Coffeeshop Conversations #36: Simon (Young) Tam of the Slants: Portland band v. Federal Government

August 20, 2015 It's another Coffeeshop Conversation from World Cup Coffee and Tea at Northwest 18th and Glisan. With us in the cupping room is the founder of The Slants, Simon Tam also known as Simon Young…don’t worry, I’ll ask him about that… the purveyors of “Chinatown Rock” a combination of punk, synth-pop, rock and their own special sauce. Yes their name is a key factor, Simon chose it because it is a band made up of all Asian Americans, hence the joke, the slants, but which has much deeper meaning. And we’ll get into that. You may have read about their ongoing legal dispute with the federal government over the trademarking of their name. The feds say it’s disparaging to Asian-Americans, the band says, well, you know, we ARE Asian-Americans. Of course we’ll get into THAT.