The Made in America music festival is making its second annual appearance this Labor Day weekend. The lineup was just announced today, and we have one word for you: BEYONCÉ. So there you go, kids. If you’re still bitter about Girl Talk by August, you can bow down to the mother of all Fling headliners we never had.

Also, in case you haven’t noticed the academic calendar, school starts a week earlier this year (booooo). That means once you’re done reuniting with the besties and intimidating the freshmen, you can do NSO all over again the next weekend! Thanks, Jay-Z.

Some Penn students are super stoked that Tyga found time out of his busy schedule of slappin’ hoes and gettin’ faded to make our sweaty frat basement dreams a reality. From the ensuing Facebook group, flyer campaign, and multiple editorials, it’s no secret that others aren’t so stoked.

If you were planning on hitting up the Quad moonbounce and then actually bouncing for another school’s spring concert, don’t hit up your friends at Harvard. Tyga is set to headline their annual Yardfest AKA fake fling AKA nice try but still lame. In light of his violent and objectifying lyrics, the Crimsons are crimson (too easy) with rage and have started their own protests.

The reactions at Harvard are just as mixed. “As if these kids aren’t the same ones drinking to ‘Faded’ every weekend,” one comment notes. No comment?

We’ve got a non-denominational Easter treat for all of you…7pm in front of Fiji. #springfling2013

— SPEC (@UPennSPEC) March 31, 2013

Happy Easter, merry Passover, and a holy Game of Thrones return to you! The egg hunt is (almost) over, kids. Stick around for the big announcement tonight at 7PM, as tweeted by the sacred SPEC secret-keepers themselves.

Image c/o Britt Miller at http://www.brittmillerart.com/

Now that it’s Spring (statistically speaking,) we must all lift the iron curtain of hibernation and leave our cozy Rosengarten carrels for the light of a SEPTA stop. Go off campus, baby!

Friday:  Head over to World Café Live (so close!) to see Freshly Ground, an Afrobeat funk band that’ll make you want to get up off of that thang. Tickets max out at $18, so the beat won’t break ya bank.

To Saturday and Sunday!

Thanks to the detective work of eager and slightly stalkerish Penn students, another (almost) fling artist has been uncovered. Gigamesh, aka Matthew Thomas Masurka, a producer/DJ best known for remixing “Pumped up Kicks” and producing “Cooler than Me”, released an April 13th tour date for the University of Pennsylvania. Looks like we’ll be raging Quadside with the Gig-man. Find out more about Gigamesh here.

Welcome to UTB’s first Filly Friday post, a feature designed to get you out on the town this weekend! Obviously there’s lots of great stuff happing on campus, as usual, but sometimes you need to get away.

Tonight:

Throat Singing at the Rotunda: The Rotunda isn’t technically OFF off campus, but it’s a real live West Philly institution, and this event will take you pretty far outside the Penn comfort-bubble. Throat singing, kind of like human-bagpiping, is weird and wonderful. This event is one of the Rotunda’s most popular each year, and it’s pay-what-you-wish!

Saturday:

Paleopalooza: Do you love dinosaurs so much that you want to marry them, and sometimes wish that you were covered in scales and had a walnut-brain so that you could understand what they WENT through? Then you’ll love this Academy of Natural Sciences event, which includes robotic trilobite races and a bunch of lectures from famous Paleontologists. Miss Frizzle would be proud.

Northern Liberties’ Winter Music Festival : Yeah yeah, hipster scum, etc. But  How often can you say that you actually get to see real Philly-based live music? We’re not going to pretend we know who Brick + Mortar are, or how Ruby The Hatchet got their name, but with World Cafe-based radio station WXPN as a sponsor it’s guaranteed to be worthwhile. Protip: This event is 21+.

Sunday, after the jump!

Although classes are over, International Relations professor Frank Plantan used the major’s listserv today to teach his students one final lesson about the most powerful language that binds all people across nations and cultures: math music. But also, can someone please come play at his annual holiday party this weekend? The Penn Musicians Against Homelessness unfortunately bailed again.

Dear IR major,

I know you are studying and taking exams and looking forward to getting home for the holidays but if there is anyone free this Saturday night, Dec. 15th who would like to make a little money playing Christmas music and some classical on the piano for my annual holiday party in my home I would like to hear from you ASAP.    Because of a conflict that emerged we’ve lost our musicians. Read the rest of this entry »

…one of these people?!  This picture surfaced yesterday, so it’s official: the Spring Fling performers could be on this Huntsman chalkboard!  Kendrick Lamar is circled, Robyn is boxed, and even Mozart is on the list.  What does it all mean?  Zoom endlessly on the pictures and let the speculations continue. Only 144 days to go until we can be sure!

One more picture to scrutinize after the jump…

Are you a drummer? Do you like alcohol? Are you walking your dog right now? Did you vote today?* If so, look no further than these flyers posted all over Baltimore — that is, if you’re under 40 (or at least look like it). Preston Hull has channeled its inner J-14 Magazine and published this complex flowchart for anyone interested in joining their band. It may not help you find out if that hottie from Econ is into you (looking at you, kid in front row with striking blue eyes and kippah), but at least you’ll see if you have what it takes to ROCK.

*not actually listed as a requirement in the flowchart but like, duh

2012 Flingers Passion Pit seemed to enjoy playing for our tweaking, enthusiastic masses in April. But we had no idea how much of an impact we had on them until this week, when they released the video for their new single “Take a Walk.” We cant’t deny the fact that they like us, right now– THEY LIKE US!

The whole video is shot in and around Philly, from the perspective of a bouncing rubber ball.  Starting out in some generic-looking burbs and making its way into our fair city, the ball is probably supposed to represent freedom, or maybe the circle of life.  At around 2:00 we’re in Fairmount Park, and the first recognizable Philly skyline shot comes at around 2:39. From there the ball journeys past some familiar-looking rowhouses and  zooms around Center City a bit.

What do you think of the new video? Did it make you want to take a walk? Did it make you a little nauseous, but in a totally awesome way? Let us know in the comments!