by contributor Wendy Gordon
What’s black and white and sung all over? It’s Journopalooza V, a gathering of the latest and greatest Journo-bands. Yes. ‘Journo-bands.’ Be afraid, Rolling Stones, be very afraid.
The city’s most popular battle of the bands this year was at the Black Cat, where six acts vied for the title of “DC’s best media band.”
More than just a good time, Journopalooza supports two charities dedicated to improving literacy and writing skills of DC youth: REACH, Inc and Writopia.
WJLA anchor and Emmy-award-winning reporter Scott Thuman hosted the writers’ musical soiree, featuring the now musical scribes from The Washington Post, Reuters, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, NPR and McClatchy with band names like Butter; Cheaper Than Therapy; Dirty Bomb; Nobody’s Business; the 2010 and 2011 winner, Suspicious Package; and the 2012 champion, The Stepping Stones. This year’s performers even included E Street Band drummer, Max Weinberg’s kids.
Performing to a packed house, the moonlighting musicians rocked out with covers, original material and everything from the bluesy to the folk to out and out rock and roll.
Suspicious Package
We won’t compromise our integrity by telling you for whom we were rooting, but this year’s winners, for a third smash year, was… (drum roll, please) Suspicious Package, featuring the finely honed musical talents of Prize-winning Washington Post political cartoonist Toles former TIME and Bloomberg correspondent Tim Burger, Medill National Security Journalism Initiative Director Josh Meyer (twice a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning teams during two decades at the Los Angeles Times and co-author of an important new book The Hunt for KSM, Senior government officials Bryan Greene and Christina Sevilla, lead vocalist.
We salute your talent as well as your chutzpah, Journo-bands. We’re looking forward to hearing more—whether you give up your day jobs or not.
