After fighting writer’s block for four years, Drive-By Truckers singer/guitarist Mike Cooley is now back to work. English Oceans (ATO) is Cooley’s return to full-on songwriting—splitting the tracklist right down the middle after letting bandmate Patterson Hood steer the ship for the two albums prior—and is a return to form for the group as a whole. While DBT has never been a band to slack on the road or in the studio, English Oceans has the vigor and exuberance that made it one of America’s best rock groups. Cooley, Hood, bassist Matt Patton and multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Drive-By Truckers feature.
Hood: Congrats to the Republicans of Arizona for making even moronic governor Jan Brewer seem reasonable by drafting SB 1062, a bill making it legal for businesses to withhold service to LGBT customers on religious grounds. A bill so morally reprehensible (or perhaps threatening to Arizona’s bottom line as they prepare for next year’s Super Bowl) that Brewer vetoed it.
I get the idea of not wanting to take money from people one deems as threatening to one’s beliefs, especially if one’s beliefs are so fragile that even being in the same room or taking their order might lead to a period of questioning. However, if your straightness is hanging by a thread and you’re really that terrified of crossing the line to the other side then perhaps there’s a better use of your time than rooting for a mean-spirited new law to take effect and protesting the usually reliably neo-leaning Brewer for doing the right thing. Therapy. Prayer. Contact sports. Reading Bill O’Reilly’s latest tome.
I get the idea of not wanting to associate with those one deems unworthy of association. I would love it if gay-bashing, homophobic or racist or sexist assholes stayed away from our shows, but I’m not sure I’d want that to be policy enforceable by act of law.
At any rate, Brewer vetoed the bill and legally married gay couples in Arizona can …
Oh.
Nevermind.
Similar bills are being considered in Georgia, Oklahoma and Oregon, although I suspect that Oregon is being ironic.
