Gallantly Streaming: Vampire Weekend Kicks Off Summer Blockbuster Season

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Stream Vampire Weekend's third album here, courtesy the fine, upstanding, not at all annoyingly insistent on making you jump through hoops to stream an album folks at iTunes.

Okay, so "summer blockbuster season" is a bit of an oxymoron when it comes to the music biz, what with the releases drying up pretty good from mid-June to mid-September or so as labels hoard their money makers for the Christmas shopping season and year end lists. But, this year does have a fair amount of enticing releases leading into the summer months; Alice In Chains, Queens Of The Stone Age, City And Colour and an up-and-coming fresh faced crew by the name of Black Sabbath are among rock bands prepping releases over the next six weeks.

So, in a way, Vampire Weekend do indeed get to usher in an exciting month and a half in rock n' roll; Modern Vampires Of The City is the marquee album being released next week among a handful of anticipated (yet more underground) releases from the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan, Headstones and Mindless Self Indulgence. Whether or not they can score a second #1 album (Contra did this in 2010, though it was a rather dead sales week in January) remains to be seen; however, they've done all they can to make an interesting album. Listen and judge for yourself, and look for a review on the sidebar later this week.

Modern Vampires Of The City is out May 14 on XL.

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