Here it is, one month after the historic terrorist attack on the world trade center and in so many ways the situation and the commentary and coverage of it is still very, well…tender. The ongoing reports are very detailed, showing the long winding bending tendrils of every angle of touching human interest imaginable from this unprecedented act of international terror, from the amazingly odd personal human coincidences and near misses, astonishing figures regarding man power and total amounts of debris, down to the overworked bagpipe band who’ve played firemen’s funerals non stop since the event or the families who lived in neighboring condos and the choices they face. It’s undeniable that people from every walk of life have had to rethink, re-evaluate, and think twice before saying certain things ever since the attack. It’s especially interesting to see how celebrities and artists and writers and basically the whole entertainment industry is responding and /or modifying their usual schtick or candor or business operations in the aftermath of the terrorist assault. I noted on all the late night talk shows the somber and awkward first night back, where basically the funny guys like Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman were faced with the entirely un-funny situation of slipping back into their work, something that would be delicate and difficult and almost compromised or even censored. Most noticeably absent were the many usual pot shots at our president, the president who (as the news constantly reminds us) is enjoying the highest approval rate of any president in the nations history, although I’d like to know the history of national approval rates for the presidents, or how this nefarious and questionable polling survey figure comes about and gets bandied about as hard fact, the final word on the majority of the populace. I just don’t understand this approval rating thing. I mean, hello, remember the Kennedy administration? Popularity pales in comparison? I don’t think so. I’d also like to know how Mary Todd Lincoln might feel about this statement. Whenever I hear about it I think to myself, “Says who?” It’s just a crock of shit fed to us as usual, one bite at a time, vitamin enriched with Survivors guilt and emotionally manipulative tear lubricated patriotism supplement, plus time released bursts of doubt-blocking allegiance, for those times when rallying around the war-hungry leader is interrupted by the pesky little memory that you once lost sleep over the thought of this man ever becoming our president. The news comes in so handy when you’re trying to forget certain things, while not letting you forget others.
A lot of decisions for sudden changes in plans hit Hollywood after the September 11 bombing. A couple of major motion picture plans were scrapped completely for having plots that somehow prophetically involved terrorist attacks on the world trade center, and whole episodes of certain prime time television shows were held back or rewritten or modified due to the heightened sensitivity of having something we usually view as entertainment actually happen to us. Imagery and plotlines and dramas and action adventure features have been dishing up events like this with regularity forever, we pay money and stand in line to see it, they pour it on thick in television at specific times to achieve record ratings, but when it really happens, watch out! Everyone had to change their tune and quickly so as not to appear ghoulish, or make light of the tragedy, or trounce all over the victims graves, trivializing the many lives lost. If something you said or did or wrote or sang or produced seemed even remotely unpatriotic or stuck the wrong way in the orbital rings of compassion, honorary gestures to the brave, heroic and dead civil servants, and the impending and nationally nurtured hunger for retaliation spinning around this event, it could very easily spell the end of having a career as an entertainer. The dynamic could be similar to what Hollywood went through during the McCarthy era when careers and lives were crushed by accusations of alliance with the communist party.
There is a specific instance of a rather unlucky coincidence that rolled out at just the worst possible time for a local rap act called The Coup. Known for their steadfast commitment to create songs that rally against societal injustices faced by the afro-American population with a gritty fat dose of street-level truth and a more than pedestrian knowledge of political theory and history, The Coup, (Boots and DJ Pam the Funktress) stand as the most politically motivated and outspoken rap act since Public Enemy. With album titles like Genocide and Juice, Kill My Landlord and Steal This Album, you kind of get an idea where they’re coming from. They shy away from much of the Gangsta-rap mystique and cop killing manifestos of violence associated with southern California rappers like N.W.A., have a minimum amount of sexist lyrical content, have songs that admonish the common rap self-reference of “Nigga,” and are opposed to the current slew of east coast rappers and the imagery of outrageous opulence that could prompt a whole generation of young blacks who choose Donald Trump as a hero rather than Malcolm X. Their fourth and latest record, Party Music 2001 was due for release on September 18, but that date has been pushed back indefinitely due to the band’s chosen artwork for the cover, an image that was developed at least two months before the terrorist attack and luckily never even made it to the presses and was pulled off their labels’ internet site faster than imaginable. Spin Magazine reviewed the disc and they had a postage stamp sized version of it partially obscured by a number so you couldn’t really see what it was. The review makes no reference to the image but in no uncertain terms proclaims it a great record, charting the ever-changing moods of the discs political manifestos, musical ironies, and the band’s historical development in such an exciting manner I mentally placed it on the top of my list of music to buy. The number that obscured the tiny cover art was a nine, the album’s rating on a one thru 10 scale. This could be the disc that finally achieves the recognition The Coup so richly deserve. Then came the terrorists by jet to Manhattan and changed everything.
The chosen cover art for Party Music 2001 was a photo of Pam the Funktress and Boots standing at the base of the World Trade Center, boots holding onto a detonation device and the towers above them exploding in orange and black balls of flame at slightly different levels. It looked so much like it looked on television September 11 it gave me chills. Each explosion seemed to literally match the actual point of impact of the two jets. It was uncanny, and it took a fair amount of searching the internet to find a copy of it. To date the record has yet to be released with a different cover—something I thought they might do as quickly as possible considering the fair amount of anticipation and positive press it had earned in advance. Mysteriously there has been no word on a new release date. I’m certain that the intention of the albums cover art was simply satirical, the comic book-like destruction of an enduring landmark of capitalism. It’s such a twisted bit of fate that it actually happened, nobody believed it ever could, not even after the first attempt on the structure a few years back. But it did, and I hope for the sake of a pair of committed artists who have consistently put out great music with a unique level of political sensitivity you rarely find in the genre of rap, that this uncanny coincidence doesn’t hinder the public’s embrace of their latest and arguably best work. Lets get it to the shelves, we want Party Music 2001.
Another odd post-destruction coincidence that undoubtedly will affect another musical group comes to an Austin-based synth-pop duo that have been around for about two years now. They have a light, airy and pleasant sort of futuristic Stereolab kind of sound that I have started to enjoy immensely. The name of this band is I Am The World Trade Center, and when I first heard of them I thought it was the best new band name I’ve heard in ages. Let’s hope they can keep the name with out encountering too much adversity.
While I was DJing at the Hole in The Wall recently, post terrorist attack, it suddenly struck me that certain songs I might play with regularity could be construed as insensitive, vicious or unpatriotic to the patrons of the bar, and I briefly began to censor myself, even denying certain requests because I feared they might offend in a whole new fresh way. Well I got over that pretty quickly, prepared to defend myself if necessary with the pat response, “It’s all open to interpretation.”
I played “Anthrax” by Gang of 4 twice that night. “….and that’s something that I don’t want to catch.”
Finally, one thing you are all going to want to catch takes place at the great American music hall on October 25, and that is the triumphant return of Kiki and Herb to the San Francisco stage! The illustrious duo managed to squeeze a date in for the folks who watched them grow, head out and conquer the goddamned world with their act of no compare. I’m so transfixed with excitement I can hardly breathe. If you see one motherfucking show all year, make it this one. A friend of mine in LA just caught the act last night and she described it as “life-affirming.” I’m curious about Kiki’s level of post terrorist sensitivity. Lighten up isn’t something Kiki would do, ever. Why should she? She is a landmark and vulnerable isn’t a part of her vocabulary. The glory is yours to behold. 8 pm. I’m counting the hours.