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The Decemberists and Obama in Robert Knight’s mind
(Photograph: Australian Grand Prix / Getty)
The director of the Media Research Council’s Culture and Media Institute, Robert Knight, discovers that Barack Obama was using Real Live Rawk ‘n Roll stars to create the illusion that he’s kind of a big deal:
From CNN to the New York Times, the media hyped Barack Obama’s Portland, Oregon rally on Sunday, some comparing him to a rock star.
Unmentioned in national reporting was the fact that Obama was preceded by a rare, 45-minute free concert by actual rock stars The Decemberists. The Portland-based band has drawn rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine, which gave their 2005 album Picaresque four and a half stars (out of five), and another four and a half stars for 2007’s The Crane Wife.
I think that it goes without saying that anyone who still references Rolling Stone "album" reviews to gauge the popularity of band probably listens to Huey Lewis and the News’ Sports when he wants to get "funky". And just to prove that Mr. Knight is not the only one on the right who is, shall we say, musically obtuse, we give you Michael Goldfarb, one of then otherwise unemployable young neocons suckling on Murdoch wingnut welfare at The Weekly Standard:
This was Obama’s rally in Oregon over the weekend, which saw 75,000 people gather on the waterfront, on a sunny summer day, to hear the great one speak. Or did they? The headline in the New York Times was "Obama Draws Huge Crowd in Oregon." So they must have been there to see Obama, right? Wrong.
Hugh points to this report from the local paper:
Obama was the biggest star at Sunday’s gathering — though a popular Portland band, The Decemberists, provided the warmup act. With blue skies and temperatures in the 80s, many in the crowd said Waterfront Park was simply the place to be.
I don’t listen to that kind of noise pollution, but I know that on a gorgeous, unseasonably mild day in Portland, a free performance by a hugely successful local band is likely to draw a huge crowd, and it seems that’s precisely what happened. Nobody denies that Obama is a phenomenon, drawing enormous crowds wherever he goes, but this was reported like all of Oregon showed up to see Obama. New information has come to light.
Hugh also notes that The Decemberists typically open their shows with what I’m sure is a stirring rendition of the Soviet national anthem. No word on whether they opened the Obama rally with such a performance, but I’m certain our trusted media would have reported it if they did.
I realize that using the Soviet national anthem at their shows is a reference that might be above Hugh and Michael’s pay grade, but "noise pollution"?
Enjoy the commie rockers now before a heavily-armed Hugh and Goldfarb show up at one of the Decemberist concerts screaming "Wolverines!".
At least that’s better than them yee-hawing for Free Bird.
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The day was unseasonably mild! Global warming is a plot to elect some black guy president! Al Gore is behind it all!
(Sure, but is it any *more* crazy than what the cited pseudo professionals just said? Also, not a huge Decemberists fan, but even I know it’s not “noise pollution”.)
I must not be up on my wingnut welfare recipients, but WHO is this “Hugh” character that Michael Goldfarb is referring to?
I added the link that Goldfarb was too cool to include because everyone knows that he and Hewitt are totally BFF’s
Remember in 2005, when Donald Rumsfeld & the All-star Neo-Con Circle Jerkers decided to celebrate 9/11 with a concert-slash-patriotic walk on the Mall in DC? They invited the biggest name in country music, Clint Black, to play on a nice September day. And — wow! — the turnout was a whopping 4,000-11,000 people, depending on who did the counting. So while Clint Black clearly sucks significantly more than The Decemberists (well, duh!) he can draw a crowd on his own, so maybe, just maybe, the right-wing easy listening fans at The Weekly Standard are going to have to concede that Obama is pretty hot shit these days and can actually draw a crowd — unlike the pretender-in-chief or his suggested “hip” replacement, Johnny McSame.
Oh, and remember waay back in the cold, cold winter of 2003, when millions of people hit the streets to protest the pending war? There were no concerts, just a conviction that the war was wrong. We were ridiculed by the wingnuts as Dirty Fucking Hippies and largely ignored by the mainstream press as as irrelevant nuisance. But there were millions of us. And we were right. Just like the 75,000 in Oregon. Decemberists or not.
So if the “majority” of the folks were there only to see the band…why didn’t they leave after their performance??? I will admit that a “mild day in Portland” might bring some additional supporters out of the woodwork, (in San Diego we don’t even go outside unless it’s over 74 degrees) but I’m guessing that the crowd would have thinned out pretty significantly if they were only there to dance. The right wing (and, sadly, Team Hillary) cannot wrap their brains around the idea that a BLACK man can potentially mobilize the populace in a way that hasn’t been seen for a very long time. It actually makes me hopeful….
Old guys in “clown make-up” don’t do it for me. Guess that’s another reason not to vote Republican.
Ohhhhh, I was afraid that might be a cue for “The Picture” (see the next post. If you dare).
So yeah. Right. Of course an inde rock band that routinely plays 500-1000 seat venues would help you draw in an extra 50,000 or so.
Some quotes from the original article:
“Steven Kassing, his wife, 1-year-old toddler and mother-in-law, waited for more than three hours with no guarantee they’d get in.” Man, the Decemeberists sure are popular.
“It appears to be a record crowd for an Oregon political event. In 2004, 50,000 turned out to see Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who brought along movie idol Leonardo DiCaprio and rocker Jon Bon Jovi. ” Bigger than Bon Jovi.
And “Obama’s first words to the cheering crowd: bicycle lanes.” Oregon hippies (oh, I ride my bicycle to work once a week)
They are so in denial about what is going to happen this November their heads will explode. And, to be fair, if John Boy and the thugs win my head will explode.
And thanks for the Decemberists reference. I was as clueless as Mike and Hugh obviously are about where that name came from. A little extra irony.
The Crane Wife is a brilliant album*. Gonna go put it on right now.
*Yeah, I said “album”. As in c: one or more recordings (as on tape or disc) produced as a single unit (a 2-CD album). No snot-nosed kid blogger is gonna make me forgo my lingo.
The Klan always said that damn jungle music would lead to our ruination…
Incidentally, thanks for the swipe at that asshole Huey Lewis. I defy anyone to name a worse pop music year than 1983.
Why, yes, those crazy Decemberists are going to destroy America. There is nothing like recycled R.E.M., mellowed a bit and timewarped 10 years that will do that. They must be communists.
Sigh, for punk, for protest music, for modern music, and distinctly not for modern politicians, even though I know it is part of the game.
(Apologies if you like them – no offense. But this is political?)
Incidentally, thanks for the swipe at that asshole Huey Lewis. I defy anyone to name a worse pop music year than 1983.
dit-dit-dit-dit
I only wear “clown make-up” when I go to a benefit for these guys: http://www.clownswithoutborders.org/ … oh, and I’m old.
Hootie and the blowfish emerged in 1994. That alone would have to damn the year as the worst of the worst.
Wait — BICYCLE LANES??? Now I AM convinced: Obama is the flying wedge for the commies. He must be stopped before bicycle lanes crisscross this once-great land.
And The Decembrists? Recycled R.E.M., mellowed a bit, and dipped in musical theater.
Apparently, McOldmanyellsatcloud needs to start using the Kiss-style makeup. I guess he’s a scary sight on high-def.
Capt, if I want to grate on my sons’ eardrums, I say “record player” or “phonograph,” as in, “I didn’t own a record player until I was in my late twenties.” When they begin to moan, I add, “Gramaphone? Victrola?”
Child abuse? No! Young adult abuse! (Heh.)
I wonder when was the last time the Decembrists drew 75,000 to a concert.
How can these Republican freaks be such fuddy-duddys and still have such awesomely adventurous sex?
Check out sadly no!, they are all over this and have pix up of the latest decembrist gig without obama (hint, they weren’t allowed to have more than 700 listeners). I think Obama might actually have brought *them* some street cred. But even funnier is the notion that people love a warm day in the park so much that they and their elderly mother’s and teeny toddlers go to enjoy a *standing room only crowd*. I don’t care how nice the park is if I can’t get to the teeter totter in a reasonable period of time I’m heading home.
aimai
Of course. The Decemberists were used to lure unsuspecting(and most assuredly otherwise non-political) Portland denizens to an Obama campaign TRAP!!
What? Oh. It seems that the appearance by the Decemberists was not announced in advance. Nevermind.