Things are starting to get interesting…
The latest on the rock festival known as Kanrocksas: the fest just rocked one outta the park with the acquisition of the New York-based indie band Fun.
The Nate Ruess lead alt rock, power pop trio is the latest addition to a previously announced lineup that includes Kendrick Lamar, the Avett Brothers and hottest DJ on the planet Tiesto.
How big a score is Fun? Huge.The band has released two albums since its 2009 debut. The latest, Some Nights, came out last year and featured the hit single “We Are Young.”
Critical accolades? Fun’s got em.
Last month Fun was nominated for six Grammy Awards; Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “We Are Young”, Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for “Some Nights”.
In addition to fun, sources say Kanrocksas may also have snagged psycadelic rockers MGMT. Conveniently the band is expected to release its third album in June.
All of which is a lot to love and a pretty good indicator that Kanrocksas is dead serious about putting on a kickass fest come June 28 and 29 at the Kansas Speedway.
Incidentally, Kanrocksas Early Bird discount ticket sales ends tomorrow for attendees looking to save 50 bucks.
Couple things you’re getting very wrong here:
1) being nominated for a Grammy is hardly “critical acclaim.” Everyone knows that those nominations are basically a reflection of billboard charts, with a touch of people’s choice sentiment thrown in. Their latest effort earned a solid D- among actual critics and only a C- from much more forgiving fans.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/some-nights/fun
While fun. might be a big name, they’re hardly a great band, or even a good one.
2) MGMT is about the furthest thing possible from “psychedelic rockers” around (for that, see the amazing Australian band Tame Impala and their universally acclaimed 2012 album “Lonerism.”) If you listened to MGMT’s music at all, you’d know they’re an electro pop outfit (or if “healing and easy listening,” if you ask the band to describe themselves) through and through. They’re the much better band than fun. and should be grabbing the headline here.
Lazy, out-of-touch music journalism here. You’re better than that.
Well, I like the last part of your comment anyway, the part about me being better than that…
But I suspect you’re better than what you wrote as well. First of all, music opinion is just that, opinion. There are very few absolutes when it comes to taste and I think you probably know that.
MGMT was headliner big four years ago but its stock has fallen, promoters say. We’ll see how that new album does when it comes out, hopefully in time to help Kanrocksas.
A Grammy nomination – let alone six of them – does not constitute critical acclaim? What planet are you from, Planet Snob?
In addition, Rolling Stone gave Fun’s newest album 41/2 out of 5 stars. Absolutepunk.net gave it a 9 out of 10 rating.
And 228 listeners on Amazon gave Fun 5 out of 5 stars, while only 10 rated it 1 out of 10 stars.
As for MGMT being psychedelic, I suggest you check the opening sentence on the band’s Wikipedia page.
Thanks, Hearne. This post has cemented the decision that I will definitely not be purchasing tickets for this year’s fest. Maybe I’ll go as a freeloader to merely drink and soak up the ambiance if someone can kindly provide a ticket. But with this line-up, an absolute “no way” that I will use my hard-earned money for the lame line-up. These are all second-tiered acts; meaning they are in need of at least one or two superstar headliners. I had a feeling they were going for more of a quasi Red, White, and Boom line-up, and sure enough they did. fun. (They’re so cool with their lower-case name plus a period at the end of it. *eye roll*) is this generation’s Frankie Goes to Hollywood. “We Are Young” is to “Relax” as “Some Nights” is to “Two Tribes”.
As for MGMT, yeah, they’re decent….on record. Should we even invest our money into “electro pop” acts when most of their performance is pre-loaded on a computer?
BC must not have listened to the second MGMT album… They haven’t been “electro-pop” in a while.
Fun. does suck though. And Grammy noms hardly matter anymore.
Bless this comment. Congratulations was one of the best albums to come out of 2010.
Is there a certainty in the MGMT claim? I just don’t want to get my hopes up..
Yes, MGMT is official as is fun. Hopsin is also official in that it is on his Facebook page tour date tab so his management puts him at Kanrocksas on June 28th.