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Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
If there's one thing D.C. has plenty of, it's journalists. We're willing to bet that almost everybody reading this post has somebody who works in the media near and dear to them in some capacity. As it turns out, a lot of those journalists are also in rock bands. Which brings us to Journopalooza, a battle of the bands at the National Press Club tonight. Why a battle?
Trouble is, we don't have many ways to settle who's the best. Sure, the profession doesn't suffer from a lack of awards. There's the Polk, the Hillman, the NMA , the almighty Pulitzer. But that's precisely the problem--much as with college football, the proliferation of awards does not anoint a single undisputed champion. So we've decided to figure this out following a long-held tradition of the Streets. With a battle.The gauntlet is being thrown in the name of charity—proceeds will support the Committee to Protect Journalists and the National Press Club's own training and development programs. The rock is being provided by The Surge, Nobody's Business, Anchorage and Suspicious Package, who have members writing for pubs like The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Independent and more. We thought, hey, these guys are reporters, right? Let's let them interview each other and set the stage for the battle that's about to be. Take a look at what Jonathan Landay of Nobody's Business had to say when Spencer Ackerman of The Surge came a'taunting. Interview after the jump.
Spencer: So, prediction throw-down, Jon. We're locked in a four-way battle for journalisto-musical supremacy. You saying right now that your band Nobody's Business will win? Fate is unpredictable. I'll not prognosticate. But we're honed, tight and ready. Bring it on.
That sort of judiciousness is probably what allowed you, famously, to buck the 2002 trend of credulous reporting on Saddam Hussein's non-arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. But I want to hear the case for Nobody's Business. Anchorage has the power-pop, and rumor has it, they're bringing in Tom from These United States as a ringer. The Surge deserves the audience's support as a matter of basic patriotism, and also for the dark dark indie rock we present. Suspicious Package, admittedly the most MSM among us, have the crowd-pleasing covers. What's the deal with you guys?
Jon: Simple: we groove and move. It is impossible to stand still once we open up. Old school, down in the ground R and B, with a dash of soul, a smidgen of country and even a little reggae and carib thrown in. Been together for five years. Journos, lawyers, a physicist and an IT guru. What more can you ask for?
Spencer: Reggae and "Carib"? Then you're going to win, hands down.
Jon: We're only doing a Santana-style original and not the reggae originals on Friday.
I know where the name of your band comes from. But the inspiration? The call? The idea-thing?
Spencer: By the call I presume you mean the Da'awa, and since some of our songs are about the ravages of Shi'ite death squads -- or unfaithful women, it's unclear to me; I don't write the lyrics -- I suppose it all comes from the same creative place: the 'obnoxious' end of the Anger Spectrum. Somehow we write about stuff I cover, like the wars. One of our songs was inspired by Iraq Veterans Against the War's grueling and confessional Winter Soldier conference about wartime atrocities. But I guess that's not the whole of it, since our singer-tarist, Rory Carroll, is an environmental & energy reporter and we haven't written our carbon-footprint rock opera yet.
Is this at all normal? Do you guys find yourselves writing about, say, misrepresentations of intelligence? I don't see why not, really. You write what you know, you know?
Jon: One of our reggae originals I wrote at 2 a.m. one night when I couldnt sleep worrying whether a major story on the bogus pre-war intell was accurate because no one else was reporting what we were. It's called the Righteous Ones. No time to do it Friday night.
When they sent Jonny off to war
They said everything would be alright
It would be over soon
Wouldnt be much of a fight
You'll be defending your country son
Though you'll be very far away
And we'll be right here watching
So best be on your way
They're so sure they knew
They're so red, white and blue
They're the Righteous Ones
They send daughters and sons
Although theirs are not the ones
They're the Righteous Ones
Even though they lied
Said God was on their side
Their the righteous ones.
Two more verses. It's a righteous tune.
But there's more to life than war and politics. Isn't worth celebrating the good things in worthy verse?
Spencer: You can't bring that to the people on Friday? As it happens, Carl Bernstein's son Max has a really excellent politics-oriented punk band, and they do this great song about how the Bush administration won't really be over until someone's frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs, as the saying goes. I wanted to bring Max up on stage to play that with us, but unfortunately he'll be in LA. So I guess I'll have to return to my long-term project of getting John Nagl to recite his poem "Here, Bullet" over one of our mournful instrumental tracks.
Still, you're right. No one really wants to hear an op-ed set to music (well, I do, but whatever). We shouldn't write songs with titles like "Anecdotal Lede" or "Nut Graf" or "The Color Is The First Stuff To Get Cut" or something. But should we really be celebrating the finer things? Our industry is collapsing ahead of the economy. The world is dark and brutal -- shouldn't our music be?
Jon: Like life itself, music cant be confined to the dark side. And from my perspective - have seen how truly brutal life can be in places like Afghanistan and Bosnia - there are always things to celebrate. And what better way that through music? Like great, mediocre or even crappy literature, poetry or ordinary conversation, music must cover the totality of experience. As journalists, we deal mostly with the tragic. No reason to get stuck there as musicians, right?
Journopalooza
Friday January 9, 2009
8 p.m., doors 7:15 p.m.
National Press Club
529 14th St. NW
13th Floor
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