It’s that time of year again.  In case you haven’t seen it on your news feed yet, the official Coachella lineup has been released.  And if you missed the smaller print (I did the first time), Childish Gambino’s on it.  While you lament the unavailability of Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, Florence + the Machine and the like, feel free to indulge in a guilt-free “we win!” moment: the Black Keys and Snoop Dogg both played Spring Weekend ’10 (and Santigold graced the Main Green in ’09) prior to their headlining gigs.

Now, all that’s left for us is to do is cross our fingers and hope for a Christmas Holiday BCA miracle – Mumford & Sons and Kid Cudi, the top two results of BCA’s poll, are absent from the lineup. If all else fails, BlueIvy Carter for Spring Weekend 2012, anyone?

You can check the full poster after the jump (assuming you haven’t already seen it all over Facebook). [Read more →]

The illustrious Brown Concert Agency took to Facebook this past weekend to solicit (realistic) suggestions for Spring Weekend 2012 performers. Click here to vote!

(Alright, Gambino is the mastermind…)

Owing to the absolutely abysmal forecast, Fall Concert will be held inside tomorrow.  Doors open at the RISD auditorium tomorrow night at 7 with the concert starting at 7:15.  According to the BCA’s email to ticket-holders, there are still 80 tickets left which will be given out at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.  Also, any unclaimed tickets will be distributed 5 minutes prior to the start of the show.

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Dubstep. Any relatively hip college student has heard about the genre, and anybody who listens to the Top 40 has most likely heard it in action. But do these casual witnesses to the second British invasion really know what dubstep is? One thing is for certain, it’s not a ‘hella cool dubstep drop, bro’ in a Britney Spears tune. Telegraph music writer Gervaise de Wilde put it best when he asserted “[dubstep] amalgamates disparate elements of UK’s urban sounds and cultures into an innovative whole.” While this soundbite was a perfectly accurate description of the genre in 2006, it has devolved evolved as it broke out of its rigid 140 bpm structure and started to incorporate elements of house, hip hop and even reggaeton. In fact, the word dubstep has been misused so heavily in the past few years that it is currently a perfectly acceptable word to describe any kind of music that utilizes gut-wrenching bass synthesizers and incorporates some sort of break beat.

So here’s the question: Is Philadelphia-based Starkey, who is set to perform on Lincoln Field this Saturday, a quintessential dubstep producer/DJ? Probably not. While he has roots in the purest, darkest UK dubstep (see his appearance on genre proponent Mary Ann Hobbs’s show above), he’s managed to create incredible work within the larger genre of ‘bass music’ in the past few years. Bass music, if you’re wondering, is an umbrella genre within electronic dance music that has been making waves in the scene thanks to Diplo’s Mad Decent, NYC label Trouble & Bass and a fantastic crew of producers on London-based Night Slugs, as well as hundreds of up and coming producers in the US and Europe. If you’re into dancing while low-frequency sounds at unruly decibel levels penetrate your stomach lining, you’ll like Starkey. If your idea of a good time is ‘getting chay with Kenny,’ you may consider going to Duke  not be part of Starkey’s target audience. Four essential tunes to get you acquainted with Starkey’s music and more jokes about country music after the jump.

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The Brown Concert Agency sent out a press release this afternoon announcing Starkey and (7th place finishers in the BlogDH poll) Real Estate will be performing at this year’s Fall Concert.  The concert will take place on September 24th, ideally on Lincoln Field (with the RISD Auditorium serving as Meehan Auditorium). Tickets will be free.99 and available on the BCA’s website on Monday, Sept. 19th.  For the full press release and the answer to the inevitable question “who the fuck are these people?” click through!

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We have some pretty exciting news from the new Brown Concert Agency co-chairs Sandy Ryza ’12 and Gillian Brassil ’12:  the BCA wants input from the Brown community in selecting the acts for the Fall 2011 concert!  They’ve already secured one act, whose identity has yet to be leaked revealed, but are looking to add 1-2 more artists to round out the line-up. The winner of this poll will be the BCA’s top priority in their booking efforts (Important Note: top priority does not necessarily mean booking is guaranteed, if that were the case we would have been dancing rselves clean last spring). Through extensive research, they have come up with a list of available and affordable artists, which is brimming with possibility, so don’t get hung up on the lack of a “write-in” option.  The concert will take place on September 24th.  Our poll will be up until this Friday night, so be sure to vote for your favorite artist/group (and tell all of your friends to vote too!). Sample music from our personal favorites (tUnE-YarDs, Theophilus London, and Atlas Sound) as well as the rest of the options after the jump.

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According to the BCA website and a message published on their twitter half an hour ago (shown above), the door time for today’s concert has been pushed back to 5:30 with the show starting at 6:00. All the more time to pregame refine your White Out-fit.

Although our weather forecasts are somewhat irrelevant now that BCA has announced that both concerts will be held inside, we’re going to do at least one more update to address the confusion many students are feeling about the decision. [Read more →]

As always, BCA brought its standard cocktail of excitement, frustration, murderous rage, and elation this morning. To the lucky 1,000 who got tickets, congratulations. To the rest, better luck tomorrow. Maybe BSA can get its server working a little better before then?

And where do students turn to express their strong emotions? Facebook! Now we bring you some highlights from the morning’s insanity.

8:20 AM: A few students are successful. The rest remain utterly confused:

8:30 am: The anger begins to mount, as it appears to some that the Brown Marketplace website is offering tickets to the foam party, but not to the main attractions:

8:40 AM: More are finally rewarded with tickets. Increasing exasperation from those who are still waiting:   [Read more →]

The BCA has added two more acts to this Spring Weekend’s already stellar lineup.  First, opening up on Friday night, will be NYC-based rock band Lissy Trullie.  Led by frontwoman (and former model) Lissy, the group will certainly add a new element to the already diverse lineup, and has covered songs such as Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” and Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” during its live shows.

Leading Saturday night will be student who does cool things (and world renowned electronic artist) Nico Jaar (’12).  Nico, the only electronic artist performing during the weekend, will be playing his set with a live band (cleverly billed as Nico Jaar (band)).  The BCA had struggled to find an electronic act owing to Coachella and European tours, but the “rising techno star” will fill that niche as well anyone else could.  The BCA has also not ruled out the possibility of adding another student act, either, through Speakeasy auditions or a Battle of the Bands.

Check out BCA’s new ticketing procedure after the jump.   [Read more →]