It is just true that no matter how much you love The Dirty Projectors, it is always going to be more fun to throw out a Kendrick lyric.

Kendrick’s album good kid, m.A.A.d city is about the difficulties Lamar faced growing up in Compton, California, and his experiences there are not exactly the same as a daily life on College Hill. Having said that, the album is full of lyrics than can be surprisingly applicable to Brown life.

Examples of how you can take being pumped about Kendrick above agreeing-via-Ya-Bish level:

“Money trees is the perfect place for shade and that’s just how I feel.” I am interning/working at (insert investment bank or consulting firm) this summer/after graduation. (“Money Trees“)

“Now this is not a tape recorder saying that he did it/But ever since that day, I was lookin at him different.” I am 90 percent sure that kid spilled a drink on me at a party once, OR, I really feel like that was the kid sat who ON HIS OWN in a Blue Room booth even though he just barely beat us there. (“m.A.A.d. city“) [Read more →]

Despite efforts to ensure that last year’s Spring Weekend ticket clusterfuck would never happen again, history seemed to repeat itself this morning. Spring Weekend ticket sale malfunctions? It must be spring! But you shouldn’t blame BCA. It was clearly a problem with the TouchNet payment processor that has exclusive contact with Brown. According to BCA’s most recent update, the only way you’ll know that you have successfully purchased tickets is if you have already received an e-mail confirmation. If you are one of the many frustrated confused exhausted people whose credit cards were charged but did neither received tickets nor e-mail confirmations, all processing/pending charges will be removed from your statement within 48 hours, according to BCA.

Don’t lose all hope…at least not yet. BCA also announced that both tonight (4/15) at 8 p.m and tomorrow (4/16) at 7 a.m. an additional 1250 tickets per concert will be released.

Here are some funny statuses to keep your mind off the stressful Lord of the Flies dynamic into which we seem to have devolved. Hey, at least we’re not alone…

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The battle for Spring Weekend glory continues. Late last February, the Brown Concert Agency announced their campaign to choose a student DJ to play between sets on the festival’s final night. After reviewing mix submissions, they narrowed the pool down to three candidates —Nick Melachrinos ’15, Tristan Rodman ’15 and Abe Arambolo ’13—and put the decision in our hands. 

That’s when things got a little messy. Over Spring Break it became clear that some unfair practices were used to sway the results. By the time we returned to school, over three thousand votes had been tallied. The huge vote push could have been the product of a sweeping democratic impulse throughout our vacationing student body. However, the more cynical among us were quicker to attribute it to a few enterprising computer scientists. No one is interested in pointing any fingers — especially BCA — but turns out it’s very possible to rig results for polls like these using a script that automatically votes from open IP adresses. When the BCA came across “evidence” of this sort of vote tampering last week, they shut the thing down and started from scratch.

The new poll can be found on BCA’s blog. They used Google Forms to set up the poll this time, so the only way to vote is to use a legitimate Brown email address. Make sure not to get too tricky or eager; multiple submissions from the same email will void all of that email’s submissions. Listen to the mixes, vote for your favorite, and spread the word!

Tired of waiting for Spring Weekend? Tired of this erratic weather? Boy, then do I have good news for you [actually, I can't really do anything about the weather sorry]. Tomorrow, April 4, BCA will host its 13th annual Speakeasy, a FREE concert showcasing some of the best RISD and Brown bands/singers/alt. rock gods out there. It’s also been hinted that professors will participate… how cool is that? This year’s Speakeasy will be held in Granoff Studio 1 (even the place sounds rad), from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Come ready to have a great time, meet the chillest people, and boost your indie cred by at least 10 points! But seriously though, you won’t want to miss this awesome event.

Image via.

Are you into “dope beats?” Do you dabble in DJing? Are you one of the many aspiring (and talented) Brunonian DJs? Then this announcement is for you: This Spring Weekend, the Brown Concert Agency will be featuring a student DJ during the set changes of the Saturday show. Said DJ would be playing with the likes of Kendrick, Deerhunter, and Dirty Projectors. Take that in for a second. You could be that DJ.

If you’re interested in submitting work, make sure to email a mix and/or video of a performance of yours to brownconcertagency@gmail.com. Submissions are due Friday, March 15. Don’t forget to write “First name, Last name SW2013 Student DJ” as the subject line. Once all applications are in, three finalists will be chosen. Their fates are then put in the hands of the members of the student body, who will then vote on the DJ they so desire. Let the games begin.

Earlier today, the Brown Concert Agency posted a brief ticketing FAQ on its website outlining when Spring Weekend 2013 tickets will go on sale, as well as the number each student can purchase. From its site:

Q: When will tickets go on sale?

A: Tickets will go on sale starting at 8am on Monday, April 15. On this first day, Brown students only will be able to purchase 1 ticket each.

On Tuesday, April 16 at 8am, RISD students (and Brown faculty/staff) will be able to purchase 1 ticket, and Brown students will be able to purchase 1 additional ticket for guests.

From Wednesday, April 17 at 8am onwards, RISD and Brown students will be able to purchase a TOTAL of 3 tickets (one for themselves and up to two guests).

Its post also describes the process for a rain call (same as in past years — in case of a rainout, first-day tickets are guaranteed for Meehan, second- and third-day tickets are refunded), as well as an announcement that BSA is working on a “brand new ticketing system” as a means of preventing its website from crashing, which it has done in spectacular fashion each of the past few years. Let’s just hope we can spend April 15th kicking off a glorious Spring Week 2013, and not web-bashing the Birmingham Small Arms Company. Ya bish.

I began this post as a warning of sorts. Men and women of Brown who care about your fantasy football teams (I realize this may be a very small demographic), SET YOUR LINEUPS EARLY THIS WEEK. Why? Last Sunday, millions of fantasy football slackers were shocked to find that Yahoo! Sports was down in the precious hours before kickoff at 1 p.m. Because of Yahoo!’s technical difficulties, lineups were left unchanged, players with bye weeks were in starting positions, and approximately 1.2 million pounds of hair was torn out nationwide. As often occurs these days, there was a decent-sized Internet riot in response (thank you Twitter). Last week’s debacle got me thinking, what Internet disasters would garner similar rage—most likely as measured by prevalence of clever hashtags—at Brown?

1. G-Chat fails. Again. Ffffffuuuuuu how am I supposed to procrastinate now in a way that even looks like I’m being productive? Let me take to another procrastination web site like Twitter to communally gripe!

2. BCA Spring Weekend Tickets. Too real, I guess this one is kind of inevitable. Until they book the “John Schnatter and Grover Norquist old-time string band” to headline Spring Weekend, that site is going to go down, and people are going to complain.

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The Brown Concert Agency has made a few changes to the ticketing process for the Fall Concert as a “test run” to avoid the potential website crash that has accompanied the purchase of Spring Weekend tickets in the past. Tickets for the September 15th show will be going on sale this Friday (tomorrow) for $12.

Here’s the new system:

1. Make sure you’re logged into your Brown email. Then click on a Google Form link. Enter your name and email address into the form.

2.  You’ll then get an email with a “secret code” (!).

3. Go to BSA Marketplace and buy the Fall Concert ticket.

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After much fanfare (A poll! A new blog!), BCA released the lineup for the 2012 Fall Concert, which will (weather permitting) take place on the newly-minted Simmons Quadrangle. Get ready for a deluge of Shakespeare puns- Titus Andronicus will be headlining the show on September 15th (Ed.- Beware of the ides of September!). TOKiMONSTA will open.  Although Titus Andronicus finished 3rd in our poll behind Neon Indian and Black Lips, those two bands declined and were unavailable for that date respectively.  A slight bummer, maybe, but the lineup is still impressive.

Titus Andronicus is a New Jersey-based band that BCA calls, “catharsis given musical form.” Spotify swears they take some influence from Springsteen, but I think that might be just another case of the silly assumption that all bands from the Garden State must worship the Boss. Not that they shouldn’t, of course. That and a Michael Vorenberg-approved War Between the States-themed 2010 album Monitor  (at least there is one reference to “John Brown’s body” on the track “A More Perfect Union”) seem to bode pretty well for the concert.  Additionally, their song “Titus Andronicus” got some other members of BlogDH’s staff through a particularly angsty period in high school… [Read more →]

 As the Brown Concert Agency announced yesterday (via Facebook), they want your help in selecting the acts for the Fall 2012 concert!  As a means of weeding out the “ZOMG TAYLOR SWIFFFFFTTTT”-esque responses, the BCA extensively researched artists and put together a list of five totally realistic and totally awesome choices for you to pick from.  BCA will make the winner of this poll its top priority in its booking efforts (Important Note: top priority does not necessarily mean booking is guaranteed; if that were the case, we would have been given the bizness last fall).  The concert will take place on Saturday, September 15.

Our poll will be up until this Wednesday night (June 20), so be sure to vote for your favorite artist/group (and tell all of your friends to vote too!). Sample music from these truly impressive choices after the jump to help you make an informed decision. [Read more →]