"Human trafficking is now the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world," the video claims. "It usually affects women and children. 2.4 million people are trafficked for the purposes of forced labor around the world, 43 percent specifically for sexual exploitation. Half the victims of trafficking are under 18."

Which is, like, CHILL OUT, Atari Teenage Riot, amirite?! Kids LOVE playing in traffic! The video goes on to cite some economic statistics and suggest that forced labor and child sex trafficking amount to a modern form of slavery, blah blah blah. (Reminds me of how At the Drive-In used their clip for the outstanding "Invalid Litter Dept." to raise awareness of the mass killings in Ciudad Juarez long before Roberto Bolano's magnum opus on the subject 2666, or, if you're an idiot, Van Halen.) Depending on your proclivities, you might find the racks of synths in the video to be more pornographic than the actual grainy porn clips projected throughout.

Too bad the song--"Blood in My Eyes," from the new album Is This Hyperreal? (out, weirdly, on Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records)--isn't better. As is, it mostly just serves to illustrate the HUGE gulf of time that has passed between the moment, mid-'90s, when Atari Teenage Riot and their musical construct of "Digital Hardcore" seemed dangerous and exciting, and the present, in which they seem to be just another electro rock band among countless others (albeit one still animated by some specific political fury). Still, I'm incredibly stoked to see how ATR present themselves at Bumbershoot this weekend, and to hopefully hear some blistering white noise and breakbeats and "Destroy 2000 Years of Culture" and all that. Along with Butthole Surfers, these guys are the "weird caustic noise act" of this year's fest, picking up the reins from HEALTH's set last year, and it's always a guiltless pleasure to see how that stuff goes over.

Atari Teenage Riot play Bumbershoot Sunday 9/4 at 4:45 p.m. at the Exhibition Hall Stage.

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​Yes! The first issue of Reverb Monthly--Seattle Weekly's new music magazine--is on the streets! For now, you can also check out all the stories over here. Inside, you'll find . . .

-- A review of EVERY local release scheduled for September, as well as just about every release we could find from August. If we missed your September release, ping us at reverbreviews@seattleweekly.com and we'll catch up in our October issue.

-- New columns from John Roderick, Indie Anna Jones, David Stoesz, and Eric Grandy.

-- A complete guide to Bumbershoot (See our take on every set on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday).

-- A profile of Faustine Hudson, Seattle's busiest drummer.

-- Upcoming show recommendations for the month of September in the fields of pop, rap, country, jazz, DJ/electronic, and a mouthful of late-night snack/sip picks.

-- And lots, lots more!

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​Contrary to popular belief, Ke$ha is about more than just drinking, dancing, and boys--she's charitably taken her partying image and collaborated with PETA for the above ad against Canadian seal murder.

PETA's website contains the following brilliant piece of copywriting (I've bolded my favorite lines/puns):

DJ, turn it up! Ke$ha's catchy melodies and slammin' beats have taken over the airwaves, turntables, and dance floors. But instead of blasting tunes, this pop princess is blasting Canada's shameful seal slaughter. Every year, a band of sealers descends on the ice to club hundreds of thousands of seals to death and sell the animals' pelts on the international fur market. These seals' suffering prompted Ke$ha to star in a public service announcement for PETA that reads, "Canada's Club Scene Sucks."More >>

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Ke$ha

Steven Dewall

​Electro-hip-hop trio Champagne Champagne has been one of Seattle's favorite rap acts since bursting on the scene in 2008. Since then they've put their hype put to good use with multiple festival appearances (Bumbershoot, South by Southwest, Sasquatch!), collaborations with Pacific Northwest groups (Thee Satisfaction, STRFKR), even a nod from Spin. We recently caught up with Champ Champ's producer Mark Gajadhar, aka DJ Gajamagic, who waxed a bit about the Seattle music scene, their forthcoming 7" split EP with STRFKR, and the closing of Sonic Boom in Capitol Hill.

Seattle Weekly: You guys have played Bumbershoot in the past. What, if anything, do you expect or hope to be different this year?

Mark Gajadhar: Last year we got to play inside the EMP, which was totally awesome. People were super-into the show, and Pearl "walked" on top of the crowd at the end of our set. Not sure what to expect this year, but I'm excited that we get to play an outdoor stage where people that would usually not see Champagne will kind of be forced to hear what we do. I think that will be a lot of fun. Plus we are playing near Flatstock, and that is one of my favorite parts about Bumbershoot. 

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Jack White with a couple of clowns.

​So . . . didn't see this one coming.

With last month's surprise one-off (well, two if you count the B-side) collaboration with Detroit hip-hop producer Black Milk, Jack White (The Dead Weather, Raconteurs), in the midst of what appears to be a rather volatile portion of his career, incited a flurry of speculation as to whom he would pair with next. As unexpected as the Milk session was, today's release of of his Insane Clown Posse-featured, Mozart-reimagined track "Leck Mich Im Arsch" ("Lick me in the arse") was a bit of a curve ball.

Broken down stylistically, who better/worse to trash-up Mozart's trashy side than ICP? I suppose somebody had to do it. So here we have it, with one of the most prolific guitarists of all time handling production, the face-painted Juggalo demi-gods Shaggy and Violent J (wish I didn't know that) bring novelty to a whole new level:

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By now, you've surely heard Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" on the radio. The indie-pop group's sleeper hit recently experienced a surge in airplay, and is currently #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.

What you may or may not know is that the super-infectious song is actually told from the perspective of a deeply disturbed, isolated teenager, and is a comment on the school shootings that have affected this nation. Undoubtedly, "Pumped Up Kicks" is incredibly well-executed, but if you want to hear its message in a less-ironic way, you ought to check out the slew of acoustic covers that have cropped up on YouTube. The best one by far is up-and-coming singer Jayme Dee's, a beautiful, stripped-down rendition in which the song's words really come to head. You'll like what you hear.

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​Simply put, Mavis Staples is a living soul-music legend. Her family group the Staple Singers (led by her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples, a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) left an indelible mark on the civil-rights movement of the '60s and '70s with their gospel-fueled R&B, most famously with the iconic funk vibe of 1972's "I'll Take You There." The singer's recent release, You Are Not Alone, was produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy who played on the album and crafted songs around Staples' deep, soulful vibrato. We recently caught up with the vivacious singer and Bumbershoot headliner to chat about soul music, Bob Dylan, and Adele.

Seattle Weekly: I read on your Wikipedia page that Bumbershoot alum Bob Dylan asked your father for your "hand in marriage." What's the story there? Have the two of you been in touch lately to discuss your recent projects?

Mavis Staples: Well that one is on me that it stopped. I was so young, I thought Dr. King might not like that, me marrying a white man. Later on, Pops told me that was foolish. He said, "Haven't you been listening to what Dylan is saying? Don't you see all the white people marching with us?" But I guess it's ancient history now. I was supposed to see him in Australia in the spring, but we missed [each other]. I did send him a message for his 70th, told him it's the new 60!

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​As you are no doubt aware, Seattle Weekly's Reverb Festival is fast approaching. Specifically, the big day is October 8, at locations throughout Ballard. In order to get us all in the mood, we've done a poll of seven august members of the Weekly's editorial staff to determine--what else?--the top 10 most awesome band names of Reverb, as well as the single most terrible name of them all. (And yes, there was a tie for 10th place.) The number to the right of the band's ranking indicates the band's point total, with a first-place vote being worth 10 points, and a 10th-place vote being worth one point. Get it? Good. Let's do this.

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​If you have a Xiu Xiu tattoo like this guy does (it's kind of a sad tattoo), the band may be rewarding you for your efforts. Yesterday Jamie Stewart posted on Xiu Xiu's website announcing:

helloh!

do you have a xiu xiu or xiu xiu related tattoo (brand or scar)?

we are making a poster as in insert for our next record that will feature a collection of these tattoos (brands or scars)

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Tattoos, Xiu Xiu

just wanna be slaves to an age-old trade, y'all

​Over the weekend, a statement from Tractor Tavern sound engineer Doug Krebs started making the rounds on Facebook, alleging that he'd been drunkenly assaulted by Head and the Heart frontman Jon Russell at a show last Tuesday (bolds his):

NOTICE OF CAUTION TO SOUND ENGINEERS OF THE BAND THE HEAD AND THE HEART

Last Tuesday night I was violently attacked by the lead singer of this band, Jon Russell. ...This attack was without any provocation and specifically directed at sound technicians. After approaching me at my work station and rudely accusing me of not being attentive or qualified for my job (which everyone in attendance refutes completely) I calmly asked him to leave. He angrily demanded to know what my name was. I told him I was not going to talk with him and asked him to leave once more. Thinking it was over, I went back to resetting the board. Out of nowhere he attacked me and began to choke me, pulling me out of the sound booth and digging his fingernails into the back of my neck while pushing his thumbs into the front of my throat. After his friends noticed he was attacking me, they grabbed him and removed him from the club kicking and screaming. All of his friends apologized profusely saying he has a bad temper and was intoxicated. He is now banned from entering my workplace for any reason indefinitely.

More here. Sub Pop has issued the following statement from Russell apologizing for the incident:

I deeply regret and am ashamed of my uncharacteristic behavior last week. I have expressed as much to the owner of the establishment and attempted to apologize to the person who I hurt, face-to-face. And while my apology can't erase my actions or make up for anything, really, it is sincere. I am truly sorry.

All of which might bring to mind another case of alleged drunken assault from a couple years ago by a little rap act known as Mad Rad--only there are some telling differences.

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