Indie rock outfit Vampire Weekend and their record label, XL, are faced with a lawsuit contesting that the portrait of a blonde-haired woman in a yellow Ralph Lauren polo shirt that appears on the cover of the band’s third album, Contra, was used illegally.

Not that the photo was used without formal permission, there actually is a release form for the said photo but model Ann Kirsten Kennis, whose face appears on the photo, says that the release papers were falsified, or at least her signature was.

The story for the Austin City Limits Festival this year is some old and some new. The festival will take place in Austin, Texas at Zilker Park on October 8-10. Headlining sets from Phish, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Muse and the Eagles will be featured. Also included in the roster of 130 acts are some of the same performers from the Lollapalozza in Chicago, including Gaslight Anthem, Beach House, Yeasayer, Broken Bells, the National, Sonic Youth, Monsters of Folk, Band of Horses, Norah Jones, Vampire Weekend, Spoon, the Flaming Lips and the Strokes.

This fall Vampire Weekend, the indie kings, will be hitting the road on a tour of North America. The band has also recruited a couple notable friends who will tag along: Dum Dum Girls and Beach House. The trek of 13 dates will be kicking off in Vancouver, BC on August 28. The bands will be visiting cities like New York, Boston, Toronto and Chicago. In New York, the hometown, Vampire Weekend will be headlining a Radio City Music Hall three night stand. On September 26, the tour will conclude with a show in Los Angeles at Hollywood Bowl.

We knew already that Muse was going to be on the soundtrack “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” However on May 12, we discovered who was going to join them, although very slowly. The MySpace Music folks, taking a page from Bonnarro’s playbook, made the decision to reveal each artist’s name and songs individually from the album. Every 30 minutes a new name was unveiled. Hopefully you don’t have anything planned for seven to eight hours, as 15 spots will be revealed.

Here’s to Morningside Heights, cable-knit sweaters and blogs. Vampire Weekend, the band made up of graduates from Columbia University, started their climb into indie rock fame well before releasing any albums. They have now reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s album chart with “Contra,” their second album.

Sophomore jitters would have been only natural. It would be almost impossible for any band to live up to all the buzz and hype that was lavished on the 2008 self-titled debut of Vampire Weekend. What’s even worse is when everybody has raved about your original, new, fresh sound, where do you take it from there? If you dig deeper into the stylistic groove you are just imitating yourself; if you invent a new and different sound for your second album you will have abandoned your roots.

We already knew that Ezra Koenig, Vampire Weekend’s frontman, was a gyro man. That’s probably one of the reasons why the cover for Vampire Weekend’s Contra hitting stores on January 12 looks a lot like a Kronos gyro ad.

“Contra,” Vampire Weekend’s second album, won’t be hitting the stores until Tuesday. However it is streaming already on their website. This is a great time to unveil their “MTV Unplugged” set featuring the preppy quartet in their best stripped-down version- their music that is, not their attire.

Imagine Simba in the movie “The Lion King” as golden cub chewing bubblegum dressed in a popped collar. This will give you an approximation of the trifles and charms of Vampire Weekend, a band based out of New York that provides the consummate college rock. On Tuesday at Music Box @ Fonda at their sold out album release show, the crowd joyfully bopped to the music from the tightly wound album “Contra,” Vampire Weekend’s follow-up to their hugely successful yet divisive debut album.