67 Comments
Late-breaking news for music fans: Talib Kweli will be part of this year’s Bacchanal. A tipster noted earlier today that his website listed a show at Columbia on April 18th, and Bacchanal board members confirmed this evening that the MC will be one of the artists. No word was forthcoming, though, on who the other artist or artists might be.
UPDATE (1:20 AM): Spectacle reports that the other half of the bill is Morningside’s own Vampire Weekend. However, Bacchanal organizers refused to confirm the story, telling Bwog that “Spec posted without receiving confirmation from the Bacchanal Concert Committee, which could pose problems for security and clauses in the contract.”
UPDATE (1:35 AM): According to a Bacchanal representative, the Vampire Weekend announcement was only supposed to occur two weeks prior to the event, as there are security concerns about non-students flooding the campus. Bacchanal is, of course, contractually obligated to respect that two-week maximum, which is why Bacchanal refused to confirm to the Spectator.
UPDATE (12:10 PM): The post has been taken down, but the headline still shows up on Spec‘s homepage.
(N.B.: Bwog’s received permission from Bacchanal to report this information.)
– JCD, KER & JNW
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67 Comments
@ABC I’m just happy last year’s ABC reorganized Concerts and gave Bacchanal lots of money, making this possible in the first place. Also, big props to this year’s Baccanal board.
@well I’m happy that you’re happy, since only a current or former ABC person could know that. Yay for forced mergers and patting yourselves on the back.
@actually ABC didn’t give CU Concerts more money than last year. CCSC picked up the extra cash to bring Talib here.
@don't get too excited. i hear the venue is the barnard gym.
@chromeo, huh? i hear they’re popular with the college crowd.
@actually... if you guys didn’t already know, chromeo is performing. but keep it on the dl.
@wow Spectacle staff are so incompetent!
@huwhuh again Also—why did Bacchanal go out and confirm all of this afterwards? Why not pass off Spec’s post as unsubstantiated rumor? Seems to me like they dug their own contractual grave.
@anyone who didnt assume vampire weekend was going to come is an idiot.
@huwhuh? I can’t believe what I’m reading. Sitting on information of public interest is the exact OPPOSITE of a journalist’s job. It’s up to the affected parties to provide a compelling reason not to publish, and the ‘state secrets’ swill from Bacchanal organizers doesn’t cut it.
Either fans will flood the campus or they won’t, but just delaying the announcement of the event ≠a security plan. I’m sure a good chunk of VW’s fan base lives in the tri-state area, and waiting until two weeks beforehand wasn’t going to stop them from marching down. If they’re so concerned about outsiders, Public Safety should restrict access to the quad to ID holders (or something along those lines).
Also, ‘pose problems for clauses in the contract’? WTF? What band signs a contract contingent on third parties not speculating about the upcoming show? Is Vampire Weekend allergic to crowds now? And wouldn’t the Bacchanal organizer who spoke to Bwog be violating that contract, too? That reads much more like a restriction imposed by the University on the organizers — I would ask to see the contract in question before I believed it. (NB: even if this is, in fact, a clause in the contract, the breach was the fault of the tipster, not Spec.)
The free flow information is exactly what papers and blogs thrive on — something Bwog typically abides by. Weird to see them snidely championing the organizers’ cause here.
@#42 again I agree. The implication that the media is at fault here lends itself to rather Orwellian consequences. Also, the person at fault is clearly the Bacchanal organizer, for mishandling their “secret”.
This whole comment-conflagration is just maddening because our bringing vampire weekend here is not an achievement to be particularly proud of.
Talib Kweli, on the other hand, is awesome and I give props to Bacchanal for snagging him.
@.... “What band signs a contract contingent on third parties not speculating about the upcoming show?”
Honestly, Vampire Weekend. Bitch and moan, but Bwog did the right thing here.
@huwhuh again I’ll believe it when Vampire Weekend cancels. Which won’t happen.
@STUDY ABROAD OF COURSE, THE ONLY WORTHWHILE COLUMBIA CONCERT THAT HAS OCCURRED SINCE I’VE BEEN THERE HAPPENS WHILE I’M ABROAD.
my senior year concert better be awesome, also to make up for the SHIT lottery number columbia has given me three years in a row. thanks, columbia. I love you too.
@really? I seriously can’t fucking stand how much people bitched and continue to bitch about last year’s concert. The National opened for Arcade Fire and REM for fuck’s sake. They’re headlining Pitchfork this year. Grizzly Bear just completed a brilliant tour with Radiohead and are also headlining Pitchfork. Seriously. Both these bands are fantastic and the fact that we got them both here at once before they really exploded was a damn-near miracle.
I mean, Grizzly is JONNY GREENWOOD’s FAVORITE BAND. WTF.
@hey I’m the tipster!
@newbie is the concert free?
is it open to non-columbia friends?
@alumn what’s the “security” issue? other than being subjected to lousy music, seems to be a good opportunity to flood the campus with prospective 15 year olds (photo op, anyone?), reiterating that the band graduated columbia (woah, rock stars from the ivy?), and an increase in applications (new reason to attend columbia).
don’t understand the whole security concern. graduation accommodates tens of thousands. summerstage, while filled up, is a pretty small site. i doubt this is really going to be an issue. but if columbia wants to continue making a big deal out of nothing, it can go right on ahead. that much hasn’t changed since i left.
@bacchanal http://sites.google.com/site/cubacchanal/
@#42 again Or are their songs ironic? If so please confirm so that I can understand them now.
@i don't get it why do people love vampire weekend? they’re terrible, their lyrics are contrived, their songs are generic and boring, and they don’t seem to have any particularly special technique. I saw them play on Low a few years ago and thought it was a joke…
@Agreed Their approach to lyrics are very contrived and overwrought. Painfully so. I love how easily impressed the intellectual posers at Bitchfork Media trip all over themselves when describing their lyrics. I have read so many reviews by their ilk waxing masturbatory over how they rhymed “Luis Vuitton” with “reggaeton”…holy shit someone rhymed words with more than two syllables. I mean godspeed to Ezra and Co., but they have been excessively over-hyped and shoved down everyone’s throats. Generally I find that its the younger set that loves them such as highschool girls and fresh/soph girls still easily taken aback by anything that allows them to slough off the mantle of Jonas Bros. / Fallout Boy that they wore for so many years.
@err... newb question alert!
what is bacchanal? (besides a wine festival)
@wOwOwOWOW i
@SAD While I respect that Bacchanal can’t contractually confirm this, I think all the Spec hate is a little superfluous. Two weeks notice isn’t going to change the security needs of this event – only announcing the day OF would prevent such a thing. So, maybe they’ll only allow CUID holders through the gates – so what? They’ve done that before. It’s also pretty historically obvious that Bwog would’ve posted the rumor if they had heard about it, too. Everyone needs to chill out.
@thank you spec writer but bwog did know about it. they chose not to post. thank you bwog.
@SAD I’m not a Spec writer, promise!
If that’s true, then I’m pretty surprised since Bwog is wont to post up rumors. But regardless, I don’t think it’s the journalist’s job to always abide by the stipulations of other organizations in “holding” news. That’s be rather dangerous, in fact. Anyway, this is a spring music concert, not game-chancing news relating to the war or something. Security plans are already in place, I’m sure, so I just don’t think it’s a big deal.
(I doubt that anyone at Spec really thought of it in this way, of course.)
@You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Bwog has been sitting on the rumor for over a month.
@rumors Vampire Weekend playing here is kind of an obvious rumor. That said, I’m not too thrilled. These guys are no Talib. I hope they open for him.
@I care about Vampire Weekend coming. Fuck Spectator if they end up blowing it.
@DHI If they end canceling, I really don’t mind Vampire Weekend not coming as I am much more excited about Talib Kweli and Vampire Weekend would make our shit really crowded.
@Way to be total d-bags, spec. No reason to report that except to stroke your huge ego. Kind of like how you print WAY too many copies that sit unread every day…wasting god knows how many trees…so you can report some bullshit level of circulation.
@bummer i hate to be a bummer, but, is anyone else a bit disappointed by this choice?
i mean talib was great, but he never really topped reflection eternal, and by now he’s pretty much played out. beautiful struggle was already borderline, half a decade ago, and it’s been sort of downhill from there.
@Honestly This is another reason why spectator continues to lose out on news scoops and why student groups are hesitant to work with them
@Clarification It’s usually not Spectacle that works with student groups. At Spec, sections operate chiefly independently.
@Spectator NEEDS TO LEARN A LITTLE RESPECT FOR PRIVACY
@this might actually make up for lack of Obama at graduation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Talib kweli/Vampire Weekend madness
@fuck you, Spectator. Now we won’t get our Vampire Weekend!
@Security makes sense Crap. How did security know that it requires 15 days, not 14, for Vampire Weekend fans to flood a campus? Good thing Spec scooped them or the insufficient two week notice would have really foiled the fans’ plans.
@noooooooo does this mean its likely vampire weekend wont come?
@spectator knew about the 2 week thing. they’re just complete douchebags and wanted to have the scoop
@chris baio xl, our american label, is planning a special show the night before (4/17) at adp. you’ll have to win tickets on wbar (wbar.org), where i used to be college rock director. [more details on this will be forthcoming].
@talib kweli can’t tell you how excited i am to share the stage with vampire weekend.
rock the boat shoes!
@chris baio hey bwog, check it —
http://spectacle.specblogs.com/index.php/2009/03/24/bacchanal-buzz-volume-ii-vampire-weekend-and-talib-kweli/
@ezra koenig vampire weekend is the other half of the bill.
@OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING THANK YOU GOD 50k STILL BUYS SOMETHING IN THIS PLACE
@2150 the national is my favorite band but i’m excited about talib kweli too.
@1232103912 Yeah, def bring Mos Def.
@the mighty mos def bring the other 1/2 of black star and it’ll be the cat’s ass.
@talib kweli... …is the shit. go to youtube and look up the song “Expansion Outro.” Amazing.
@umm this is awesome!! good job bacchanal
@you mean talib lyrics stick to your rib?
4/18 is the new 4/20.
@consequently crank 2 high voltage comes out on the 18th. 4/18 truly is the new 4/20
@I mean That’s my favorite cd that I play in my crib
@yayyyyy yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!! Bacchus!!!
@nooooooooooooo I was hoping for Katy Perry!
@Lawstudentfromabroad I am sure you’ll love this: Kweli’s brother is an Associate Professor at the Law School: Jamal Greene. Check it out!
@YESSS Kweli’s been at CU before; it was about 4 years ago…
But hey, glad to have a REAL concert for once!!!
@wooooooowwwwww i doesnt matter who else is there!
kweliiiiiiiii!!
@wow this is the only good concert columbia has ever had
@what? The National >> Talib Kweli
@thank you THANK YOU
@what clipse > kweli >>>> the national
@wow... you hipster piece of crap. you’re actually comparing some indie “stuff white people like” garbage to talib kweli, one of the top 5 rappers in today’s game? only at columbia…
@yep http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/17/69-mos-def/
@The Dink Awesomeness.
@holy shit somebody did something right for once