"Poolaid, a community group dedicated to keeping McCarren Pool open and accessible to everyone, is proud to announce the launch of our new video, "We are the Pool." Starring members of Brooklyn-based indy bands Nada Surf, Maplewood, The Loser's Lounge, Career Club, Breakup Breakdown, The Redcoats are Coming, Naked Highway, and The Giraffes, the video is a loving spoof of the "We are the World" video made in 1984 for USA for Africa."

Official "Pool Parties" trailer, and more info on "We are the Pool" & "Pool Aid" below...

Continue reading ""We are the Pool""

"New York City symbolically banned use of the word nigger on Wednesday, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the most vile of racial slurs from hip hop music and television." [Yahoo]

Previously
* the "Abolish the N Word organization"

Poated on MySpace:

Effective immediately, Manitoba's (yes, the bar owned by The Dictators' own Handsome Dick Manitoba) has been forced to stop all live performances due to a neighbor couple that seems to have ignored the fact they purchased their apartment at an extremely low price because they live directly above a Rock N Roll bar that features live music!!

The bar had a hearing on Feb. 13 brought by complaints from the upstairs douchebags that have been harassing them. The bar lost but they're fighting back and are going to hit these assholes with a big lawsuit.

Live music might return pending a legal hearing, but for the time being the bar must bring it all to a screeching halt. If you see their selfish neighbors, please feel free to throw eggs.

But...YOU CAN HELP!!

They need to find the dates of every day they've had shows there going back to September 2006...that way they can show that the bar's revenue is harmed by the lack of shows, etc.

So, If your band has played Manitobas btw Sept. 2006 and Feb. 2007 send that information to Kevin at barflypro@netscape.net

We dont believe the upstairs douchebags have a chance, but again if you played there during that time, You Can Help!

Let's not lose another live venue, not to mention one of the best places in NYC for free punk shows. Dick's been a great supporter- lets support Him now.

Previously
* The Dictators @ CBGB's 3rd-to-last night
* the last Saturday night ever @ CBGB - Dictators & Blondie
* almost-all-THE DICTATORS reunion @ CBGB & Continental

Marin Perna & Amayo of Antibalas in Tokyo, 2005 (CRED - Martin's Flickr)

Martin Perna stopped by the "Martín Perna (Antibalas/TVOTR) calls VOICE cover racist" post to respond to the 91 heated comments already there. Here is what he wrote:

Continue reading "A (second) letter from Martin Perna (Antibalas/TVOTR)"

DOWNLOAD: Little Anthony And The Imperials - Tears on My Pillow (MP3)

COMMENTER: Fuck the arcade fire bk vegan, how was the PILLOW FIGHT SHOW!

ME: I ended up not making it this year, but here are some pics...

That one via HERE. More HERE and HERE. Videos below...

Continue reading "The 2007 Pillow Fight in Union Square (pics & video)"

Details here. Pictures from last year here. Don't use pillows with real feathers in them.

Deerhoof @ McCarren Pool - Aug 13, 2006 (MORE)


JellyNYC, the company behind the free summer concerts at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, have this to say

We will be producing nine consecutive FREE Sunday concerts at The McCarren Park Pool bordering Williamsburg and Greenpoint Brooklyn. Get ready to slip 'n' slide, get stung in the dodgeball pit, get fat on burgers and beer, and listen to some of our favorite bands in the the summer sun.

JELLYNYC's 2007 POoL PARTIES will announce the exact dates soon.

JELLYNYC will also be co-producing three other dates at the McCarren Park Pool, including a benefit for the Open Space Alliance (OSA) on June 10 (ticket cost will be no higher than $15), a FREE show on June 21st celebrating the first annual Make Music New York Festival, as well as a FREE event with our dear friends The Brooklyn Brewery in mid September--Brooklyn's own Roctoberfest. For those of you who don't know, in Germany Octoberfest starts in September.

Depending on who ends up playing, PoolAid may or may not be happy - they like free events, but they "want to see everyone in the neighborhood attending events at the pool, not just hipsters".

Of Montreal was one of the big bands that brought "hipsters" to the neighborhood last summer. Insert your skinny dipping joke here. Of course that would require water.

Previously
* Deerhoof @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NYC | pics
* MIA (sort of) played McCarren Pool
* Les Savy Fav played McCarren Park Pool
* The Beer Line @ McCarren Pool, NYC | pics
* Beirut @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NYC | pics
* Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Sonic Youth @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NYC | pics

The American Beauty Project @ The WFC - Jan 20, 2007 (CRED) (INFO)

The "Word of Mouth" Festival is coming to the World Financial Center in NYC --> May 14-19. All I know is that it will almost definitely be free, and that CocoRosie are playing it. CocoRosie also recently played Carnegie Hall for David Byrne.

And it looks like the "Word of Mouth" festival is running at the same exact time as the Highline Festival (which David Bowie is not playing, but supposedly Deerhoof is, but who really knows...)

The band "Ching Chong Song" opened for Jeffrey Lewis @ NYU last night (less than a block away from where Arcade Fire was playing inside a church). There was a student protest outside the show. This press release explains it all:

NYU STUDENTS STOP RACIST SLUR IN NYC MUSIC SCENE

Greenwich Village, NYC – Last night, 20 New York University students held an educational rally to demonstrate against “Ching Chong Song,” a Brooklyn indie-folk band. (Both band members are Caucasian). The NYU students stood outside the band’s performance to pass out flyers educating attendees of the offensiveness of the phrase “ching chong.”

“Words like that contain a painful history loaded with intolerance, hatred, and belittlement,” said NYU sophomore Chi-Ser Tran, a demonstrator.

When the band learned of the impending rally, it agreed to change its name and to make an apology during its performance. Band pianist and singer Dan Gower said the name wasn't changed until now because of “all the action people have taken.”

The band formerly known as “Ching Chong Song” experienced similar protests in December at Bryn Mawr College. The protests there successfully got the band’s scheduled performance to be cancelled. Julia LaMendola, the other band member, wrote an open letter in the Bryn Mawr’s student newspaper in response: “Growing up a child of a gay parent in a tiny town, a poor second-generation Italian girl, I also have experience with the nuances of language. And give me a break you stupid twats…By the way, ‘ching chang chong’ is what people in Germany call the game rock paper scissors, and stupid petty retards is what I'm calling you.”

“While I am heartened that the band has agreed to change its name, I hope that we focus on the issue at hand: racism,” said NYU junior Frederick Loo Wong, a lead demonstrator. “We cannot hold pejorative epithets to differing standards. I am offended when someone uses the word ‘gay’ inappropriately. It is breath-taking when someone uses the ‘n-word.’ Why can’t the same apply to ‘ching chong’?”

NYU senior Lily Yuan expressed concern about the sincerity of the band’s apology. “But, even though the band changed their name, they announced it with sarcasm and pride and few words that meant nothing and left us standing in humiliation and shock.” Yuan was brought to tears during the band public apology when band member LaMendola said, “The college banned me from performing and then I wrote them a letter calling them retarded twats [the audience laughed]...Yea I thought it was pretty funny too...”

"However we may feel about the band's apology, what we have done here tonight is show New York City that Asians are not to be belittled. We can organize and will not tolerate insults. But first, we need to all understand each other for a better society," said Wong.

The band has agreed to change its name; however, it has yet to reflect those changes on its website. Also lacking is an apology on the website. The band’s website is: http://chingchongsong.com/

An article in NYU's campus paper may be found here:

Gothamist also just threw up a post about this.

Previously
Martín Perna (Antibalas/TVOTR) calls VOICE cover racist
Jeffrey Lewis (& Ching chong song) playing NYU

The comments here on BV hardly touched the subject, but there were a few:

"Does anyone else find that picture kind of...um...er...bothersome?"

"That really should have been Dave Sitek."

"i honestly thought it was michael richards running over a random black man on that rascal. really confused. you gotta draw bobby with a hat and in a suit these days."

People were talking offline about the somewhat racy nature of last week's Village Voice cover too. As you can see, it featured a caricature of Bob Dylan running over a caricature of TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone. I considered "it" - not just because of where Kyp was drawn - but because the Dylan drawing wasn't exactly defying any stereotypes either.

I still decided to give the Voice the benefit of the doubt - well for one reason because (historically at least) they are THE VOICE. Bob Dylan beat TV on the Radio in the Pazz and Jop. An artist drew Bob Dylan running over arguably the most recognizable member of TV on the Radio. Poor choice? Probably - but I wrote it off as "silly". Then I dealt with it a little by Photoshopping up my own "silly" response. Based mainly on the results of the merged JackinPopPazzJop, I titled it "Kyp's Revenge".

Martín Perna of TV On The Radio and Antibalas took a more focused stance. The Voice published his letter in this week's (today's) issue:

Looking at this week's cover of the Voice, I see a caricature of Bob Dylan in an electric mobility scooter, running over Kyp Malone, guitarist/vocalist of the band TV on the Radio. The drawing, I imagine, was supposed to comically illustrate Dylan's new record edging out TVOTR's "Return to Cookie Mountain," in the paper's 34th Annual Pazz & Jop poll [February 7–13]. This drawing is racist, unfunny, mean-spirited, and inaccurate.

Even in the post-Chappelle era of it being hip and edgy to discuss and portray ideas about race, there are still wrong, tasteless ways and this was one of them. Nowhere in the consciousness of Voice editors or illustrator David O'Keefe can we find memories of James Byrd, a black man who was dragged behind a truck to his death by white racists in Jasper, Texas, in 1998, or Arthur "J.R." Warren, who was run over four times and killed for being black and gay in West Virginia in 2000, and all the other lynchings that happened in the U.S. before and since. These events are still fresh in the minds of black people, as well as in the hearts and minds of the rest of us who may not be directly victimized by these particular lynchings but who are nonetheless endangered by racism and committed to social justice and healing America of its sick racist condition.

O'Keefe and his colleagues may not have meant to intentionally be racist. They probably meant to be funny, like the University of Texas law students, Clemson University undergrads, or white college students nationwide who plan and publicize their blackface or "ghetto parties," then act surprised that people find their actions offensive and unacceptable. That this picture could be drawn and not questioned or vetoed by any of the people who saw it prior to publication shows the level of ignorance and racism that persists in leftist institutions like the Voice that continue to posture as hip and progressive. It reveals that among decision-makers at the paper there is not one single person with any sort of racial consciousness or sensitivity who had the power or courage to send that picture back to the drawing board.

Racism aside, the drawing is snarky and simpleminded. Where is the love? Why such a nasty way to portray two fantastic musical entities who made award-winning records last year? Why only portray Kyp, when TV on the Radio is composed of four other equally talented core members plus a small army of extended family (including myself) who have contributed to the indescribably ecstatic sound of TVOTR onstage and on record. We struggle defiantly to collaborate and work in non-hierarchical, positive environments and this portrayal of one of our people strikes a blow against our collective dignity.

Every time our likenesses are used outside of our control—especially in stupid ways like this—it fosters false perceptions of who we are. We struggle on a daily basis (those of us with high media exposure much more than others) to be our true selves and not what the media creates of us. Inevitably, Kyp will have to respond to an endless stream of questions about this cover from scores of journalists over the next week when he'd probably rather be doing something else.

Intentionally or not, this cover sends the all-too-familiar message to people of color: Make something too unique, make something outside of your assigned place-role, and get run over by a white man. I could go on about it, about how wrong it is to create false competition between musicians; the headline "Blood on the Tracks!" gives the very false impression that there is serious beef with Dylan and TVOTR. I could complain about how you drew Kyp outfitted like the Nutty Professor rather than his true fly stylish self. All other criticism, however, would draw attention away from the more serious and sinister latent racism present that makes this cover possible to begin with. I pray that you will wise up and check yourself and get some people with some sense and sensitivity among your editorial staff.

Martín Perna
Baritone saxophone, flutes
Antibalas/TV on the Radio
Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn

Ouch. Extreme? What do you think? I'm too tired to even be writing this right now, let alone come up with a conclusion. I will disagree with Martín on at least one point though - the one about the headline giving "the very false impression that there is serious beef with Dylan and TVOTR". I'm sure we can at least all agree that nobody thought THAT. Well...then again....

In somewhat related news, Chris Ott's piece on whether we even still need a critics' poll is a good read. What's most interesting about it is that it appeared IN the Pazz & Jop issue of the Voice.

Oh, and Rob Harvilla coins the term "blopists".

Previously
Kyp's revenge - 2006 Jackin' Pop / Pazz & Jop merged results
Blipster = a black hipster? NY Times on black + indie