What's Your Problem? This Week: Wheat-paste Makes Waste

The Afflicted: Bluegrass-rock outfit Junior League, which has been twanging up the District since 2006.

Diagnosis: Wheat allergy. Junior League has been using a flour-and-water concoction to post fliers in D.C. since the band’s first show. But outside the District, that process can get sticky. “Different places have very specific, weird rules about wheat-pasting and postering,” says lead singer Lissy Rosemont. For example: “Wheat-pasting, apparently, is illegal in Arlington.”

Symptoms: D-I-whine. Junior League has found a way to get D.C. police off their posters: “We carry around a copy of the D.C. code to show that it’s legal,” says harmonica player Martin Thomas. But the band’s papier-mâché work doesn’t have such paper support outside the District Line. Last fall, when wheat-pasting for a show at Arlington’s Iota Club & Café, Rosemont and Thomas got some unwanted attention from the boys in blue. “We were fliering up and down Wilson Blvd., and these cops rolled up and flipped their sirens on us,” says Rosemont.

Treatment: Papering dumb. Clarendon cops let Junior League off the hook after taking a look at Rosemont’s ID. “I have a Georgia license, so they thought we were from out of town and gave us the benefit of the doubt,” says Rosemont. “They ended up just making us take our fliers down and giving us a warning.” But the scare has stopped the band from promoting future Virginia shows on paper. “Martin was getting on the cops about our legal rights, but I told him to just give it up,” says Rosemont. Now, Junior League’s Arlington promotion has gone green. “We usually just use MySpace and e-mail,” she says.

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