The Mountains Goats: Power in a Union

Power In A Union from JD on Vimeo.

Everybody knows I don't generally do the acoustic guitar guy rocking political jams deal but as a former member of SEIU 660 & the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians & a kid who benefited from great teachers I wanted to spend tonight saying WE ARE ON YOUR SIDE xo jd

Without trying to make a case for being cooler than I actually am (I should hope this blog will dispel any such notion of me being cool that may have lingered), I have been listening to the Mountain Goats for a really long time. I still remember going to Newberry Comics in Harvard Square to buy Hot Garden Stomp, on tape.  I saw MG for the first time Upstairs at the Middle East just after the album Full Force Galesburg came out (which according to Wikipedia was in 1997, also the year I graduated from High School). The long and short of it is that I really like John Darnielle, I also like Billy Bragg, and I suppose to most of this country I am a Commie Pinko nut ball, so the above video and this Mother Jones article make me very happy.

March

is quiet.

Giant forms
passing on the way up Mt St. Helen
western hills singing odes to Satan's starry looms

never was from Boston anymore
but waited all night near where Foster's cafeteria
Sutter and Polk
a stoned John Wieners harvested prophesies all night long

what streets made you lamb?

When The Haar Rolls In

This song appeared on my I-pod via a compilation CD that came with an issue of Mojo featuring the Kinks I bought at Trident Cafe/Bookstore in Boston over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Mojo calls these comps "mixes" which makes me long for the days of the mixed tape. As mixed tapes go this was a pretty good one; one other notables on it is Nick Lowe's The Rose of England. 

As for the Haar and accompanying video above, it sort of appeared out of the blue to me one day and continues to do so whenever I am in the mood for a long narrative complete with acoustic guitar backing. I like this video too. I have been watching a lot of driving movies: see both Radio On and Vanishing Point, this video fits in well with such a theme. Walking to work this morning amid the wet gray weather feeling a bit sentimental about being in the final days of working at the same place I have at been for the last six years (now that I have some distance from it) this song came on and suited the environment. I think about all the people I would make mix tapes for and the songs I would choose to hint at the things I don't see any reason to say anymore but still think sometimes:

And now I'm more concerned with keeping the neighbors cat out of the garden than I am with who you may or may not be fucking and who may be dancing a jig in the middle...