Vampire Weekend

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Vampire Weekend's second album Contra, which hit No.1 in January this year despite being released by independent label XL, was also notable for its striking cover art: a portrait of an anonymous blond girl in a yellow polo shirt. "To me, there's just something infinitely fascinating about a nice portrait of somebody," singer Ezra Koenig told MTV in January, "especially when she's got this ambiguous look, and people can read a lot into it. So we were immediately struck by it, and we all had our own interpretations of what her look was." Unfortunately for the band, the look on their cover star's face now is one of anger. The woman, identified as Kirsten Kennis, is suing the band and their label for $2m, claiming that she never gave them permission to use the image. Kennis was working as a fashion model in New York City in 1983 when the image of her was taken. She claims a signature on a release form for the image is a forgery. It's doubtful whether Vampire Weekend even have $2m, as Contra has yet to be certified gold for 500,000 sales. The band haven't commented on the suit as they are currently touring the European festival circuit.

It almost always requires major label promotion to take an album to No.1, but for only the twelfth time since reliable records began in 1991, the Billboard 200 is topped by an indie artist. New York quartet Vampire Weekend are No.1 with their second album, Contra, which is released on XL Recordings, thanks to 124,000 sales in a quiet week overall. January is always quiet for big new releases, so it might have been XL's plan to release it now to achieve a higher chart position than would be possible some other time. The only other new entry in the Top 20 is Omarion, at No.19 with Ollusion. That means Susan Boyle slips to No.2 with another 77,000 sales, but she could bounce back to the top spot next week thanks to an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday. Meanwhile, there's no change at the top of the Hot 100, with Ke$ha's "TikTok" remaining in pole position for a fifth week, holding Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" at arm's length in second place. But there is a comeback for Train, who haven't been in the Top 10 for eight years. "Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)" was a No.5 hit in summer 2001, and now "Hey, Soul Sister" has jumped to No.7.

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