Pavement//All My Friends, Jackson Browne//I Am A Patriot

Who are you hanging out with on Thanksgiving? Don’t worry if you don’t have plans. You can come over to our place. After all, it’s Friends and Family Week here at OSS, so of course we set a plate for you.

I wish I was best friends with Stephan Malkmus. He’s like the crowned king of 90s indie rock.

Everybody’s going out tonight! Can I come? This song gets dark after a bit, but I love the first part because it reminds me of hanging out in Ann Arbor with all my friends and going to lots of shows.



All My Friends.mp3

Ok, so this song…I need to make a little concession here. While this song is amazing, the production values are pretty fucking terrible. It sounds like someone got wasted and spilled reverb all over this thing, which makes it intensely cheesy and again,

A lot of Jackson Browne sounds like this, but I love Jackson Browne! This is the man who wrote Running on Empty! This is the man who wrote These Days for Nico, and sang it way better than her.

The first time I remember hearing this song was at Morning Reflection at Frost Valley (the hippie summer camp I went to for 8 years of my life). Instead of prayer, Morning Reflection was a space for anyone to tell a story, sing a song or share something with the camp community (again, hippie camp—we also had activities like wellness, relaxation, meditation, simulations of the underground railroad and Herdstock, our own version of Woodstock, I SHIT YOU NOT). Someone covered this song and the 9 year old version of me was really moved. For that reason, it will always have a special, warm and fuzzily nostalgic place in my heart.

This song is about being the right kind of patriot. This means the kind of patriot where your country feels like your home and your citizens feel like your family. I think the recent election should help us take a step back toward this, at least I truly hope this will be the case.



I Am A Patriot.mp3

I want to be with my family,
People who understand me.