Ratatat to Play the Yard, or Harvard’s Hipster Invasion and Why It Will Fail
Wisps of cigarette smoke froze in midair at the Advocate building early this morning, when the Crimson announced that Ratatat and Sara Bareilles would headline this year's Yardfest. Just months ago the Undergraduate Council and campus "Fun Czar" obliterated whatever hip currency they had gained in inviting Girl Talk to perform in the Yard by, oh yes, chasing Mr. Gillis off stage just minutes into the show.
If the day makes it past the inevitable attack from local hipsters using fixed gear bikes to erect Belgian gates, here's how the Cantabs could screw up another promising line-up:
- The Lampoon upstages with a three-peat of awesome musicians driving awesome vehicles. See James Brown in a Monster Truck or OK Go on go-carts.
- The Campus Events Board gives Petros, Harvard's Greek-American sensation, an opening act slot. Word around town is he has fans. Word around here is he has predatory tendencies.
- Quite realistically, kids with eyes shrunken from the Batcave conditions in Widener Library will hear electronic music for the first time and black out, retreating to the familiar music of years past: Third Eye Blind and Ben Folds.
More after the jump. Really it's all looking pretty dismal, though. Except for the music acts. They're kind of great choices (for Yardfest 2006)!
All Harvard students really have to fear is fun itself. There's a long history of the University (and related student boards) bringing in acts that either disappoint, like the guitarless Bob Dylan, or really disappoint, like the hours-late Busta Rhymes.
For a while it seemed like musicians didn't totally take things seriously in and around the Yard. Then for another while the students didn't really take musical taste seriously, like the TEB era. While campuses like Yale and Princeton got to jam with Pleasureman Gunther years ago, Harvard was stuck with Gavin DeGraw. Alright, the Pleasureman did come to Harvard last year but the CEB didn't have anything to do with it.
Speaking of the hippest acts on the planet, how come eating clubs (ok just Terrace) are on top of shit enough to get Greg Gillis to play actual house parties before the big record drop? Add Brooklynites Matt and Kim and Baltimore badass Dan Deacon to that list. Answer: Princeton and Yale, too, are close to New York and are bon vivants by osmosis?
Not even close. When a college has to create a position called the unofficial "Fun Czar," there's no longer a problem with the social life on campus. There's a deficiency. The exception to this is Wu-Tang Clan's performance at Yardfest 2008. That was alright. (RIP ODB.)
Oh and to Evan and Mike--they're the guys in Ratatat to all your Harvard readers out there--we're big fans. LP3 was great. "Mirando"=alucinante. And to Sara. Nice iPod commercial. That's definitely working for you. So is being kind of sexy in that Ivy League sort of way.
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March 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
This is such a joke of a blog post. the UC doesn’t have anything to do with Yardfest, Sara wasn’t around in 2006, you seem to actually like the latest artists (WuTang, Ratatat), but yet you think that somehow bringing them is a bad thing, etc. etc.
Following your logic, Yardfest should be eliminated entirely? If a great artist isn’t enough what else is there
Also, didn’t you graduate almost two years ago? Maybe that’s why your facts are all messed up. Get a life.
Ratatat rules. And you wish you could go, but it’s undergrads only. Maybe that’s why you’re so whiny.
March 11th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Ratatat is such a hipster emo-looking group. Their name is almost as bad as the “yeah yeah yeah’s” and “OK Go.” How stupid can these people get?
March 13th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Other awesome shows at the Terrace F. Club….got ‘em on their way up (for a complete list loo at wikipedia, they have had some awesome bands):
Blues Traveler Late 80’s
Flaming Lips, StereoLab, The Roots, Elliot Smith, Blonde Redhead (1997, waayyyy early), Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse (1999), RunDMC, Disco Biscuits, AntiBalas, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists,The Hold Steady, John Popper Project, Toubabe Krewe, Battles, Dan Deacon, Matt and Kim, They Might Be Giants, Beirut, Girl Talk, Vampire Weekend , The Cool Kids, Dengue Fever, Akron/Family, The Walkmen, School Of Seven Bells
Beats Brown in The Hipster Category Any Day