Let the sun shine in

I was a huge Soul Coughing fan. huge. And I have had eternal respect and love for Mike. I like his spoken word, his poems, his mind and his talent. He now puts that effort toward this message. And he is releasing it without his record co. though he likes them, because of his feelings about this needless war and death, ptsd and all the other suffering that is and will be a part of this ongoing travesty in Iraq. (h/t to jason my writing friend)

Bex Schwartz directed this video for "Fort Hood." We made it together, without the record company, because we wanted to get a message out there, about young people whose bodies and minds are still being damaged in Iraq.

Actually, by posting it here, and making it available on YouTube, and embeddable, we're bumming the record company out. They liked it when we showed it to them, and wanted to coordinate a whole marketing and radio campaign about it.

(And much respect to them--ATO are fantastic people, I'm grateful to be on their team.)

We were going to wait, and let them do their thing, but I watched the primary last night, and hearing Obama and Hillary snark at each other while this terrible nightmare is still going on, I realized I didn't want to wait.

It's up at AOL Spinner right now, and soon will be on Stereogum; we'd be humbled and grateful if you guys put it on your profiles; we'd like to get our message out. Thank you. Posted by Mike at April 23, 2008 7:44 PM

and this quote

The album’s most political song is “Fort Hood.” It borrows its chorus from “The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In),” a song from the seminal ‘60s musical Hair. The drama of the song’s Gospel-influenced arrangement is intensified by Kirby’s sanctified keyboard work and Doughty’s snarling vocal.

“Fort Hood is the Texas Army base that has lost the most troops in the Iraq War,” Doughty says. “I visited some of the wounded troops at Walter Reed Hospital in D.C. and wondered what was going through their minds. When I first thought about using ‘Let the sunshine in…’ as the chorus, I thought it would be funny, but when I sang it, I felt myself tearing up.

[‘Let the Sunshine In’] draws an obvious parallel to past quagmires, and all the vets who are suffering from PTSD. Once again the damage being done will not only be in lives lost, but in how those losses affect family, friends and society as a whole.

The bridge laments the fact that instead of going to the prom, they’ve been given a burden they’re going to have to live with forever.”

Let the sun shine in.

Send mike some love. Buy Golden Delicious here.