Village Voice Says, Wesleyan: "'cool'" Middletown: "a drab backdrop"

If you've strolled down High Street recently, you may have passed the epicenter of hipness, Eclectic House, on the Wesleyan campus. You may not have noticed anything suspicious, but that could simply be a matter of time-of-day.

According to an article in the latest edition of the Village Voice, which verifies this hip cred in a clever refutation of the British music press, a lot of the most talked-about, creative, interesting and edgy new Brooklyn bands have Wesleyan roots.

You haven't heard of most of them yet. It may be a few years off until you dance to the music of MGMT, Das Racist or Boy Crisis at the wedding of a twenty something who has hired a with-it DJ, but you will, my friend, you will, and at that point Wesleyan will be hip no more.

I wonder which future rock stars I've screamed at, out my window, as music flowed, at 3 a.m., from the open windows at 65 Pearl.

The article talks all about how the world is getting it wrong, that Wesleyan has a "nerd culture" and not a hipster culture. I think there's a little of both going on, and that nerdiness has become a virtue, just as it was in early DIY days. How else would one explain the explosion of contra dancing, and banjo and accordion music on campus?

The Voice also talks about Ray Tintori, filmmaker to the future stars, who caught attention with his marvelous senior thesis film Death to the Tinman, and how he made a recent return to Wes to film a music video in which he was "running neon splatter-patterns across Middletown's drab backdrop as Boy Crisis's members fly across the screen, dancing pseudo-sexily."




Hey. That's mostly Portland's drab blandness in the video. Our drab blandness is much more of a unique banality, than the oil tank, and under-bridge angles Tintori has chosen. Though it's nice, once again, to be chosen for that "rusting America" look. Something that hasn't happened since Billy Joel had hair.

H/T to Wesleying. Can't wait to have you back on campus.