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 →]

“Cool” new artist Azealia Banks confirmed via her twitter that she will be performing at this year’s Coachella Music Festival, which, for the second year in a row, overlaps with Spring Weekend. The festival posted her fantastic video for “212″ (above) on its Facebook page, along with a video of Providence native araabMUZIK, presumably confirming the two of them as not-Spring-Weekend-performers.

Even though the line-up likely won’t be released for a few weeks, the nerds journalists at Consequence of Sound pored over tour schedules and came up with a running list of likely performers, and it is not looking good for us.  You can see their full list (with evidence!) here, but some highlights (lowlights?) of the projections include Childish Gambino (sorry all), Danny Brown, ASAP Rocky, Justice, M83, Radiohead (obviously), and No Doubt (ed. we had no chance, but how fantastic would that have been?). Ugh. There is still a chance that the two-weekend festival’s lineup will leave some coveted artists available to make the trek to Providence, so here’s to hoping.

Check back in with us once the full line-up is released for another round of bitching and, based on the remaining field, our best shot at predicting the line-up.  Godspeed BCA…

The Brown Concert Agency is pretty much the closest thing we have to a secret society (considering we’re not sure Pacifica House counts). We truly appreciate the awesomeness they make possible, but they tend to keep their internal affairs close to the chest. Kind of like Brown’s own Skull and Bones, with more skinny jeans and less historical racism.

A couple of months ago, the BCA conducted a couple of polls — one via Facebook and one via UCS — that solicited student suggestions for Spring Weekend 2012 performers. Naturally, the BCA kept the results of these polls private. Considering our intense love affair with Spring Weekend, this was a bit of a disappointment. So we conducted a full-scale investigative report (i.e. one email to the head of the BCA—thanks!) to get you the poll results you deserve to see. Then we arranged them according to their poll popularity on a familiar poster  because we’re cruel, cruel people.

Check out which artists Brunonia voted for  (alongside our favorite unique suggestions), as well as commentary, after the jump: [Read more →]

It’s official: Coachella — that pesky Yountville-based music festival will overlap once again with next year’s Spring Weekend concerts.   The Spring Weekend performances will happen on April 20 and 21, while Coachella will be held over two weekends, April 13-15 and April 20-22.  Much to the chagrin of us Brunonians, it is rumored that the two Coachella weekends will be almost identical in their performance line-ups.  In other words, there will be Coachella part one on the 13th-15th, which will make a ton of money through ticket sales and steal all the good acts to the lesser coast, and then Coachella part two which will overlap with Spring Weekend. Coachella part two will be the exact same as Coachella part one (with all the same great acts that will still be in California and not on Brown’s campus), except the ticket holders for the second weekend will be different from those on the first.  Lame.

So what does this all mean?  It depends.  If you’re an optimist, you might  believe that BCA will still pull through and grab a few good acts in spite of the inevitable draining effect that Coachella will have on the pool of available artists.  (You have to admit, Wyclef was pretty sweet this year.)  If you’re among the less hopeful among us, however, you might just think that Spring Weekend 2012 will come DOA, as did Spring Weekend 2011.  We’ll have to wait and see.  For now, all we have to go on are the words of BCA Administrative Chair Sandy Ryza, who seems to fall into the former camp in telling BlogDailyHerald that “it sucks, and there’s not really much that can be done differently, but we’ve managed in previous years with the same problem, and there are always good artists that slip through their greedy fingers.”

Image via.

Too much work got you down?  Not sure if you’re gonna be able to survive?  Maybe you are just wishing it was a month ago, when we were basking in the Binder sunlight.  Here’s a little video to spark your nostalgia.

Try to play Where’s Waldo and find the most inebriated person in frame, or look for yourself–whichever is more fun. Who says Brown doesn’t have school spirit?

Still feeling the side effects of a full week of constant inebriation? BlogDailyHerald is here to the rescue with our guide on how to hide–and hopefully cure–your post-Spring Weekend hangover!

5. Grab a pair of sunglasses and hide those puffy eyes with style. If you don’t already own a pair, grab one from the stall set up outside of the Brown Bookstore for around $10 and maybe matching hats and watches too. The only downside to this plan is that you risk looking like a total douchebag.

4. Meditate and contemplate on the past week to help you find clarity and peace of mind. Maybe crash UNIV 0540 Introduction to Contemplative Studies, which has a lab scheduled on MWF at 9:00 A.M., or check out the Contemplative Studies website for resources to learn how to do this.

At one with nature. She doesn't seem hungover, does she?

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Hailing from North Carolina, Lee Fields has been an important figure in the world of funk since the 60s. Beginning as a solo act, he entered the music industry as a singer in multiple fundamental bands in the funk genre, such as Kool and the Gang, Sammy Gordon and the Hip-Huggers, and Little Royal. After a hiatus in the 80s, Lee Fields came back strong in the 1990s with a surprise album release, titled “Enough is Enough”. Not a stranger to funk and soul, he has released six albums since his return to the music industry, brining the soul into the 21^st century.

Here’s where The Expressions come in. Back in 2004, the owners of the funk music label Truth & Soul wanted to experiment with the genre and create a record modeled after seasoned bands such as The Moments, The Delfonics, and The Stylistics. They called in Lee Fields to provide the vocals for the single “Do You Love Me”, and the rest is funktastic, soulful history.  [Read more →]

Spring Weekend tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 8 AM on Brown Marketplace.  1000 will be sold each day for the next three days.  Tickets cost $20 per night (or $40 for both).  Let’s hope this goes a little smoother than last year.  Find full information on ticketing, including when and how students will be able to purchase a second ticket, after the jump. [Read more →]

You probably already know two things about Nicolas “Nico” Jaar ’12: 1. He’s a Brunonian and 2. He released an album somewhat recently that made Pitchfork all happy in their tight corduroy pants. Now he’s performing on Spring Weekend, but what’s Nico’s music really like? Well, for one, don’t call it dance music. According to a Pitchfork interview, it’s not. Regarding his album, Nico claims, “[It] has the ghost of my old dance music influences, but it’s not dance music per se.” He also doesn’t DJ, but rather uses live controllers, keyboards and vocals in his live performance (in the vein of Simian Mobile Disco). This means that you shouldn’t expect the featured electronic artist at Spring Weekend to ‘drop a banger’ like Avicii unleashing “Bromance” at Ultra during your come up. When the music sounds more like Boards of Canada or a less frantic Aphex Twin than SHM, don’t say we didn’t warn you. This isn’t to say that Jaar’s music is boring in the slightest; it’s just not the straightforward electro house music or bass-laden dubstep that dominates today’s rave scene. Some more background on the artist and a few standout tracks after the jump.

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