Full LDOC lineup announced

A text message to students Monday announced that Rudy Currence, Dev and The Cataracs will join Ludacris in the Last Day of Classes lineup this year.
A text message to students Monday announced that Rudy Currence, Dev and The Cataracs will join Ludacris in the Last Day of Classes lineup this year.

Ludacris is no longer the only name on the lineup for this year’s Last Day of Classes festivities.

The complete list of LDOC artists was announced to students in a text message Monday at noon, stating “the LDOC Lineup is... Rudy Currence, Dev, The Cataracs, and Ludacris!”

This was the first year the LDOC committee offered text-message notifications in addition to e-mails. The Chronicle announced Ludacris’ spot on the lineup Feb. 15, after it was confirmed by representatives from his label.

LDOC Committee co-Chair Lindsay Tomson wrote in an e-mail that the committee derived the idea for the text messaging system from DukeAlert and line monitor communications, adding that it will be useful for providing updates on the day of the event but that the committee has “no intentions of textually harassing the student body.”

In a joint statement to The Chronicle, Tomson and committee co-Chair Will Benesh, a senior, expressed their enthusiasm for the April 27 event.

“All of us on the LDOC committee are extremely excited about the artist selection this year,” they wrote in an e-mail. “We’re happy to see that there’s been a generally positive reaction from the students.”

Benesh and Tomson also stressed their commitment to bringing in artists whose songs students would recognize.

“We also wanted artists that would appeal to a large portion of the student population and would fit with the celebratory atmosphere of LDOC,” they noted.

The Cataracs are a hip-hop, indie-pop duo based in Los Angeles. The group has found success with songs like “Club Love,” a single released in 2010. They are most widely recognized, however, for their work on the song “Like a G6” by Far East Movement, which was written by Niles Hollowell-Dhar and David Singer-Vine, The Cataracs’ two members.

“[The Cataracs is] a band that’s been around for a really long time that just recently made a break,” sophomore Kyla Casey said. “I think that because they’ve been playing in clubs so many times it will be like Flogging Molly last year, where they really understood how to work an audience.”

Dev, also based in Los Angeles, is “the sound of now,” according to her MySpace page. The Cataracs discovered Dev after she posted a recording of her singing on MySpace and have since collaborated with her for hits like “Booty Bounce,” which has more than 3.8 million views on YouTube and has been featured on MTV. Dev’s most recent single, “Bass Down Low,” also featuring The Cataracs, is described as a “stunning slab of sweaty electro, with skittering hi-hats and tons of swag” on her MySpace page. Both Dev and The Cataracs are signed to Universal Records.

“Dev is just amazing,” said sophomore Chris Clayton, who also noted his satisfaction with the overall lineup. “I’m really excited that the LDOC Committee managed to branch out from hard core rappers and Irish music to provide us with something a little more indie and fun. It will be upbeat and exciting.”

Rudy Currence rounds out this year’s LDOC lineup. Currence is a pop/R&B/soul artist who signed in 2009 with Disturbing Tha Peace, the music label owned by Ludacris. Currence has been honored for his writing by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and has had a song featured in the film “The Bourne Identity,” according to his MySpace page. Currence’s booking agency, The College Agency, describes him as “a powerful, unique voice in today’s music scene” on its website. “Rudy sings with power and passion, writes beautiful soulful lyrics, produces complex music and plays several instruments including the keyboard and guitar.”

Benesh wrote in an e-mail that sophomore Alex Shapanka, chief financial officer of the LDOC Committee, will not be commenting on the LDOC budget.

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