Pitchfork

Photo by Magic Andy McLeod

Matador-signed swamp-folkies Brightblack Morning Light-- responsible for Pitchfork's 36th favorite album of 2006-- found a bunch of yolk on their faces this week following a minor syntactic blunder blown to blog-sized proportions.

It all began in Tucson, Arizona, where the duo played Club Congress last night as part of its previously reported U.S. trek. A tour rider-- basically a list of requests, mostly sustenance-related (unless you're Gnarls Barkley), that a band gives a venue prior to a show-- surfaced on AZ NightBuzz music blog "Hard to Explain" the day before the Tucson gig.

Among the usual amenities-- wine, apples, organic snacks, and "hot, healthy meals"-- that rider contained the contentious request, "No U.S. Military entities in any form allowed within the event."

As Tucson is home to an air force base and an army intelligence center, not to mention countless active and retired U.S. military personnel, plenty of folks reading the blog took serious offense, interpreting the request as "arrogant," "discriminatory," anti-troops, and, hell, anti-American.

Some blog commenters were more eloquent than others. Said one "c.k.", "Its good to see,that with all our Men & Woman defending our Flag. There are still,Bussiness that care for the Kids over seas. The Brightblack Moring Light Band…...Isnt the Brightess Bulb on the block." Indeed.

Club Congress, meanwhile, gave the band the benefit of the doubt and simply struck the clause from the rider and allowed the show to go on. Everyone who paid was admitted-- military and civilians alike-- and while poorly attended, the event apparently went off without incident.

According to a Congress venue spokesperson, the sensible folks at Matador apologized for what was a "miscommunication" and simply amended the tour rider to read, "No military recruitment for the US Government may be held on site." 

See? Everything's okay now. Please, good people, turn off the computer and go outside and play.

Catch Brightblack as they continue defiling everything America holds sacred while on tour this spring. And just to show how much they hate this land of freedom, Brightblack and Matador are teaming to reduce tour-related carbon emissions. Matador has pledged to buy 50 pounds of carbon dioxide offset from environmental group TerraPass for every purchase made from the label's webstore. They've set a 30,000lb goal; help them reach it here.

Dates:

03-10 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge *^
04-17 Denton, TX - Hailey's
04-18 Austin, TX - Emo's
04-19 Houston, TX - Mink
04-20 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks $
04-22 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
04-23 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
04-25 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle $
04-26 Bloomington, IN - Landlocked Music $
04-27 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle $
04-30 Buffalo, NY - Soundlab $
05-02 Middletown, CT - Eclectic House $
05-04 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - Bard College $
05-05 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge $
05-06 Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw $
05-09 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
05-20 Somerset, England - Butlins Minehead (ATP vs. the Fans)

* with Women & Children
^ with William Fowler Collins
$ with Daniel Balthazar Higgs