DC punk band Ekko Astral uses their 2024 song "sticks and stones" as a direct critique of Dave Chappelle's transphobic jokes. The animated music video depicts JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle hooking up in a bathroom, created by animator lemonprom and visual artist Kate The Cursed. The video's concept originated from a drunken conversation between vocalist Jael Holzman and Kate at a DIY house show roughly a year earlier. Artists were given creative freedom with one explicit request, producing a triptych evoking I Saw the TV Glow that frames bigotry as theatre destroying people and society. The song centers on passive consumers watching cruelty passed off as comedy. The video serves as the final visual chapter from debut album pink balloons. Ekko Astral launched a fall tour supporting PUP and Jeff Rosenstock and partnered with the Gender Liberation Movement to create Liberation Weekend, which raised over $35,000 for trans rights advocacy.
"We told this artist they could let their freak flag fly and do whatever they wanted, but we had one big request: We wanted to animate JK Rowling and Dave Chappelle f ** king. Months and months later, this weird off-hand request turned into the most psychedelic and powerful visual of the entire album cycle, an I Saw the TV Glow-inspired triptych that serves as a metaphor for the way bigotry as theatre helps destroy people and society."
"Beyond being a kick-ass punk band, DC's Ekko Astral are tireless advocates for trans rights. Case in point: Their 2024 song "sticks and stones" is titled after Dave Chappelle 's comedy special as a direct critique of his transphobic jokes. With the song's new animated music video, Ekko Astral add another notorious transphobe, JK Rowling, into the mix by showing the author hooking up with Chappelle in a bathroom."
Collection
[
|
...
]