Morgan Enos is a musician, essayist and music journalist specializing in classic rock. He records and performs as Other Houses and has bylines in Billboard, HuffPost, the Recording Academy, Vinyl Me, Please, TIDAL and more. He is also the co-founder and editor of North of the Internet, a series of conversations with creative people. He can be found at his website.
Look, I had no intention of continuing to make Mark Kozelek parodies after February’s Under the Canopy.
Until yesterday, when I heard Sun Kil Moon’s new song “God Bless Ohio,” off his upcoming album, Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood (2017). I was astonished by this extended jam about appreciating your origins — warts and all.
But I’ve never been to Ohio. So, I wrote, recorded and uploaded “God Bless Atascadero” to YouTube within the hour.
To even the scales between the real and false Kozeleks, my alternate-universe Mark’s song is about his upbringing in my hometown, mostly known for its hospital for deviants and underfunded zoo. The gorgeously elegaic lyrics are gilded with classical trills and light percussion.
Thank you, real Kozelek. Let us never forget our roots.
