Passion Pit performs on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in July. The group will be opening at W.I.L.D. Friday afternoon. (Dana Edelson | NBC Photo)

“Higher and higher and higher!” Michael Angelakos cheers on “Little Secrets,” the second song from Passion Pit’s debut album, “Manners.”  This call to new heights is exactly in step with the band’s music as a whole.  Angelakos’ voice pushes the stratosphere as the other four members keep the frenzy up, up, up with fast-fingered strums and dazzling synths.  The whole thing makes for quite the heady experience that suits every moment, from running to (surprisingly) chilling to dancing and, this weekend, W.I.L.D.-ing.

This pit of passion traces its roots to Cambridge, Mass., where lead vocalist Angelakos went to school at Emerson College and gained himself quite a little following with his small list of recordings that were initially meant as a gift for his girlfriend of the time.  When he partnered with the rest of the band in Boston, they pooled their talents together to make their first disc, “Chunk of Change.” The EP quickly gained exposure around the city and on the underground circuit, thrusting Passion Pit into the ranks of such prodigal indie company as The Strokes, Arcade Fire and The National.

Once signed, the band picked up speed by starting recording for their first full-length.  Choosing only one track from “Chunk of Change,” “Sleepyhead,” to be remastered and used on the debut proved to be a smart strategy. By picking the most acclaimed song from the earliest days of the band, Passion Pit was able to draw on past fans as well as gain new ones   The quintet approved ten songs—excluding “Sleepyhead”—that they had recorded and put them in perfect order, as if taught by the best arrangers in the world how to tell a story through chronology.

The rollercoaster begins with “Make Light,” a long song that starts with slamming keyboards and simple scales and continues the trend throughout its five-minute runtime.  Through Angelakos’ ever-rising vocals and the band’s dizzying chaos, the tracks go, until somewhere around the midpoint the pace slows for a second for “Swimming in the Flood.”  By the end, “Seaweed Song” will have any listener captivated by the emotional crescendo it seamlessly evokes.  This is epic music with a beat, and every track is ridiculously catchy.  This is a tremendous achievement because of the subject matter of the songs—the album deals with some of the most devastating topics in human existence with a melancholy and hopelessness that the danceable music belies.  The end result is even more breathtaking due to this dichotomy.

Luckily for Washington University, Passion Pit is coming to this year’s W.I.L.D. festival.  If this doesn’t result in every student rushing out to “buy” their album, there is something wrong in the world.  Every track is golden; this is the sort of album that rushes straight to a person’s top-ten-favorites-ever list.  It’s called “Manners,” but it doesn’t shy away from delivering a shocking blow to any audience that thinks it won’t be pleased by Passion Pit and their music.

Read more about the other performers at this fall’s W.I.L.D.: Method Man and Redman, K’Naan and Deskhop.

(METHANDREDMUSIC.COM)

The wait is finally over.

With the fall Walk In Lay Down (W.I.L.D.) just over two weeks away, Team 31 Productions made the much-anticipated announcement of the concert’s lineup: Method Man and Redman will be the main act, with opening sets by Passion Pit and K’naan.

The announcement took place at the Campus Programming Council’s (CPC) weekly happy hour event late Thursday afternoon. The gathering drew more than 200 students and filled Bowles Plaza to the brim.

Free pizza, buffalo wings, cake, drinks and an ice cream truck parked outside the Danforth University Center provided plenty of food and fun before a Team 31 member picked up the microphone to announce the lineup.

The crowd cheered after each artist’s name was called out.

(Seher Sikandar)

Minutes before the announcement, Team 31 Co-chair Ross Festenstein hung up a poster announcing the lineup on the side of the ice cream truck. Back in the Plaza, the music of Passion Pit played in the background.

Following the lineup announcement, students expressed excitement for W.I.L.D.

“I think [Method Man and Redman] are going to put on a great show. The rumor is that [the artists]—especially Passion Pit—are the best live,” junior Monis Khan said. “If you listen to their music, it’s very high energy. I feel like it’s pretty prime for what we’re looking for in W.I.L.D.”

Junior Tara Pham echoed Khan’s enthusiasm about experiencing the performances live.

“I heard that Method Man and Redman are really good live,” Pham said. “The openers will be phenomenal. Passion Pit will be very fun, dance-y and great. I’ve heard they put on a really good show, and on their last tour they sold out.”

“I’m really excited for them to come,” she added.

(Courtesy Photo)

Method Man and Redman, friends since childhood, have often operated as a rap duo on stage since 1995. They appeared together in the 2001 film “How High” and in their own sitcom called “Method and Red,” which aired for only nine episodes in 2004. Method Man and Redman are formerly of Wu-Tang Clan and Def Squad, respectively.

Passion Pit, a five-member electronic band that formed in 2007, released its first full-length studio album “Manners” in May and its debut album “Chuck of Change” in September 2008.

Somali-Canadian artist K’naan released his debut album, “The Dusty Foot Philosopher,” in 2005, which earned him the 2006 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year and a nomination for the Polaris Music Prize.

Though some students have never heard of the opening acts and said they had hoped for a more recent chart-topper as the main act, they are still looking forward to the concert in two weeks.

Sophomore Emily Heller summed it up.

“W.I.L.D. will be fun no matter who is appearing,” she said.

With additional reporting by David Messenger.

The announcement took place at a happy hour event late Thursday afternoon. Hosted by Team 31 and the Campus Programming Council (CPC), the gathering drew more than 200 students and filled Bowles Plaza to the brim.

Free pizza, buffalo wings, cake, drinks and an ice cream truck parked outside the Danforth University Center provided plenty of food and fun before a Team 31 member picked up the mic to announce the lineup.

The crowd cheered after each artist’s name was called out.

Minutes before the announcement, Team 31 Co-Chair Ross Festenstein hung up a poster announcing the lineup on the side of the ice cream truck. Back in the Plaza, the music of Passion Pit played in the background.