With Spring Fling coming up, the whole campus is eagerly, or not so eagerly, anticipating the performances of The Walkmen, Wavves and Ghostface Killah/Raekwon. Here’s a quick rundown of the acts and some of their most popular songs so you can educate yourself quickly and impress your friends with your musical superiority this Thursday.
The Walkmen’s first album “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone” has a very unique sound, probably due to their use of mainly “vintage” instruments. The album has been well reviewed by critics and even garnered the band a comparison to U2. One of its songs, “We’ve Been Had,” was even featured in a commercial for Saturn Ion cars (sell outs lolz). Their sophomore album, “Bows + Arrows,” received even more praise. But it was their fourth album, “You & Me” that charted at #29 on Billboard’s Top Digital Albums. According to iTunes, their most popular song is “The Rat” from the album “Bows + Arrows,” but on Myspace, their song “Stranded” is by far the most played.
After two attention-grabbing albums, one public breakdown, and many many line-up changes, Wavves’s third album, 2010’s “King of the Beach,” continued the band’s trend of well-reviewed work and was named 24th-best album of the year by Spin and 50th-best album of the year by Pitchfork. To get an idea of their sound, I’d recommend the tracks “King of the Beach” and “Post Acid.”
Finally, headliners Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, both former members of the Wu-Tang Klan, are fast-paced, emotional rap acts. Raekwon is the slightly more decorated of the two, having been named the Best Emcee of 2009 by major hip hop site HipHopDx. Still, Ghostface was given an honorable mention on MTV’s list of The Greatest MC’s of All Time. Both rappers have been consistently lauded by critics. If you want to get a flavor of these acts before Thursday’s show, “The Champ” and “Back Like That” are two of Ghostface’s most popular songs from his album “Fishscale.” Additionally, the two of them have collaborated, most notably on “Rock n’ Roll” and “Molasses,” tracks from Raekwon’s 2011 album “Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang.”
With a line-up like this, it certainly seems like Spring Fling is worth braving the rain to come out to the hill. And if it’s bad, at least now you can complain it intelligently.
Leave a Reply