. May the best one win! A Performance Woodie, that is.

****Psssst! Not only can you vote for your favorite artists -- you can also campaign for them on your Facebook/MySpace pages(!!) For more details about voting, campaigning and general Woodie goodness, go to mtvU's official Woodies Awards site. GO WOOD!