Music Screws Romney As One Band Issues a Cease and Desist Letter And Another Writes A Song About His Dog
It’s a really bad day for music for Mitt Romney…
NBC News is reporting that the alternative band Silversun Pickups has sent a cease and desist letter to the Romney campaign demanding that he stop playing their song “Panic Switch” at events. The band’s frontman, Brian Auberg, told E! News:
“We don’t like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don’t like the Romney campaign.”
Blunt enough, no?
Auberg continued:
“We’re nice, approachable people. We won’t bite. Unless you’re Mitt Romney! We were very close to just letting this go because the irony was too good. While he is inadvertently playing a song that describes his whole campaign, we doubt that ‘Panic Switch’ really sends the message he intends.”
The Romney campaign fired back this morning, saying that the playing of “Panic Switch” was more just a coincidence than anything else, playing while the campaign was setting up a stop in North Carolina. Campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul elaborated in an email to USA Today:
“As anyone who attends Gov. Romney’s events knows, this is not a song we would have played intentionally…That said, it was covered under the campaign’s regular blanket license, but we will not play it again.”
Romney isn’t the first presidential candidate to annoy an artist by using their music. In the 2008 election, Senator John McCain was sued by Jackson Browne for using “Running on Empty, while Barack Obama was criticized by Sam Moore for using “Soul Man”.
But that’s not the Republican presidential nominee’s only musical problem. While Devo member Jerry Casale says that the band’s new song, “Don’t Roof Rack Me, Bro,” isn’t meant to attack Romney, it is meant to mock him for his now legendary decision to strap his Irish Setter, Seamus, to the roof of his car for a 1983 vacation.
“This isn’t a red-state thing or Devo stumping for Obama…But I think any animal lover that hears the story will learn so much about the character flaw of Romney. It’s just a deal-breaker about the man. My God, the world is a scary place with seven billion people. What you want in a leader is a guy with some humanity at his core. I just don’t feel that Mitt does.”
On the flip side, Devo was asked about President Obama’s job performance over the last three years. His review was less than stellar:
“Absolutely not. Devo are not naive people. If anyone still thinks that the President of the United States of America runs things, they really live in the Wizard of Oz-land. My God, we’re a plutocracy. We’re owned and leveraged by global corporations...The difference between the two parties is like the difference between Pepsi and Coke.”
Take a listen to “Don’t Rook Rack Me, Bro” below, and make sure to keep up on your politics to see what happens come November.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuXunulTYpU