Proud Ivy League Tradition of Bringing Mediocre Live Music to Hammered Students During Spring Weekends to Continue in 2008
It's the #1 time to break out your adorable flowered pastel sundress, get doused in beer, and get down with your bad, white self. That's right -- spring concert season is just around the corner, and Ben O'Donnell has the scoop.
What do Ben Folds, Third Eye Blind, and Sister Hazel have in common? They're all musicians no one listens to anymore who were sacrificed to irony-hungry Ivy Leaguers last spring during the Ancient Eight's spring party or concert weekends.
As spring is a season traditionally associated with graduation and, by association, with a lifetime of thankless toil capped off by cold, empty death, it is especially important for the various committees of people who do stuff with their lives at our schools to choose upbeat, crowd-pleasing concert acts. In this way, we may all forget, however briefly, this season/lifetime of soul-crushing meaninglessness in which we are mired.
With that in mind, said committees at Brown and Cornell have already announced their picks for their major spring concerts, while those at Yale and Dartmouth have tossed around and parried rumors about theirs.
After the jump, who the artists are, obviously.
Cornell's Slope Day, which, like Dartmouth's Green Key, is a party weekend and not a Freemason ritual, features a concert to be headlined by Gym Class Heroes and Hot Hot Heat. Student responses have been overwhelmingly positive, from "I have no idea who they are, so, sounds cool" to "I've never heard of them." The excitement is clearly palpable for the band, best known for turning an old Supertramp favorite into a new profit.
Brown has chosen a decidedly different tack, booking quasi-talented rapper Lupe Fiasco and quasi-intelligible quasi-rapper M.I.A., along with Girl Talk, Vampire Weekend, and Umphrey's McGee. Explains the Daily Herald:
M.I.A., whose real name is Maya Arulpragasam, was chosen in part to help satisfy another goal of BCA - "to bring more diversity to the Spring Weekend line-up," Horn said. "We think it's a huge deal that M.I.A. is not only a woman that can command the stage but also comes from Sri Lanka and London and can bring diversity and represent all these cultures that haven't been represented at Spring Weekend in the past."
There is such a thing as too little too late, but at least the BCA is working to rectify its embarrassing failure to include the female Sri Lankan Londoner demographic in past Spring Weekend concerts.
As for Dartmouth, "Nothing's confirmed as of yet," says Programming Board, but last fall, interest was expressed in bringing The Shins to campus. Instead, PB opted for a Free Skate Night, a Bingo Night, and "The Regurgitator," a man who has made a career of swallowing things and then expelling them whole from his mouth again. The Shins are hoped for in the coming season, but if they are unavailable, it is my understanding that "The Human Enema" has already agreed to perform.
Meanwhile over at Yale, "two hip-hop acts" are scheduled to play, and, for a third, rock act, the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows have been under consideration. Fear not though, Yalies, you'll only be stuck with the Counting Crows "if everything else falls through." Has no one thought to contact Fastball?
--BEN O'DONNELL
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February 22nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Programming Board last fall pulled off its most spectacular failure to date of simply forgetting to book a band on time, and so I wouldn’t expect much from Green Key this year.
For more information on PB: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jacko/weekly/2007F/2007-11-16/pb.htm
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Girl Talk and Vampire Weekend both came to Terrace last year. Girl Talk was the absolute sickest shit ever; the club was like a gigantic sweating beast with a bass heart beat. In the middle of his show, he chugged a pitcher “so that someone can put it on youtube and my father can see it”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naiwPS19e_M
And then he walked on the ceiling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zfZgf4wAak
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Vanessa Carlton Club! I miss you, PB.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Lupe Fiasco as “quasi-talented”? I admit that I’m disappointed by M.I.A. but I don’t think that Lupe is anywhere as irrelevant as the Goo Goo Dolls or Third Eye Blind
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
If I wanted to see Sister Hazel play for drunk people, I’d go on their cruise. At least there the drunk people care that they’re watching Sister Hazel.
Still, Reel Big Fish were my best Fling act by FAR – about 10 years since SKA was relevant… Maybe bands who only write songs about getting drunk and hooking up at the way to go?
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Lupe Fiasco “quasi-talented”?
And with that ladies and gentlemen this site has lost whatever shred of credibility it had
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:20 am
believe this.
I would be SOOOOO excited to see both Lupe Fiasco and MIA. If you wouldn’t mind, can you ship them to New York, where we really know how to appreciate good music when we hear it?
K, thanks.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 am
Girl talk came to Dartmouth twice in the past 2 years for FNR’s weekly concert series. Meh, he was OK—despite the stupid name.
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
as a huge hip hop fan, I can say that lupe fiasco is talented, but his music for the most part has squandered that talent. there’s a reason he has yet to gain the cache of artists like eminem and jay-z when his talent indicates he should be squarely among them.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Are you guys culturally illiterate or just music elitists? I know several people (including myself) who would pay money to see Ben Folds, Gym Class Heroes, Third Eye Blind, or the Goo Goo Dolls…
ivygate, you obviously have no taste.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
lupe fiasco isnt as popular as jayz, etc b/c his rap is less commercial. your average yo doesnt care to hear a guy making social commentary in metaphor, but would rather listen to 50 cent rapping about getting shot or snoop dogg rapping about about being a crip, etc. i could argue that talib kweli is more talented than all the rappers out there, but his style of rap does not hit a big market
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
i know quite a few yalies who will be driving to providence for a much better lineup than anything yale is offering up. Brown’s lineup is more like a coachella preview.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Yea, is this article a joke?? Brown’s lineup is amazing. Which of the artists would you describe as “ironic” ??
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
i’m sorry i made fun of your favorite musicians. it’s hard to say what i was thinking.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Yea, is this article a joke?? Brown’s lineup is amazing. Which of the artists would you describe as “ironic” ??
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
i’m sorry i made fun of your favorite musicians. i have no idea what i was thinking.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Is this article for real? Brown’s lineup is ridiculous. I’ll be driving up- no irony there.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Brown’s acts look great– no one’s even mentioned Umphrey’s McGee, which is a brilliant live band. It looks like there’s something for everyone in there. It’s a shame that Yale’s lineup is going to suck like it did last year. Sister Hazel and T.I… did anyone think that that was going to be a good idea?
It’s way better to have a fairly solid headliner like Lupe and then bring in a bunch of fun and/or talented, if less well-known supporting acts.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
If Gym Class Heroes and Hot Hot Heat came to Yale, I’d be way more thrilled than “two hip-hop acts”, etc. Do we really need TWO artists from the same genre? The geographic diversity supplied by M.I.A. is kind of stupid reasoning (though I do think she’s cool), but some musical diversity would be great. I’ve only heard of a couple of Brown’s groups, but I bet they’re good, especially if they don’t all play the same kind of music.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
brown’s line-up fucking rules holy shit
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
now i have the arduous task of calling the kids i haven’t talked to since high school to see if i can crash at brown
ivygate, lupe fiasco is the best rapper out there today — writing him off is writing off hip-hop as a genre. there’s seriously no one moree talented today, and his lyrics are brilliant
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Brown gets credit for last year’s lineup, and for Vampire Weekend, but Lupe Fiasco sucks. His shit is sooo repetitive, and his beats aren’t great either. But his rhymes are so “socially conscious” that all must bow down. MIA is pseudo-intellectual tripe w/ a british accent.
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
wow, the author of this article obviously has no clue about music of any genre. MIA is amazing, Lupe Fiasco equally as amazing.. also, not a very good writer :(
February 24th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
since when is lupe a more solid headliner than ti? that doesnt even make sense
not to mention lupe is already coming to yale in like 2 weeks
February 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
IvyGate, what the Hell did you do to your RSS feeds?! Mine don’t update anymore.
February 24th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I’m firmly of the belief that any school whose students have never heard of Hot Hot Heat doesn’t deserve to host Hot Hot Heat. Send them to Yale!!
Seriously, if I had known in high school that Yale would have the worst collective taste in music of any of the Ivies, I would never have come here. Given the choice between death by gorge plummet or death by overprocessed hip-hop substitute (T.I., Rihanna, etc.) I choose death by gorge plummet.
February 24th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
–since when is lupe a more solid headliner than ti?
well since t.i.’s last album was horrendous and repetitive and since ti is also a horrible stage performer, and since lupe had an absolutely ridiculous album
yeah.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
ivy gate – please scoop the dp AGAIN and tell us who’s performing at spring fling – you forgot about us completely in this article…no mention at all (unless you count the ben folds and 3eb reference)…
February 24th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
ivy gate – please scoop the dp AGAIN and tell us who’s performing at spring fling – you forgot about us completely in this article…no mention at all (unless you count the ben folds and 3eb reference)…
February 24th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
secret PB video of the act they’ve booked for the spring @ dartmouth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
February 24th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
secret PB video of the act they’ve booked for the spring @ dartmouth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
February 24th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
secret PB video of the act they’ve booked for the spring @ dartmouth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
February 25th, 2008 at 1:17 am
^rickroll^
February 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
So harvard doesn’t have anyone planned yet??
February 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
jesus christ brown’s got it made this spring. anyone want to buy me tickets?
February 26th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Very, very upset with Cornell. I had something at stake in selections, so was especially disappointed with the embarrassing choices. At least we are bringing a felon.
We’ve had Girl Talk in Ithaca, brought by Cornell’s Fanclub COllective. Super fun gig, though I’m not a fan of his mashups on record. MIA was my number one for Slope Day — saw her live for the first time last Summer, bowed in honor — and so Brown, you twats, I’m jealous.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Oh that’s cool. The site stalls and I look like the guy who presses the print button six times…ffff. Oh, and to top that off, “At least we are bringing a felon” is missing one very key apostrophe (aren’t). Ahem.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:15 am
The thought of having to sit through a Goo Goo Dolls concert ten years after they were relevant and after too many jungle juices causes the milk in my soul to curdle.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:30 am
As a Penn student, I am embarressed by our lineup and will instead be going to Brown.