Neko Case and the Department of Education
It seems that a new, hipper era of governance really has arrived here in the nation’s capital. Seyward Darby explains:
Spotted: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan introducing flame-haired indie goddess Neko Case at the 9:30 Club last night. But … why? Is the Cabinet member a devoted Neko fan, or is she a big supporter of education reform? (A friend who was at the concert said she put in a good word for Obama’s education plans.)
As it turns out, the backstory proves, yet again, just how tied the administration is to the Chicago scene. Last week, the Department of Education hired Tim Tuten, co-owner of The Hideaway, a hip Chicago club, as assistant secretary for communications and outreach. (He’s also been a schoolteacher in the Windy City.) Tuten is friends with Neko, a fixture in recent years at The Hideaway, and he set up Duncan’s introduction. “That’s all Tim making something like that happen, connecting those two things [education and music],” Duncan told The Chicago Tribune through a spokesman on April 1. “No one thinks like him. We need more of that here.” And Tuten’s not the only music promoter on board at the DOE: He was brought on by Peter Cunningham, “a Chicago musician and media specialist,” according to the Tribune.
Good times. That said, I always find it slightly annoying when bands come to DC and bring a political message to an audience that inevitably contains a huge number of people working professionally in the political game. I remember especially being at a Death Cab show in October 2004 and listening to Ben Gibbard explain how important it was to help John Kerry get elected. As if political apathy is a big problem among young professionals in the DC area or something.
But churlishness aside, I think an innovative public relations approach is welcome. Especially as it pertains to government agencies trying to bring messages to people outside the Beltway. One important task for progressive governance is making people more aware of the positive role government programs play in many people’s lives, and of the importance of engaging in the political and policy process. That’s harder to define than “pass a health care bill” but over the long run I think its equally important.
29 Responses to “Neko Case and the Department of Education”
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April 9th, 2009 at 9:29 am
The conjunction of Ben Gibbard and DC brings to mind the Postal Service song “DC Sleeps Tonight.”
Sadly, I much prefer Neko’s work with the New Pornographers to this latest solo effort.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am
It’s “the Hideout,” not “the Hideaway.” See http://www.hideoutchicago.com/.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:39 am
A Chicago club owner? We’re supposed to be impressed? How about KAL PENN? Yeah, that’s right, Kumar’s in the Cabinet.
Well, no, not the Cabinet, but the Administration.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Can’t wait to see Kal Penn working on Guantanamo Bay issues.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Or on the drugs task force.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:51 am
What Blago said. TNR: not hip. Shocking, I know.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Sigh.
They can fuck like weasels , for all I care. Given that they are Democrats, like Self-conscious, awkwardly hip, narcissitic weasels. Just fix the fucking financial mess.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:03 am
I’d rather marry Zooey Deschanel than be a blogger.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Feh. I think i’ll wait till Steve Albini plays the White House to be impressed.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:06 am
It’s the Hideout, not “The Hideaway.” Sheesh.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
interestingly enough, Ben Gibbard sort of addressed this topic at the Death Cab show last night at Constitution Hall. He said something along the lines of how refreshing it must be for people living in the DC area not having to hear bands rail against the president.
He also said that it must’ve been frustrating to go to shows and here bands say “f*ck Bush” every night when you’re probably thinking, “yeah…I know”
As an aside, it was a great show last night!
April 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Ugh, jaw jawing about policy or politics at a concert is so tedious. But no one could be self-important like Fugazi. Man, the preaching about politics from the stage was just too annoying for words.
That, and the lecturing about how to behave.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:27 am
What Barry Freed said.
If I had to pick a single musician to symbolize the smug condescending insiderness that people with real jobs love to hate, it would be Neko Case.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Anal correction to TNR – “DOE” refers to the Department of Energy. The Department of Education is abbreviated “ED”.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I think you should cut Gibbard some slack (and other bands in that situation). These are bands on multi-month, nationwide tours… we should be happy when they even know what city they are in on a given night, instead of complaining that they didn’t do thorough demographic research on their bus ride in from Philly.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:41 am
James Gary and Barry Freed would probably consider Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters HUGE SELLOUTS, but I caught them at a Halloween show in 2000 with Queens of the Stone Age opening and before the Foo Fighers came on two people dressed as Teletubbies came out on stage. Then they took off their heads (I was freaking out man) and one had an Al Gore mask and the other had a Bush mask. That was awesome.
If I had to pick a single musician to symbolize the smug condescending insiderness that people with real jobs love to hate, it would be Neko Case.
Her new album was third on the charts after U2 and Taylor Swift. Wouldn’t people have to have “real jobs” to be buying those albums. Maybe they love to hate her but buy her music anyway.
What has Steve Albini done lately?
April 9th, 2009 at 10:44 am
What has Steve Albini done lately?
Good question.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:52 am
What has Steve Albini done lately?
Stuck to his guns and continued to produce/engineer—for an affordable rate— musicians whose work he believes in. Pretty much the same thing he’s done for the last twenty years.
I realize it’s not as attention-getting as the Teletubbies thing, but there you go.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I for one wish the Obama administration would stop proving to me how cool it is and just get to work.
Yes, unconventional outreach good, blah blah blah. But at some point, who cares how much people like you if you can’t leverage that into policy change. You’re President now (and/or a Cabinet member), you can ease up on the efforts to make sure the twentysomethings know you’re cool.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am
@19:
Yeah, cause see, Obama is spending all his time on the ncaa bracket, rock music and organic gardening.
I heard while he was overseas, he was watching all the sxsw vids on his ipod.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:22 am
But churlishness aside…
Never!
April 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Arne Duncan’s elevator speech felt awkward, disconnected and inauthentic. If the message doesn’t communicate urgency or authenticity, what good is it? Neko Case is a brilliant artist with an interesting story tied to the importance of arts education…particularly when it comes to access for all or integrated disciplines…and she ultimately filled in the message where there wasn’t one. If government pop ups in front of a room full of passionate concert goers (sans suit jacket, whatever) and gives a dry sermon so stiff and uncreative that the artist and band mates poke fun of it later in the show…what good does it do? A signature piece of merch or a pitch for an associated event would have been ‘more innovative public relations’ Telling a packed house, filled with people who spend their money and time on art, that they ‘really need to think about the importance of arts education’ is not that savvy or productive.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Stuck to his guns and continued to produce/engineer—for an affordable rate— musicians whose work he believes in. Pretty much the same thing he’s done for the last twenty years.
So nothing people with “real jobs” have heard of in other words.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:57 am
That’s great that Arne Duncan is into the indie music scene. Too bad, though, that he left Chicago with only 7% of its black eighth graders proficient in math. Some educator! Everyone knows that black students have the same potential as white students, so it’s clearly the fault of the educational establishment in Chicago (i.e., Duncan) that so few black kids could do math.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
As someone who has seen many, many shows at the “Hideaway”, including Neko Case before she started sucking (check out “Furnace Room Lullaby” for example), I can verify that Tim Tutten is one of the mose annoying human beings on the planet.
I almost walked out of several shows while listening to his over-the-top, insight-free, interminable rantings about whatever political delusion he was under the spell of at the time.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Listen to Neko’s song ‘Prison Girl’s’. Go ahead, just listen.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Dude, there was a new Shellac album, like, last year. You totally lose.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Neko Case?
Cat Case?
April 9th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I kinda think there ought to be MORE bands from the hinterlands going to DC to lecture all you too-cool politcal insiders about politics. Ya’ll lecture us about all our shit all the time, often when you haven’t a clue. As when MY was suggesting all the federal land in the West be sold off.