Music

1. Dosage Was a Surprise, And a Pleasant One, Too When the DP published a cover story on SPEC’s inability to peg down a fourth artist for Spring Fling, it was hard not to feel a bit disappointed.  Many, including your friendly music editors, were searching for a performer with more artistic pedigree.  Probably a larger contingent was hoping for a headliner with a bigger headlining name.  Dosage—the Philadelphia rapper of little fame who has toured with Lupe Fiasco in the past—filled neither of these needs.  But what he did do is arguably more important: he added a degree of serendipity and randomness to the most regimented brand of live music. Stepping on stage before Ratatat (and before most concertgoers had even arrived) Dosage’s set was a high-energy affair, masking his somewhat mediocre lyricism with a basic knack for performance.  Most students had no idea who this rapper was (trust us, we asked around), but this shouldn’t matter.  Everyone knows what to expect at a Spring Fling concert: Two or three artists will play, at least two will give a ra-ra shout-out to Penn, at least one will get the name of the school wrong (we’re looking at you, Snoop Dogg), at least a dozen kids will get carted off in ambulances and at least everyone will make a drunken, stoned mess of themselves.  What Dosage brought was something different—an unannounced opener, he took the audience off-guard.  And at a concert as predictable as Spring Fling, it’s probably the coolest thing he could have done. 2.
April 18, 2011 at 3:53 pm

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April 18, 2011 at 8:40 am

There are 23 hours worth of performances in the Quad on Friday and Saturday.
April 14, 2011 at 5:30 am

Fling performance schedule.
April 14, 2011 at 3:17 am

Tracks to prepare for the concert.
April 14, 2011 at 3:13 am

Animal Collective main man keeps things different.
April 14, 2011 at 2:28 am

My Morning Jacket is one of the few major label rock bands that still makes albums.
April 14, 2011 at 2:26 am

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April 11, 2011 at 10:34 am

Best Introduction to a Feature in the Music Section In the spirit of this issue, we've compiled a list of the memorable music happenings so far this year, from Penn to the the wider world.  Read on for our picks: Best Acoustic Song So Far This Year “Pictures” by Benjamin Francis Leftwich “Pictures” has it all — soothing, multi–tracked vocals, a dreamlike aesthetic and calming guitar work.
April 7, 2011 at 3:26 am

It can be heard blasting at frat parties, blaring at bars and pumping from dorm room windows.
April 7, 2011 at 3:23 am

To tell the truth, this is the last time.
April 6, 2011 at 12:24 pm

April 4, 2011 at 8:49 am

The release of Submarine, a teen angst dramedy, and its soundtrack (written by the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner) got us thinking about how soundtracks can interact with movies, and how some soundtracks can even stand alone, outlasting the films themselves.
March 31, 2011 at 3:00 am

Aside from the mild hysteria surrounding the Spring Fling artist announcement (and the inevitable disappointment), most Penn students remain unaware of a generally brilliant crop of indie and hip–hop shows put on by SPEC each year. The latest in this series comes to The ARCH tonight, courtesy of SPEC Jazz + Grooves and IMG.
March 31, 2011 at 2:00 am

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell wrote about a phenomenon that worried Coca–Cola execs: Coke was losing to Pepsi in blind sip tests.
March 31, 2011 at 1:30 am

In an era when far more people download music than buy physical albums, when tracks are leaked via the internet instead of being played for the first time on the radio, one has to ask: has the musical event become extinct?
March 31, 2011 at 1:00 am

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March 28, 2011 at 9:12 am

Pop diva returns to femme form.
March 24, 2011 at 3:15 am

2011 is shaping up to be a big year for the world of digital music. Apple recently confirmed rumors of a new subscription service in the works for iTunes, while Google announced plans to release its own hybrid digital download store/subscription–based music locker.
March 24, 2011 at 3:13 am

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March 21, 2011 at 1:49 pm