In a rare stroke of serendipity, a band-of-the-moment has been booked to play Honolulu.

Whether promoters Flash Hansen and Matty Boy Hazelgrove of BAMP Project had any idea that Vampire Weekend was going to blow the top off the pop music scene when they booked the band, or whether they thought they were just booking a small band on its way to Australia that they thought people in Honolulu might dig, the fact is: Vampire Weekend is playing Tuesday at Pipeline Cafe.

That's big news. Especially for a town used to getting the "it" acts long after their popularity has cooled a bit, if at all.

The New York-based band that formed while its members were seniors at Columbia University is the industry's new darling of indie pop. Just about every music critic with clout raves about Vampire Weekend, and music snobs all over the world are rejoicing in their discovery of the four-piece pop band with a world-music sensibility.

But even more remarkable: Everyone else (that is, the regular music lovers who pick their favorites by whether they can sing along) likes them, too.

Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut record is one of the most playable albums to come along in years. Though the band's music can't be cleanly categorized as African-inspired indie pop or Clash-inspired post-modern rock or geek pop, it can be loosely categorized as all of those things, only better.

Vampire Weekend frontman and founder Ezra Koenig spoke to us by phone from his hotel room in Seattle.

Q. You guys are just kind of fresh out of college. Is this what you thought you'd be doing with your lives?

A. I was doing a two-year teaching program and I only ended up doing it for one full year, so I imagine I'll finish that. I don't know. I never had big expectations for music. If you'd told me I was going to be touring all over the world and making records, I wouldn't have known.

Q. So you didn't set out to be the next big pop band?

A. No. I don't even know how to go about doing that. Really.

Q. But the reality is that Vampire Weekend is all the rage. SPIN magazine declared in February - and before your album had even been released - that you guys might be the best band of the year. The praise is ongoing and abundant. That's gotta feel good, right?

A. We were very excited when we first put out the album to read the positive reviews. In the beginning, it's really nice to get some feedback, at least just to see that there's somebody who appreciates what you're doing after you've put a lot of work into it.

But at this point, reading a very positive review is not what we're looking for. We've experienced that. Putting on a really good show is more of a goal of ours because there are bands that get a lot of critical praise but never experience a crowd going crazy for their music. I think that's the real proof that you're doing something right.

Q. I think that yours is one of the most playable records to come out in years. Seriously, it's been on repeat on my iPod for about four months now. Did you intentionally set out to make such an agreeable album? Is it purposefully catchy and poppy to have mass appeal?

A. I think those are just qualities that I like in music. It's pretty hard to sit down and say, "Let's write a catchy, poppy song!"

I think that's just the kind of music we gravitate toward. All the music that I've ever really loved has been pop music - in all its different forms. That includes everything from the Beatles to rap - everything that the average person grows up listening to.

The music that inspires us is pop music, so that's the music we make. And at this point in my life, I feel pretty alienated from the concept of making difficult music or intentionally provocative music. I feel like it's impossible, and that it's a great cliche at this point.

Q. Your music is pretty heavily influenced by African and Caribbean rhythms. What's the root of those influences?

A. We all grew up with parents who came of age in the '60s and had diverse record collections. It wasn't like I grew up with parents who only listened to classical music, and I had to sneak off in the night to discover what else is out there. It's just very natural for me to listen to different types of music.

And not only was I always aware of African music and reggae and Indian music, but also the music made by American and English artists that I grew up listening to were in turn influenced by that music. My dad had a lot of Peter Townshend and The Clash. All the music that I liked and admired usually had some sort of fusion in it, some sort of cross-pollination.

We never felt like it would be a crazy idea to mix different kinds of music. Instead, it seemed to us that that's how you make records. That's what the Beatles did, that's what The Clash did. Not to insert ourselves in that lineage! But these are the classic bands that everyone tells us to love, so why not follow their example?

Q. Do you hate it when people compare you to Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel?

A. Well É no. We don't hate it. I guess at first we felt like it was just kind of incorrect and every time someone said that in an interview, we would have to explain ourselves. But having done so many interviews and having gotten so much feedback on our music, we're at the point now that we think if someone thinks it sounds just like "Graceland," they can think that.

I think our music is a little more nuanced than people make it out to be, but there's certainly a reason people make that connection.

Q. If you had to compare yourself to someone, who would you compare yourself to?

A. I'm not saying it's any easier for me! We're still not good at categorizing ourselves. I guess we just describe it as pop music. And, in some cases, that's the worst word we can use. Some people really get it and others think Britney Spears.

Q. What's the best thing about being the new best thing?

A. I think we're mostly just excited to make another album. Everything went so well with the first album, and no matter what happens with the second album, we're just excited we made it.

Q. And the worst?

A. People judge you differently when you're a new band and when you've only put out one album. I think when you've been a band for a while, you're immune to certain kinds of criticism, and we're not. But I don't know if it's a bad thing.

Q. What about the haters out there? The ones who hold your Ivy League preppiness against you. Can you win them over? Do you care to?

A. I think we just need to keep doing what we're doing. If people want to make instantaneous judgments about us based on the college that we went to, that's their problem.

There's no band that has a truly universal appeal. I'm amazed at how diverse our fans are, but even beyond that, how much can you really expect to be loved?

Read her blog, "Scene It," at http://sceneit.honadvblogs.com.