There’s a reason journalists went into the reporting business and didn’t become rock stars. It may have something to do with where one’s perceived talents lie.
But there are still a surprising amount of writers, reporters and editors in the news biz who have their own side groups as a kind of musical outlet. There are enough of them in Washington to make a whole Journopalooza, a night of bands filled with people whose are names are better known for their work in the papers.
This year’s event Friday at the Black Cat didn’t have, say, Bob Woodward singing songs about regret. Unfortunately. No big song-cycle about sequestration.
But it did have Tom Toles’ band, Suspicious Package, doing cover songs. Toles, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, who surprisingly lookw just like the stick figure he puts down in the corner of his work, is drummer for the band that was, uh, OK I guess, if it was a bunch of your friends who happened to pick up instruments at a party.
Can’t imagine them getting a lot of gigs outside of Journopalooza, but apparently they do. They have an enthusiastic lead singer in Christina Sevilla, in her fuzzy boots and miniskirt — and enough pals in the audience that they won the unscientific poll of bands that night (you could vote with your entry ticket or with extra dollars). Toles even sang lead as he drummed to some songs, which can be problematical for some. He chose “867-5309 (Jenny).” (Because of course a Tom Toles would have allegiance to Tommy Tutone).
The band that came in second was another band with a vaguely decade-old Homeland Security type name, Dirty Bomb. And it was just the opposite in the way — all original songs, really into it while other bands were mostly comfortable in their groove, a few pronounced ringers — including two kids of E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, one a singer the other the best drummer of the night.
They played songs exclusively from a rock opera antic frontman Andy Sullivan of Reuters wrote about the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a piece that didn’t get produced on stage in time for people to still remember who exactly that was.
Many of the other bands of the night were of the suburban blues school of middle aged rockers (where exactly were the young reporters and their bands? Are they all doing electronic dance music on their laptops somewhere? Or are there no young reporters? Or were they all working?). You know ’em if you see ’em: sunglasses to match their blues licks, the occasional hat, lead singers of older ladies reclaiming their youthful growl.
One guy who I think used to wear a hat in the picture for his column (it seemed like a bunch of Post columnists went through a hat phase) was John Kelly, who often wrote in his Metro column about his band, or music of the 80s and such. He was a drummer too for a band called Stepping Stones, because for two years running they were that unusual thing, a Monkees cover band. There are too many Beatles cover bands, and the Monkees had a few good songs, so why not?
But, as the band announced from the stage, they couldn’t quite bring themselves to do Monkees one more year. So they did a great thing and switched entirely to Elvis Costello and the Attractions — all early stuff, stressing the tuneful but hardly widely-known “Get Happy!!!” period, perfectly punched up in those difficult drum and bass part originated by Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas. There was even a nice cheesy Farfisa-sounding organ player in Dan deVise.
There’s something about Costello that newspaper people of a certain age always appreciated as well — and not just wearing glasses. It was his literary approach, his encyclopedic knowledge of music, his passion and verve especially in those early songs.
The fact that Costello’s songs were short and punchy fit the bill for the show — they could fit in way more songs than most other bands in their allotted 30 minutes.
All the money went to some good causes helping literacy in the schools.