Yeasayer, an experimental indie rock band, will open Friday’s Spring Weekend concert, Brown Concert Agency announced on its blog Tuesday.
Though BCA released the rest of the lineup Monday night, it withheld the name of the final performer until Tuesday due to contract negotiations. “We had one little thing to tweak with the contract to confirm them,” said Danny Sobor ’15, publicity manager for BCA. “The timing didn’t work out perfectly but we got the contract ironed out and they are totally down, booked to play.”
Yeasayer has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the experimental arena in recent years. In 2008, the band toured with MGMT as well as Beck, who won multiple Grammy Awards this year. After dropping their second album, they appeared in major music festivals, including Coachella.
The band also made appearances on major entertainment shows including Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Their music has been featured in multiple television and film productions, such as “90210,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “The Good Wife” and the 2012 hit film“Pitch Perfect.”
Yeasayer is part of a growing group of contemporary musicians who blur the lines between music genres.
Groups like Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend have found their niche in blending electronic components with rock riffs, making their music appropriate for jam sessions as well as mellow hangouts.
Established as an experimental rock band in 2006, Yeasayer’s current members are Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, Anand Wilder and Cale Parks.
In its 2007 debut album, “All Hour Cymbals,” which Pitchfork recognized in its Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list, Yeasayer colors the music with religious overtones. With intermittent appearances of instruments such as the sitar and oud, coupled with continuous chanting, spontaneous humming and the singer’s vocal hysteria, the band creates its own eccentric version of a contemporary rock choir.
Yeasayer’s second album, 2010’s “Odd Blood,” inherits the kind of experimental spirit that often creates classics. Through outlandish synthetics, like those heard in video games and pop melodies, “Odd Blood” spawns psychedelic indulgence, nourishing their music ideology.
Yeasayer is unstoppable in advancing experimental ambitions. Its subsequent album, “Fragrant World,” rediscovered an R&B style, while its live album, “Good Evening, Washington D.C.,” ventured back into abstract forms of experimental music.
It’s hard not to be mesmerized by the kaleidoscopic variations and unexpected seasoning of the band’s distinct elements.
“Yeasayer are a dancable band that combines electronic and pop and rock music,” Sobor said, adding that the band’s presence will create an “even more fun and a more enjoyable concert Friday night.”
