Vampire Weekend, Meet Tad

Girl depicted on latest VW album sleeve sues because band didn't determine appropriate release of image. Somewhere, some place, a NW grunge band (and Sub Pop) is smiling.

By Fred Mills

Jesus Christ, while we're out getting booze for the annual Blurt-sponsored Nude Slip ‘N Slide Olympics, all hell breaks loose in the music world. To wit:

According to Pitchfork and TMZ, the so-called "hot chick"* who appears on the front sleeve of Vampire Weekend's underwhelming recent album Contra just filed a lawsuit yesterday in Los Angeles' Superior Court against the band. The "chick" - Kirsten Kennis, apparently photographed in 1983 - says that any release the band or the original photographer may have obtained is a forgery.

Ergo, Vampire is on the hook for not vetting matters completely, and she wants $2 million dollars for that particular revelation. Who wants to bet that TMZ comes up with a current photo of Kennis like, by tomorrow morning, and that somebody (maybe Kennis herself) nabs a nice paycheck?

More (or less) to the point, who remembers that great controversy surrounding grunge band Tad's 1991 album 8-Way Santa and the lawsuit surrounding the "found" cover photo? In that instance the hippie whose old Polaroid snapshot was snagged for recycling, record sleeve style, decided to sue because he'd become a born again Christian and just didn't like the image that his earlier self was projecting.

Now THAT was entertainment; this is just business as usual circa 2010. Who else wants to be a celebrity for 15 minutes?

By the way, everybody hold on to their VW records. If memory serves, those Tad albums skyrocketed in price a few years after the lawsuit. We, in fact, netted an extra 50 cents above the usual trade-in price of four bucks on eBay.

* "hot" if your idea of hot is a 13-year old aspiring tennis player... come to think of it, that's about the right demographic for Vampire Weekend!