Episodes

Episode 23: Datarock, Congressional Beatdown, and BBQ LP

Ket-ill and Frederik of Datarock/photo by: Rico Gagliano

This week: Norway’s Datarock toot their own horn… we’re knocked out by a drink served beaten, not stirred… and Brendan eats BBQ with a side of vinyl.

Drink Recipe: “The Abolitionist Old Fashioned”

On May 22, 1856 in the U.S. Senate Chamber, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner unconscious with a wooden walking cane. Brooks’ rationale: a speech Sumner had made two days earlier, criticizing Southerners who sympathized with pro-slavery violence in Kansas. The incident made both men heroes in their own regions. Not long after the incident, Rep. Brooks died at the young age of 37, possibly of bad karma… but the incident lives on in this free-state version of the classic Old Fashioned.

The Abolitionist Old Fashioned, as created for the DPD by bar manager Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard in Boston, MA:

In an Old Fashioned glass, add:

  • 1 sugarcube soaked in angostura bitters
  • 1 dash orange bitters
  • splash of soda water

Muddle, fill with ice and add:

Garnish with orange twist, drink, and embrace your fellow man.

After Dinner Mint

notes on this week’s show

Datarock make for swell listening, and sweller viewing. Evidence: the “Beat It”-esque video for their new single “Give It Up,” complete with gang wars, synchronized breakdancing and yards of red fabric.

As mentioned in our interview: Check out what happens when Datarock’s Ket-Ill removes the track suit and becomes world-renowned jazz superhero Kjetil Moester.

And while we’re on a music roll, this week’s “One For The Road” is from Australian pop darlings The Lucksmiths. This week, after 16 years, they announced they’re calling it quits. Planning a trip to Europe this summer? Might want to try to dovetail with their farewell tour.

While Sen. Charles Sumner delivered his infamous anti-slavery “Crime Against Kansas” speech, Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas was said to mutter, “That damned fool will get himself killed by some other damned fool.” Was Sumner’s two-day-long oration worth a beat-down? Judge for yourself.

And finally — as mentioned in this week’s “Small Talk” — Britain has spoken: Pringles are potato chips. The court has yet to issue guidance on just what the hell Funyuns are.