Everybody smash up your seats and rock to this brand new beat

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.