Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Koenig wrote the lyrics and the band the music, with Batmanglij producing and mixing and Jeff Curtin on hand drums and shaker. Kwassa kwassa is a 1980s Congolese dance rhythm, a synonym for soukous. In 2005 Koenig traveled through London on the way to India, thought about colonialism and the links between preppy culture and the native cultures of Africa and India, and wrote a short story with the title. A Pioneer Works essay quotes him as thinking about post-hippie domesticity and the tenuous connection between preppiness and colonialism. The refrain name-checks Peter Gabriel, who covered it with Hot Chip in 2008, changing a self-referential line.

The single came out on August 18, 2008 on XL, the fourth after "A-Punk" and "Oxford Comma", and reached 178 in the UK; it was certified Gold by the RIAA on June 18, 2025. Richard Ayoade directed the video, set in the 1980s and shot in Spring Lake, New Jersey, with Jenny Murray as a goth girl trying to convert Koenig's character. Remixes include The Very Best's, Hot Chip's and The Teenagers'. Setlist.fm ranks it second among their most played songs, at 485 plays. Koenig is reported to have told Spin he would probably change the title today given appropriation criticism, which we could not verify.