The list is out- or rather, hanging from trees on campus: Floralia 2012 will be featuring New Boyz, Araabmuzik, Bearstronaut, Wicked Peach, Take Care, Shake the Baron, and Brotherhood of Thieves. At first glance, I was befuddled by this list and knew it was time to do some research.
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The Brotherhood of Thieves is a rock band with four members, formed at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School in 2006. The members studied jazz music at the Jackie McLean Institute and are stopping at Conn as part of their east coast tour.  Shake the Baron is a well known band that has performed at Conn several times throughout the school year, including parents weekend. The band was formed at Conn in 2007 and has recently landed a record deal with  NYC-based Super Duper Records. Engineer Justin Gerrish who has mixed songs for Vampire Weekend and Weezer mixed their new album.Â
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Another Conn connection, Take Care is a group comprised of brothers Kyle and Dan (DJ) Joseph. Kyle is a senior at Conn. In the summer of 2009 the band released their first EP Awakenasleep. A year later the band released a three-song demo, which was given marked an appearance under indierockcafe.com’s “Best New Releases” of Fall 2010 alongside Sufjan Stevens and Belle and Sebastian. Their album “Somewhere Safe” was released in January 2011.
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Every Cro dance-attending-student’s favorite cover band, Wicked Peach, will be attending Floralia as well. The band strictly does rock covers and travels around the New England area. They cover songs by artists from Lady Gaga, Journey, and Linkin Park, to the Goo Goo Dolls, Bon Jovi, and Sugar Ray.
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Bearstronaut describes themselves as “Part New-Wave, part Britpop, part Electro, part R&B, but for the most part Synth-Pop.” I don’t know about you, but those are genres I’m not familiar with, however this band has some accolades to back them up. This group has played all over New England and earned the 2008 Boston Music Award for “College Band of the Year.” Bearstronaut was nominated for the Boston Phoenix’s Best Music Poll in the “New Act”, and “Best Electronic Act” and “Song of the Year” categories in 2011. The band was also listed as one of CMJ’s Top Bands To See at the 2011 CMJ Music Festival
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Araabmuzik performs his music live from a multimedia personal computer (MPC). He has found success working with Cam’Ron, Duke Da God, Hell Rell and others, he’s also “shopped beats” to Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Cassidy, Gucci Man, Young Dro and Fabolous. I recommend looking at some of his perfomances on YouTube if you’re unfamiliar with MPC performances like I was. A Providence, Rhode Island native, Araabmuzik plays in the New England area as well and appreciates his home roots but also has some huge tour dates coming up including Coachella on April 22, and then a European tour after his stop at Conn.
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I’ll admit: when I found out that the New Boyz were the headlining band for Conn’s Floralia extravaganza, I was confused. Of course I know the 2009 summer hit, “You’re A Jerk” but other than that, I had no idea who this band was or why Conn would choose to have them headline the biggest event of the school year.
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The group’s other notable songs are “Backseat” and “Better With The Lights Off”, both of which made it to the top 100 charts in the US. The New Boyz have collaborated with Ray J, Iyaz, The Cataracs, and Chris Brown. Despite both members of the group being only 20 years old, they have made a respectable splash in the mainstream radio world.
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Although I would have loved to experience a band like last year’s headliner, Matt & Kim, I think that the New Boyz will provide a fun atmosphere and be a source of entertainment for the last show of the last event of this school year.Â
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Brotherhood of Thieves: http://www.myspace.com/bofthieves
Shake The Baron: http://www.shakethebaron.com/
Take Care: http://www.takecaremusic.com/
Wicked Peach: http://www.wickedpeach.com/#/home/
Bearstronaut: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bearstronaut/133226833419693
Araabmuzik: http://www.araabmuzikmvp.com/
New Boyz: http://www.thenewboyz.com/