British pop sensation The Ting Tings and the California-based Rogue Wave are slated for the annual Homecoming concert Oct. 25. In past years, Homecoming concerts have featured such acts as Guster and The Wailers.
UCAB put in offers to 10 bands before The Ting Tings and Rogue Wave accepted. The offers only occurred after UCAB contacted 30 to 40 other bands about performing, including Girl Talk, Spoon, Old Crow Medicine Show, Michelle Branch and Death Cab for Cutie.
“We always have to be flexible, UCAB Music Committee Chair Sean O’Mealia ’09 said. “These are both two bands we wanted.”
The Ting Tings, an English alternative band comprised of Jules De Martino and Katie White, has been featured on television hits “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill” and during New York Fashion Week. The band also won Best UK Video at the MTV Video Music Awards this year.
“They are both supposed to be great live acts,” O’Mealia said. “The Ting Tings are really popular in England and ‘Shut Up and Let Me Go’ is in the Billboard Top 40 right now.”
The band’s upbeat style and sing-speak lyrics spread quickly in popularity across Europe and caught the attention of many advertisers, including Apple. This past year the song “Shut Up and Let Me Go” appeared in an iPod commercial.
The Oakland-based, indie-rock outfit Rogue Wave has had songs featured on such television shows as “Heroes,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Scrubs” and “Chuck.” It’s also gained fame by touring with the Decemberists, Jack Johnson, Guster and Death Cab For Cutie. Some may have even heard Rogue Wave on the “Napoleon Dynamite” soundtrack.
“Rogue Wave is a good, laidback pop band,” O’Mealia said. “Rogue Wave is really just what it is — a scientific phenomenon.”
UCAB tried to please as much of the student body as possible with their homecoming band decisions. The hiring of up-and-coming bands also attempts to dispel the idea that most bands UCAB invites for Homecoming are older or past their prime.
“What is most important to us is to make the student body happy, to please a majority of students,” O’Mealia said. “We are excited by The Ting Tings because they are huge in England and budding here. It is exciting to bring bands with a buzz and an upcoming to Homecoming.”
To keep up with current students’ varied music tastes, UCAB uses outlets like its Facebook forum and student input.
“We are constantly looking for feedback from students,” said O’Mealia. “We look at the reactions from last year and move towards another direction [if the feedback] is negative.”
The concert is free for students and $10 for the public.
“We are bringing two bigger bands this year,” O’Mealia said. “Last year the concerts were such a success. We are just hoping for another beautiful night.”
