Sonic Youth to Play UPenn Spring Fling + Student Reactions

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doesn't every college have minor controversies like this no matter who they book for the big spring/fall concerts? and inevitably columnists and letters to the school paper jump into the fray, it's hilarious.

in my freshman year (2000), Outkast AND Ludacris played my school, but most of the concerts since then have been relatively minor college-friendly hip hop like The Roots and Cee-Lo and people always bitch.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 28 March 2005 20:20 (nineteen years ago) link

people always bitch about everything booking-wise, yeah. i'm still apologizing to people because jeru's guarantee was $15k and we couldn't afford it (much less limo from poughkeepsie, backstage rider requests, etc.).

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 28 March 2005 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Huh, maybe things have changed recently. I saw them once in 1995 and once in 2002 (I think, it was when they toured with Wilco), and both times the set seemed at least 3/4 new.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Monday, 28 March 2005 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link

my campus radio station is supposedly trying to get together a show featuring the Clipse and Ying Yang Twins. I will shit a gold statue in the shape of Steve Urkel if they pull it off.

― miccio (miccio), Monday, 28 March 2005 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link

reading some of those anti-sonic youth posts is just totally bewildering. this dude, for example:

sonic youth [...] was in the midst of the grunge era but not nearly as influential as the other bands. they are, and will be remembered as a band that fit in with the times but didn't break much ground on their own, much like soundgarden and bush (who i wouldn't mind seeing). nirvana is very influential but just because they are, and sonic youth came out before them and they are relatively the same genre, you can't say that sonic youth is as influential as nirvana. that's blasphemy! (it goes on like this.)

sure dude, bush is in the same ballpark (league, even!) as sonic youth. just keep telling yourself that.

(so is this show open to the public? if so, i'm there, but it doesn't look they'll let the unwashed masses in.)

― spasticheritage, Monday, 28 March 2005 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link

time for me to find facebook group

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link

http://upenn.thefacebook.com/group_profile.php?gid=3910
http://upenn.thefacebook.com/group_profile.php?gid=3940

Cool Kids Like Sonic Youth has 56 members. [ see all of them ]
Students against Sonic Youth has 148 members. [ see all of them ]

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Announcement
Joe Gross and myself are seeing a REAL Spring Fling Show, Widespread Panic at the Tower Theatre. We should boycott this spring fling show and try to get tickets to Panic if you can. Also RAQ is playing the night of this shitty show. The concert choice won't ruin fling but it was something I was looking forward to. Search for alternatives to this shitty mixture of Velvet Underground and Weezer (not to demean the names of those bands)

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link

http://upenn.thefacebook.com/story.php?gid=3910¢ral=&id=2914

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Zachary Moscow (UPenn) wrote at 12:31am March 21st, 2005:
bryan, you are one of the most pathetic people i've ever been in contact with. http://www.phantasytour.com/bisco/boards_thread.cgi?threadID=663727&page=1 on this link, bryan not only attacked joe gross, one of the administrators of this group, but he posted joe's personal information. members of his disco biscuits fan club proceeded to further harass other penn students like rachel aresty, who only said that she wanted to see snoop doog. what's wrong with snoop dogg? i don't know. you and your disco biscuit friends are douchebags, bryan graham. i am honestly shocked that someone would stoop that low over something as insignificant as a facebook group. grow up.

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm trying to get tickets to this through my girlfriend, who's in a grad program, but might be able to finagle two (two per penn card!)

i just want to walk around campus with my tape recorder and ask students to flip out about this. it would be an excuse for me to cross broad street!

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

it seems like most of the "upset people" are jam band wankers!

― BOATPEOPLEHATEFUCK (ex machina), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:18 (nineteen years ago) link

BPHF be OTM.

scene two, enter "bride of jam band wanker":

http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/423e7d535a3d3?in_archive=1

i'd like to point out that this was a cover story for the DP...

(i suppose it beats "Residence Hall Besieged with Plumbing Woes" for entertainment value.)

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:08 (nineteen years ago) link

mono mono, i thought that story about the plumbing was awesome! development needs to work that angle when hitting up people for money.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:25 (nineteen years ago) link

lots of jam band wankers are big sonic youth fans

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:37 (nineteen years ago) link

overheard in the other room, while a class was on break:

"sonic youth havent put anything out in years"
"im gonna go see interpol instead"

seriously, who the fuck is feeding america's youth this information?

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:10 (nineteen years ago) link

spin magazine.

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd almost agree except Spin did a big interview w/Thurston last year

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link

For a clueless audience, nothiing topped the 2000 tour with Pearl Jam. Talk about a mismatch. When Kim did her crazy "Kool Thing" dance, two long-haired Creedheads mumbled, "Who's that crazy bitch?"

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:29 (nineteen years ago) link

maybe spin forgot about the beck/thurston/tom surgal cassette on freedom from: "kill any/all spin personnel." xpost to matos.

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I remember a friend told me in 1995 that a friend of his had gone to Lollapalooza and saw "some stupid band with this chick in it." guess who?

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Hole?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Avril!?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link

OK, who wants a ticket to this thing? They go onsale 4/4. Let me know.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:03 (nineteen years ago) link

haha, should've wrote "at the end he saw . . . "

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Sinead?!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Nico!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:10 (nineteen years ago) link

are tix only being sold to students and/or locally, maria? if so, then yeah, I might make a request w/ you by 4/4, if I decide to go.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Sonic Youth fail to rock. Ergo kids who want to rock will hate on Sonic Youth. Why is this funny or surprising?

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:12 (nineteen years ago) link

when is it?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

sometimes kids who like to rock also want to skronk

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

My freshman year, we had a double-bill of Figures On A Beach and De La Soul. My senior year, we had G-Love and Special Sauce.

Guess which one was better?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:17 (nineteen years ago) link

being from Minneapolis, I feel your pain, Dan. (btw I heard "Cold Beverage" for the first time in ages the other day at a Seattle coffeeshop. yep, still suxorz.)

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I really hope Chan Marshall treats the crowd to one of her infuriating, halting, awful cioncerts. That'll go over well. Imagine the outrage!

― shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:32 (nineteen years ago) link

Hmm. Mizzou had Mission of Burma last year, but I don't remember the student body complaining. (Though I bet they did in the school paper. "Who the hell are they? Isn't it Myanmar now?")

College spring shows are so strange. One year at Rutgers, we got Allan Holdsworth opening for the Ramones. But we also got REM's Preconstruction tour my freshman year, and it was all good - even the jocks didn't complain.

― mike a, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Cat Power should have a nicely polarizing effect on the student body. One group of students won't shut up until well after finals about "that crazy bitch who wouldn't get off the stage;" the other group will feel smugly superior to the group #1, irrespective of whether they actually enjoyed the set.

― mike a, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link

anyone remember lollapalooza '04? why the surprise?

― irrigation can save your people (irrigation can save your peopl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:45 (nineteen years ago) link

tickets can only be purchased with a valid penncard. this year they're not limiting the amount of tickets one can buy.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:47 (nineteen years ago) link

no limit! ooo hot diggity! we can make bank scalping...oh, wait a minute...

NOW don't you almost wish it were snoop dog?! (heehee)

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 21:59 (nineteen years ago) link

oh...and if anyone really wants to go but isn't a Penn student, I'd like to remind them that Miss Philadelphia also carries a Penn card.

sounds like she may need a date considering:

"I don't have time to go out on Wednesday night and Thursday night like many Penn students," she said.

― mono.mono (mono.mono), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link

hey maria: i think the website said that it's two per penncard - can you forward the url to me?

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 22:06 (nineteen years ago) link

I always chuckle when I think of Yo La Tengo with Chico DeBarge at one of these college shows. Columbia did an outdoor show with Outkast on the Stankonia tour a few summers back I snuck into, wow that was insane (my school got the Hooters).

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 03:50 (nineteen years ago) link

They should've booked Merzbow.

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 03:52 (nineteen years ago) link

This band fucking blows. They're a bunch of washed up losers. If SPEC was going to hire these clowns why didn't they just go and get the cast of the surreal life...they're just as washed up and just as bad. If they really wanted to get a good non hip-hop band what's wrong with Jimmy Eat World, Saves the Day, The Format, & Taking Back Sunday????

Personally you couldn't pay me to watch Sonic Youth. I'll definitely be going to the Jimmy Eat World/Taking Back Sunday/The Format show on 4/15 at the Tweeter Center in Camden.

fuck SPEC
Occupation: student
Location: penn

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 03:57 (nineteen years ago) link

SPEC FAILED MISERABLY. To correct that alum, sonic youth (kind of funny that a bunch of old losers still call themselves "youth") was in the midst of the grunge era but not nearly as influential as the other bands. they are, and will be remembered as a band that fit in with the times but didn't break much ground on their own, much like soundgarden and bush (who i wouldn't mind seeing). nirvana is very influential but just because they are, and sonic youth came out before them and they are relatively the same genre, you can't say that sonic youth is as influential as nirvana. that's blasphemy! also, you can't call sonic youth a real underground band. underground usually means that a band never was mainstream and doesn't strive to be. sonic youth on the other hand tried to market themselves as mainstream and failed, so their characterization as "underground" means "can't sell tickets because they are a bunch of losers". I'm not pissed because I haven't heard of the bands like a lot of people. I'm pissed because I have heard of the bands and they suck. Quite frankly, i'm very jealous that other schools opted for bands that people know about. Instead, our co-director, the "honorable" Tom Kurland even says "I don't care if people haven't heard of the bands" which translates to "I don't care if people want to come and have a good time."
Way to do your job asshole.

Andy
Occupation: Musician

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 04:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Fuck Tom Kurland. He is a giant piece of shit. I too will be at the Jimmy Eat world concert. What a major disappointment my senior year. The only semi-decent fling was freshman year when we had luckyboys confusion and pete yorn. SPEC continually disappoints each year.

pissed off
Occupation: student
Location: philadelphia

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 04:05 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm going. anyone else here FAP beforehand/afterword to discuss our favorite moments?

this may prove amazing.

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 15:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm going! thanks to Maria for securing me a ticket. I'd be up for a FAP.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link

best line from the comments:

You don't deserve anything

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

should I make a sign to bring or scrawl a pro- (or anti-)SY message on my shirt?

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 18:00 (nineteen years ago) link

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