Crystal Castles, The Walkmen, Wale, and Milkman will headline the May 14th Summer Breeze concert in Hutch Courtyard, the Major Activities Board (MAB) announced on Wednesday morning.
Fourth-year and MAB president Marie Joh said that the board wanted to assemble a lineup that would appeal to the diverse music taste of the student body. Each of the groups will play for the same amount of time, and Crystal Castles will perform last.
“We did want to put together a lineup that would have something for everyone, and I think we succeeded,” Joh said in an email message. Joh added that MAB also wanted to have a “really dancey lineup.”
While MAB began sending out bids for bands in November, many of the Board’s first choices for headlining acts were either already booked or too expensive. Joh said that because MAB’s budget was directly proportional to the number of students in the College, the Board could not compete with larger universities with larger budgets throwing their own spring festivals.
MAB attempted to solicit student input for artists, but the results of an online poll were too varied for the board to get a clear sense of what students wanted.
“Some students selected 10-15 artists at a time,” Joh said. “We definitely took student suggestions into account,” she added.
Despite being unable to book a big name headliner, MAB members said that they were happy with this year’s lineup.
“Crystal Castles and Walkmen are extremely popular on campus,” fourth-year and MAB talent buyer Megan Frestedt said.
Frestedt said that MAB worked on securing more local sponsors for this year’s concert, and had hoped to use Facebook and Youtube to expose students to the selected artists before the concert.
Crystal Castles, the two-person Canadian electronica band known for wild stage antics, produced the Maroon's number one indie album of 2008. The band’s recent self-titled album received an 8.5 out of 10 from Pitchfork magazine.
Hip-hop artist Wale has been on the national rap scene since 2006, and may be most known for his collaboration with Lady Gaga on his song “Chillin.” His most recent album, More About Nothing got mixed reviews from Pitchfork.
The Walkmen, a rock group, received positive reviews from the Maroon after their performance in Mandel Hall in 2004.
Milkman, the least known of the selected performers, is a mash-up DJ that Joh said is similar to GirlTalk.
