Soundtrack Sunday: Vampire Weekend Returns

With one short tweet, this week Vampire Weekend officially announced the release of their newest album will be May 7th.  This indie, preppy, afro-pop-inspired band that formed at Columbia University made its way onto the scene with Oxford Comma and Mansard Roof in 2007/2008.  The entire first eponymously-named album so quintessentially represented those summers and evoke memories of lounging lakeside with friends, barbecuing on my lawn at university, and driving in my volvo with my windows down, sunroof open, shades on, and iced coffee in hand.

The release of their second album, Contra, coincided with the year I graduated with my first university degree and spent my summer working at Emily Post.  That summer I first met KH (another fellow Emily Post intern), who is to this day one of my best friends.  That summer we discovered our mutual love for etiquette (pardon my nerdiness), similar random music tastes (she's still one of the only other people I know who love Jens Lekmen), and identical passionately-workaholic tendencies.  Each time I hear Giving Up the Gun, or Holiday, I'm instantly brought back to our times exploring Vermont, fawning over the Mad Men Season 4 premiere, and tasting our way through Burlington's gourmet sandwiches (seriously, there's an epidemic of phenomenal sandwiches).