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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Buju Banton’s Seattle Show Cancelled

Posted by on September 26 at 7:05 AM

According to the Neumo’s calendar.


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And now it's time to boycott Everyday Music, Easy Street, Zion's Gate, and Sonic Boom!

You don't just stop there. You have to eradicate everyone's access to violently homophobic music throughout the region!

Call these stores and let them know how you feel!

I'm happy the Stranger is going to run these stores out of business instead of having to take the dangerous step of refusing ad money from these stores instead.

Actually, I just heard that the Paradox has offered to host the Buju Banton show instead, since it follows more in line with the Mars Hill anti-gay agenda.

Ok, I came on to this conversation a bit late... I did not realize that Buju was so hateful towards gay people. I used to listen to and his music and enjoy it, however I don't own any CD's/Mp3's/etc. I am very glad for that now. Does anyone have a suggestion of a great Dancehall/Reggae artist that is not so homophobic? I love the sound, but don't want to support hate towards anyone.
**feeling ignorant**

Hey Matthew Fisher Wilder- how do we find out if the Buju show is going to be hosted at the Paradox for sure?? I understand that the hate should not be tolorated- but I'm a fan of the music & not necessarily the person behind it-

Contact the Paradox and ask.

Remember folks, you can't let Fishbone or Public Enemy off the hook either. Angelo and Kendall have taken many a time to denounce homosexuality during their live shows, and Chuck D was once quoted that he doesn't think homosexuality is right because "look, the parts just don't fit".

This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. We will have a completely ethical musical core filtered into Seattle in no time if we stay VIGILANT!

Most importantly, if you're a young boy fighting this fight, *never cry*

That is weakness.

Here's the link to the Paradox's events page - though so far it appears that Matthew's comments were in jest.

Now I feel just as great as those parents who got WASP (it stands for We Are Satan's People, don'cha know) concerts shut down in the '80's!

Don't want anyone saying things we don't agree with. Right Mr. President?

Good for Neumos for doing the right thing.

Assuming Buju got his guarantee, the tally so far.

Buju: 1
Neumos: 0
Stranger: 1

At least Modest Mouse didn't get any points when the Stranger outed them as Rape Rock back in the day. (Oh, what fine days those were.)

I think people are forgetting the real issue here: the quality of Banton's music, which is characteristically banal and one-dimensional!

Hell, I'm gay and I don't care about whether he plays or not. Erasing a show off a calendar unfortunately does not erase the sentiments behind his music or any other homophobic expression in art or society. The homophobia remains, sung from Neumo's stage or not. I wish people would stop acting like gays are free from the contempt of mainstream American society, much less a whole host of second and third world countries.

But then, what is more American than attacking symptoms, rather than causes?

whatever, I'll just go to the Paradox tomorrow to see Buju. I don't drink anyhow, just smoke the herb. So all ages is perfect. See you in Ballard where freedom of speech still lives.

Neumo's crime was that they were a block from the Stranger's office.

Had Neumo's been culturally light years away -- like, you know, in Wallingford or Fremont or something, then there wouldn't have been a batted eye, the show would have gone on, Capitol Hill people wouldn't have been persecuted, and all that good stuff.

The Seattle music world revolves around show posters between Olive Way and Pike St. Don't forget it.

Nice job Nanny Stranger! im so glad i dont have to be exposed to evil lyrics and music because of thoughtful folks like you! im just gonna light up an American Spirit (all natural!)and drink myself to death with Charles, i aint no fuckin pussy!

I'm not sure where I stand on this - the song is very old, he's played here before without incident, etc., etc. - but I will say all the people comparing him to other people who have opinions we might not agree with or that aren't PC are missing the point:

This song advocates the torture and murder of gay people. It doesn't say being gay is messed up, or weird, or wrong, it says gay people should die. Violently. There's a huge difference there, and if Neumo's has a policy of not booking anti-gay acts, they should probably take something like that into account.

You'd have a better time at the Cha Cha that night anyway. Honestly. It's a lot more fun -- and ethical -- to see white people ironically enjoy and DJ Egyptian Lover, Bobby Jimmy And The Critters, and other funny black electro music.

I think next we should boycott Marilyn Manson when he comes to town.

That man worships Satan and wants your kids to shoot people up!

What a long way the Stranger has come. Here's this little gem they published back in August of 2000:

BUJU BANTON
(Bohemian Backstage) It's always fun to see how reformed bad-boy performers will handle or skirt their older, less-enlightened material live. This show should provide just such an opportunity. Buju Banton started out as a dance hall toaster with all the usual macho bragging about guns, girls, and even one infamous boast about gay-bashing. Now he's changed his tune with songs about spirituality and ending violence. His new album, Unchained Spirit, mixes reggae, ska, and gospel harmony with his love of Jah. NATE LIPPENS

Levislade, there's another early song by a band far more popular that advocates the stalking and mauling of a girl running away from an alleged abusive lover. You may have heard of them. The Beatles, they are called.

Now, we agree that women should enjoy the same liberties than people with same-sex sexuality, right?

So on that note, no one should ever support, promote, or cover the Beatles' music ever again.

"Run For Your Life" indeed.

MFW, I promise that the next time the Beatles are booked to play in Seattle, I will make every effort to get their show cancelled.

Red Lawn: that is interesting indeed . . .

Red LAwn - what, are you saying you want consistency from the Stranger? This is the paper that makes money from the advertising dollars spent on shows like Buju Banton every week. And they promote them. And laugh at them. But when the Slog slows down and they need a fresh controversy to drive more page visits (thus more $) then they have no problem taking a stand against the evils of music.

Funny - this week is the first time I picked up the Weekly to read their music coverage in a long time. Instead of creating fake controversy, they actually wrote a quite good article on Dead Moon. Great cover too. With the Stranger coverage going over to all electronic and irrelevant dribble like the Buju debate, I wonder how long until the Weekly becomes the more relevant paper for the music scene. A long way to go for sure, but the Stranger is doing nothing to stop their slide into irrelevance.

Matthew Fisher Wilder, maing! I would like to know how anyone can "ironically enjoy" music. What an unsound way to mock. What's next, "ironic breathing"? "Ironic nutrition"? "Ironic cardiac arrest"? Come on, dude. Are the Cha Cha patrons racist, or are they ironically racist? Can't have it both ways.

I am ironically typing this sentence.


Redlawn,
Rights issues, cIvil & holy wars take time to escalate...
don't forget, the US government once supported Saddam.

And I'm not the least bit offended by The Stranger's banner ads on the website for an all white rap group out of Arizona called "Woodpile".

Anyone who's been to prison knows that "The Woodpile" is what the white power prison gangs call their weight pile. It's alternately used as a reference to the entire white inmate milieu.

Safe to say that your crusade effectively just took food off the table of two of this town's best music people as well as some great folks who tend bar there, but you'll still gladly take their ad money and show up Office Deep at any function there with free catering and open bar.

What did that all accomplish in the bigger picture. You strafed the civilian village and let the Warlords escape. Great work.

oh yeah, did anyone point out that Rastas dont like gay people? in fact they are pretty much in line with Christian fundamentalists on that one...not that all Rastas advocate killing and torturing Gay people, but you cant be a Gay Rasta, even if you smoke lots of pot, have dreads, listen to reggae, go to Evergreen...there is not a place for you at that table, sorry aspiring Gay Rastas, no fags allowed

I pee ironic. It was just ironic silliness on my part. I ironically kid the Cha Cha.

I'd be more impressed with the cover story of the Seattle Weekly had the band in question actually been a Seattle band.

Did the Willamette Weekly even do a Dead Moon cover story?

Or is this Barr just stroking his favorite bands and Sub Pop associations again?

Love it. It's always soooooo amusing when First-Amendment Fundamentalism comes crashing down around the bigot racists going head to head (so to speak) with the bigot homohaters.

i certainly hope that all the folks calling for the cancellation of this show will put their money where their mouths are tomorrow night and hightail it to the bad juju lounge for at least a $30 bar tab.

steven and jason still have to pay buju's guarantee. rather than letting the public figure out whether or not they would attend this show, the stranger has essentially made that decision for them.

i look forward to similar boycotts in the future. who needs the nightlife task force when we've got folks at the stranger demanding that club owners justify their bookings that may include controversial artists?

the fact that a staff writer promoted a show by the very same artist within the paper's pages (per redlawn's post above) calls to mind the work of the heptones, another musical act from jamaica:

Hypocrite, where will you run to now?
Hypocrite, you will get hurt somehow
Hypocrite, I know that time will tell on you
Hear what I say

I thought you were smart
But man, you've got a wicked, wicked heart
And, oh, you're just being used
When they're through, you will be refused

There is truly a new era at the Stranger. Once the people who took the lead in being on the front edge of culture in Seattle, their influence has totally gone to their head. They now promote their unqualified freinds as political candidates hoping to play kingmaker, and now try to be the people who determine which musician can or can't perform. Unchecked power leads to unchecked abuse. Time to check the Stranger. I'm out of here. Hope all you clubs who think you should be able to make booking decisions for yourself pull your ads.

As usuall Eli and the kids at the Stranger chose to make the news rather than report it.

Eli I challenge you to go after the stores and radio stations that sell his music and play his songs. Can we expect hit pieces on Zion's Gate, KEXP, Sonic Boom, Easy Street and Everday Music to follow? If you are advocating this show be cancelled, why stop there?

You framed the story, now grow a pair and finish it Eli.

um...

this whole fracas, started on livejournal and the original emails from neumos where directed at the livejournal community, so maybe insteady of blaming the stranger, you should blame the entirety of the populace that complained to neumo's rather than making a scapegoat of a rag that through it's hat in the ring towards the end.

Tell it Kerri!

I'm seriously bummed at The Stranger right now and The Stranger folk who railed on this so hard are conspicuously quiet.

Don't break your arms patting yourselves on the back Freedom Force!

(We were gonna be safe regardless.)

So the Stranger and the mouth-breathing livejournal community condemns Neumos and their staff, but will still whole-heartidly support the other venues that choose to sell this homophobic material?

Nice! I love selective activism!

Will the Stranger stop accepting ad money from Sonic Boom, Easy Street, Zion's Gate and others?

I love the Stranger. It's the only real Newspaper in Seattle that tells the truth. Who cares if the make money off Big Tobacco and other homophobic musicians? Now I know it'll be hip this weekend to bash Nemos when I'm out on a date with one of the bitches from my software office.

props to redlawn.

"steven and jason still have to pay buju's guarantee. rather than letting the public figure out whether or not they would attend this show, the stranger has essentially made that decision for them."


Sorry, Kerri, but I have to call "bullshit" on this. Regardless of the stance taken by "The Stranger" staff on this blogsite, the decision to cancel this show was made by Neumo's, just as was the decision to book Buju in the first place. They could have elected to have the show go on as-scheduled, but THEY decided against doing so.

Was there pressure brought to bear? Absolutely. Did that affect their decision, most likely. But ultimately it was their call, not "The Stranger"'s, nor your's, nor mine, nor anyone else's.

It would be interesting to know how many tickets had actually been sold, before the decision to cancel was made. Neumo's isn't under any obligation to provide that of course, but it would certainly be an indication of whether their decision was based on ethics or economics.

As for the ubiquitous MFW, frankly, I don't see anything wrong in the least with boycotting ANY establishment that promotes intolerance of any kind, directed at any individual or group of individuals.

As was the whole issue with Neumo's, a business is free to sell whatever legal product they choose, but people are not obligated to buy their products if they find them offensive. If that creates an economic hardship on the business, then they have the choice to either offer different products that people WANT to buy, or move somewhere the products they sell now are supported, or just go out of business altogether. It's called the concept of "supply and demand" and it's a basic principle of economics.

The places or artists you mention don't have any Constitutional Right to BE in business, they merely have the right to create and/or sell whatever they want, while by the same token, the public doesn't have a Constitutional Right to prevent them from doing so. But, the public DOES have a right to withhold their economic support.

And Redlawn, your point is irrelevent. For one thing, Nate Lippens no longer works for "The Stranger", so his plug for a show that happened six years ago is meaningless. Second, he didn't write an editorial taking a position on an issue or topic, it's a show listing. Third, where is it written on stone tablets that a media publication MUST always and forever adhere to one editorial position? Just as individuals have the right to change their minds, so to do editorial staffs, heck even entire newspapers - anybody remember when "The Seattle Times" used to be considered the "liberal" daily? Yep, things change, as do people's opinions based on new (or in this case not-so-new) information. Demanding the kind of perpetual lock-step consistency you seem to be advocating is not only bad journalism, it's lazy thinking.

And by all means, head over to Bad Juju or Frites and spend some money. Let Neumo's know you appreciate their decision, and will support them for making it - that's your right, your choice.

Gays should withhold financial support from businesses that cut checks to people who advocate for the murder and mutilation of gay people.

Let bad art be seen until it becomes financially unviable to its creators and supporters, and take efforts to make it so as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, Seattle fags will keep funding the cultural war against them as long as the enemy has a cool club, a good bar and puts a tune behind its hate speech that you can dance to.

over on line out, hannah levin has just posted the news that guns n' roses (what's left of them) are scheduled to perform in everett on december 10.

can i expect the same sort of outrage directed at the bookers and promoters of this show, based on axl's past history of homophobia and misogyny? will charles and eli be calling for a boycott of this performance? does axl still get his guarantee?

or, does it not matter, because the show is in everett, rather than capitol hill?

stay tuned, for the next episode of as the world turns...

Reggae may not all be homophobic, but Jamaica is.

you people are unbelievable. have you even looked up censorship in the dictionary?

all the stranger, and some other people/groups, did was note that a bar in capital hill is having a concert for a horrible, homophobic performer. they said that it wasn't very smart, and that people shouldn't go the show and should call the owners to tell them that they made a bad decision.

censorship would be to force the bar to close, or to physically prevent people from going to the show. neither was done.


get your heads out of your asses.

Time Magazine recently called Jamaica "The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?", which I find a bit hard to believe, considering that in Iran homosexuals are executed in public: http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jul/1216.html.

Comte - Of course people have the freedom to not support causes for whatever reasons they don't support.

I just don't think The Stranger nor its supporters on this issue are going to take this further than allegedly influencing Neumo's to cancel Buju.

Granted, for all we know, the show is still going on, and the website just pooped on that date today for some reason. Have we heard word from Neumo's about this yet? No. I expect to hear something, but we haven't yet.

In any case:

* You're *not* going to see The Stranger deep further into the roots of homo-bigotry in Jamaican/Carribean and/or influenced performers based on this issue... which would have been interesting.

* You're *not* going to see The Stranger advocating a look into what record stores in the city are selling, in relation to this issue, which is an interesting issue.

* You're *not* going to see The Stranger explore Meinart's potentially explosive issue about Mars Hill church, mentioned in the previous comments thread, which is potentially very interesting.

The Stranger are excellent at getting reactions, then moving on the next second. Reactionary prose for the ADD set. They are not a deep paper. Deep doesn't sell.

This incident is just a really passionate example showing how The Stranger is so transparent in its particular brand of shallowness as a local paper. It's not surprising, but the kiddie pool keeps on getting shallower and shallower to the point that even kids wonder if there's any water covering their feet.

The sad thing is: with examples i can count on one hand per year, no Seattle based newspaper bothers to go in depth about important issues.

It's just frustrating to see very passionate people try really hard to not be slightly deeper than shallow. It makes no sense. It's sick.

"with counterexamples"

or, does it not matter, because the show is in everett, rather than capitol hill?

YES, you deliberately obtuse cunt. Were you out on leave the day context was explained?


Easy!

LOL GLYAI

Though BB may have changed his tune (don't know - don't care, not into the music style) I think there's so many variables that it makes sense for Neumo's to cancel. While the prior restraint of free speech issue could be debated, its just not good business sense for a club to piss off its local, regular clientele, some of which are gay.

The Guns N Roses reference is laughably moot, as the song referenced, "One In A Million," was obviously sung from the point of view of a character who was obviously not Axl or any other member of the band. Hasn't anyone noticed that Slash is a black man? And Duff is part black as well. I'm certain they must have heard the lyrics before the album was released. As that knowledge shoots the racist aspect of the song in the foot, perhaps the homophobic and anti-cop sentiments are bunk as well.

For a true parable (assuming of course that BB really does/did publicly advocate torturing and slaughtering fags outside of one stupid song), it would be like the Apollo in Harlem featuring a racist skinhead band. My guess is that ain't happening any time soon.

Also remember that people can change. I seem to remember Sebastian Bach catching hell for wearing a shirt that read, "AIDS - Kills Fags Dead." After being educated on just how stupid and painful to others this was, he not only offered a public mea culpa, but went on to record with members of The Frogs, who are very publicly gay, and to even perform on Broadway! Not that gays like show tunes or anything....

Or how about the fact that Ice T, who pissed off millions with "Cop Killer" has been playing a cop on TV for years now? Note to Alanis Morissette - THAT'S ironic!

It's just music. If you do something drastic because of a song, you're a fucking fool. But if you're an artist, and shoot your mouth off to the press advocating something, well then that's a whole 'nother story.

But its still a slippery slope. Boycott and protest, OK when peaceful. Shutting off free speech, bad.

I guess what I'm trying to say is bravo to Neumo's for listening to the community and cancelling. But shame on them for booking the show in the first place. What the fuck were they thinking? Why not just have the Billy Graham Crusade roll through while you're at it? Jeez!

One last point - Satanism is just another system of beliefs, no better or worse than any other. Being Agnostic, I think they all have good and bad things to offer, but can't get past the whole "invisible man in the sky" leap of logic. No matter your beliefs, or lack thereof, it all boils down to this - don't be an asshole. So easily this is forgotten. If you hate, murder, rape, etc, or advocate any of that - you're an asshole. And I'd rather you were an asshole someplace else.

http://www.cultureyard.com/

The Buju Banton show is going ahead tonite people @ Studio 7. All rise up and meet there for the showdown. "Get up stand up for your rights". Email studio 7 and let them know your displeasure
Seattle hold tight for Buju Banton! Culture Yard presents Buju Banton, Assassin and New Kidz, with the Shiloh Band, as scheduled on Wednesday Sept 27.
This Show has caught some heat for Buju's old "rude-boy" tunes. Neither Culture Yard nor Buju Banton fans support violence against any persons. Strictly practicing Peace, Love and Respect to One and All. Striving for "Wisdom and Understanding". Jah made One and All in His Image, I n I must give thanks for life.

The Show has BEEN MOVED FROM NEUMOS on Capitol Hill to STUDIO SEVEN in the SO-DO Neighborhood.
Doors open at 11:00 PM
Showtime 11:00 - 3:00 AM
21+ Show Only
All Advance Tickets will be Honored.
Advance Tickets Still on Sale at ZIONS GATE RECORDS and online at www.ticketswest.com and right here for $22

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