Updated 3:05 a.m. March 20, 2019.
Brown Concert Agency’s annual release party buzzed with energy as students anxiously awaited the names of the artists slated to perform in Spring Weekend 2019. Released at midnight March 20, this year’s lineup will feature seven contemporary artists known for subverting the conventions of their respective genres.
Friday’s lead act will be Aminé, a Portland-native rapper and singer-songwriter who has been churning out feel-good hits since his debut single “Caroline,” which soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016.
Canadian singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar will headline Saturday’s set list. His raw, soul-infused R&B hits like “Get You” and “Who Hurt You?” have prompted close reads from many a Pitchfork music critic.
This year, Brown Concert Agency aimed to land “a good range of the talented musicians that are pushing the boundaries right now,” said Andy Rickert ’21, a member of BCA.
“We think these are acts that Brown students will really like. Some Brown students might not even know (all the artists,) so it’s exciting to expose them to new things,” Rickert added.
The lineup will also highlight up-and-coming artists like Stefflon Don — the British rapper, singer and songwriter most known for her 2017 single “Hurtin’ Me” — and Kari Faux, the Arkansas-raised rapper and record producer. Faux’s jazzy 2014 debut single “No Small Talk” generated buzz when its Childish Gambino remix landed on the soundtrack of HBO’s hit show “Insecure.” Both artists have been commended for the swanky, confrontational anthems that mark their most recent EPs, with Don releasing “Secure” in August 2018, and Faux releasing “CRY 4 HELP” in March 2019.
The crowd soared when BCA’s expertly-edited release video revealed that the lineup would also feature Korean-American electronic music artist Yaeji, whose genre-bending raps and synth-infused house beats — think “raingurl” — have redefined the genre’s stylistic limitations. Excitement for Yaeji was only rivaled by BCA’s inclusion of Mitski, the Japanese-American indie-rocker whose lyric poetry and pop-inspired beats have reverberated in the teenage inner-ear since the release of her uplifting August album, “Be The Cowboy,” which was one of Pitchfork’s 50 Best Albums of the Year in 2018.
“In the last 10 years, (BCA) has really been trying to get as many artists of color and women artists as possible — people who haven’t really been represented in the industry,” said Alex Westfall‘20, a member of BCA. She added that they were striving to get people who are “on the rise” or “super well respected” or “trying to subvert the genres they are a part of.”
Local Providence Ensemble What Cheer? Brigade will round out this year’s lineup. Spring Weekend is scheduled for April 26 and 27.
