TRIBE pulls a Lil Wayne & leaks their own 2010 costumes ...

... but they kinda suck. Sigh.

So we here at The Angry Pothound are not Carnival-ites. Don't get us wrong, The Dog has been known to play mas most years and generally is all about the jump-up. But we have some Commandments which we hope you're familiar with, the First one being "Thou shalt no longer spend thy entire year's salary to play mas/Carnival 365 days a year, in every possible Carnival around the globe. The Dog says to cool it a little bit, there's a worldwide economic recession."

Obviously, it would be pretty hypocritical of us to get all Carnival-crazy now, right? But we catch the bug every now and again, and happily join in the free-drinking, costume-wearing festivities from year to year. We can't help ourselves. It's fun. The Dog likes fun. He even has his special Dog-tailored costume made for him every year.

So when we got the word that photos of Tribe's 2010 presentation "The Secret of Silk" had been leaked, we checked our inbox and, true enough, one of our contacts had the leak and had already sent it along to us. We looked through the presentation, just so we can say for sure we did it, and ...

Not. Impressed.

The Dog is not impressed. We want to put this in a way that won't hurt any feelings. Like a really nice break-up letter. Because, honestly, we love Tribe. We think they're great. They're the most fun band every single year, and they're more organized than our country's own government.

Sigh. Here’s our open letter to Tribe. Here goes.


Dear Tribe,

Don't take this the wrong way. We love you, and we know that we've been cool for a while. It's been great. We had great times in 2008. And 2009, well it was soooo memorable. You met some of my friends too for the first time. They loved you, it was awesome! But for 2010, I'm not sure if we can continue doing this.

In this relationship, you've made sure I've been happy and comfortable. Every year you give me free food and drinks, and those amazing cooling mist trucks that I love when I'm on the road. I give you money when you ask for it. It's been a nice, mutualistic relationship.

We've had some great times. That time when you let me onto the air-conditioned Heineken bus when I was sweating and thought I couldn't go on. You gave me hope when I didn’t have any. When I lost my TLC card, you found my information and let me register. You’re always doing nice, thoughtful things like that, you’re so organized. It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you.

It’s not us, it’s you. Honestly. We really didn’t expect you to leak your 2010 costumes, especially because Island People already did that last year when they leaked their 2009 presentation “Heaven On Earth” to mixed reviews. We thought you were better than that. And we definitely didn’t anticipate that you would charge people TT$300 for the launch too. Moreover, we’re so let down by the actual costumes themselves. Sigh, the costumes. It’s sooo hard to write this stuff to you. Trying to be brave.

The costumes are kind of ... well, fugly. They are not worth much buzz. And people spend their salaries and put themselves in debt just to be able to be part of the jump-up, including the preliminary parties and fetes, so it all really needs to be worth it, Tribe. If you are not going to put the effort in, it makes me think that you’re not willing to put the effort into our relationship either. And I told myself a long time ago that I would never fall for someone that wasn’t ready to commit to a relationship. You take me for granted all the time. But no more. I am breaking up with you.

Don’t be confused: I love you, Tribe. So much. But love is like this. It's about give and take. But these days, it’s more like I give, you take. But no more. I’ve got to be strong, and learn when to say “no” to you. So I’m saying “no” now, for the first time.

I love you very much.

I’m so sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, one day.

Love,
The Angry Pothound
*arf


Wow, that was hard to write. But The Dog is trying to be brave here. Things are, IFFY with Tribe right now, you know? BUT, if you want to see the costumes, The Dog thinks He can do that for you. Leave a comment with your email address on this post for us here at The Angry Pothound, and we’ll email you the photos. And we won’t make you pay for it. It goes against everything The Dog stands for. We would put the photos up for you to see here yourselves, but we would not like to get sued. We feel like Tribe would sue us. It may be a nasty divorce. We’ll let you know how it goes.