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. Watch the clip, made by animator lemonprom and visual artist Kate The Cursed, below.
In a recent Bluesky post, the band explained that the video came out of vocalist Jael Holzman’s drunken conversation with Kate at a DIY house show roughly one year ago:
“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.”
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Holzman further explained in a press release that the “song’s central conceit was always the passive consumer of modern media, essentially trapped in their seats watching cruelty passed off as comedy on full display.”
The “sticks and stones” video is Ekko Astral’s “final visual chapter” from their debut album, April 2024 staff pick pink balloons (grab a physical copy here). Tonight (September 2nd), the band is kicking off a fall tour which will see them primarily supporting PUP and Jeff Rosenstock. See the full list of dates below, and get tickets here.
In May, Ekko Astral teamed up with the Gender Liberation Movement to launch Liberation Weekend, a two-day music and arts festival in Washington, DC that raised over $35,000 for trans rights advocacy.
Ekko Astral 2025 Tour Dates:
09/02 — Eau Claire, WI @ Leona’s *
09/03 — Minneapolis, MN @ Palace Theatre ^
09/04 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee ^
09/05 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed ^
09/06 — Detroit, MI @ Russell Industrial Center ^
09/08 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE ^
09/09 — Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! ^
09/10 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre ^
09/20 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte ^
09/24 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall ^
09/25 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues Dallas ^
09/26 — San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger ^
09/27 — Austin, TX @ Radio East ^
09/30 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren ^
10/01 — San Diego, CA @ The Sound ^
10/02 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium ^
10/04 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater ^
10/06 — Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom ^
10/07 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo ^
10/09 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at The Complex ^
10/11 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom ^
10/14 — Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse
10/15 — St. Louis, MO @ The Sinkhole
10/16 — Indianapolis, IN @ Healer
* = w/ gash and Kat and The Hurricane
^ = w/ PUP and Jeff Rosenstock