Photo courtesy of HoodieAllen.com and Youtube.com
Matt & Kim was announced Wednesday as the 2014 Spring Concert headliner along with opener Hoodie Allen, coming to Fisher Field on May 10 this year–the day after classes end.
The announcement was made by the Lafayette Activities Forum, the planners of the event. The announcement, sent over social media, required students to come to Farinon for the earliest knowledge of who would be performing.
The indie rock duo was formed when Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino met at the Pratt Institute in New York. Neither knew anything about the respective instruments they now play, nor had interest in forming a band. But soon enough, the two released a first album Matt & Kim in October of 2006 and the band quickly gained popularity within the indie world.
With a total of four albums under their belt, Matt & Kim, now reputed to be an esteemed performance band, was LAF’s first choice for the 2014 Spring Concert. Word spread like wild fire that this wildly popular band was coming to Lafayette following last year’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis combination.
The opener for Matt & Kim, Hoodie Allen, is also a favorite artist among students. An independent
hip-hop artist, signer, and rapper, Hoodie Allen
(real name: Steven Markowitz) was raised in New York City
and attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
While working at Google, Markowitz would write songs and book gigs in his free time. As opportunies grew, he left Google and began working on his dream full time in other rap groups before going solo.
LAF’s Director of Off-Campus Trips Connor Heinlein ‘15, discussed the process in which acts are chosen for the spring concert:
“Members of LAF and General Body of LAF get together and we start brainstorming names,” Heinlein said. LAF General Body meetings are open to the public making the brainstorming and selection process holistic and inclusive. “We look at relative sites where they list performers and how much they cost and they we judge who is within our range.”
LAF was interested in bands that they felt the student body would appreciate. The band has “rave reviews for live performances,” Heinlein said.