Maria nailed this one : in my near psychotic, celebratory glee that Spoon and the Brooklyn Cyclones would be playing within mere yards of each other on July 16, I neglected to notice that this year’s Village Voice Siren Festival is sponsored by the U.S. Army.
You know, the Be All You Can Be Army. Or as Eric Bogosian put it, “The New Action Army”.
Not content with focusing their recruiting efforts on college campuses, shopping malls and arena football games, the G.I. Jerkoffs are clearly targeting the underground rock cognescenti. Which, I think, is a pretty dubious way to spend the military’s budget. I mean, I love the idea that Dungen are getting money that might’ve otherwise been spent on a bomb, but do we really want Joe Gaer to be our last line of defense When The Heavy Shit Goes Down?
(Sgt. Bilko, very perturbed that The Haunted Pussy Band aren’t on the bill)
I’m sorry, but I’m not down with that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell bullshit. I’m writing letters to my congressman, senator and Donald Rumsfeld today, urging them to direct the Army’s marketing dough towards potential recruits that might actually make decent killing machines / cannon fodder. Where’s the sponsorship love for the Def Leppard/Bryan Adams tour?
gerard, as the weeks have passed, and no one’s really cared about this [i mean hey, pitchfork omitted that specific sponsorship from their news item] in the way that i have, i was beginning to worry that all of this might be a tempest in a teapot. at least one person other than me gives a damn and now i feel less crazy now.
if i can get my most adult sounding voice together, im going to write to the paper and let them know what i think they’re doing is stupid. i feel it would be a better use of energies, is if everyone who thought this was fucked got together and bombarded the voice with emails as well.
While the U.S. Army was listed as a sponsor in the first Siren press release, I don’t see the Army currently mentioned anywhere on the Siren site. Will continue looking. – JS
yeah (see above), I noticed the same thing. Maybe they pulled the sponsorship or the Voice got queasy about it?
In a completely unrelated story, ‘Gimmie Fiction’ got 5 stars in the new Soldier Of Fortune.