Still my favorite comma in Austin (Taken with instagram)

Today’s song: “Main Street,” Deer Tick

I never really cared much for Deer Tick’s music before, and I probably wouldn’t even have listened to the album that this song was on except that I was assigned a write-up of this video. To my surprise, I really connected with the song immediately. It’s funny what you can find in places you’re not looking.

It opens almost exactly the same as the Afghan Whigs version of “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” which maybe had a subconscious effect, but really, it just reminds me of what Nirvana might have become, if Kurt Cobain had lived and gotten really into alt-country at some point. It’s at a carefully-orchestrated mid-tempo throughout, with a pair of undeniable hooks — in the chorus, and at the start of each verse. It’s all of the things that Nirvana was good at, but it also sounds contemporary and like the pain that John McCauley is expressing is his own — this isn’t pastiche (which was my problem with so much of Deer Tick’s music in the past), it’s something original. It reinterprets their influences, but it’s every bit their own. And it really does sound great.

MATTHIAS IS COMING

MATTHIAS IS COMING FOR YOU

HE IS SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE COWBOYS

WE’RE THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD

Maybe these have been around for a while and I just missed them, but in any case, I love these updated NFL logos by designer Wes Kull. They’re lovely, of course, but what I like best about them is that they’re true to each team’s identity. It’s not a wholesale re-imagining that ignores the history and iconography previously associated with any of them — it’s just a take on that iconography that’s a lot prettier, in most cases, while still looking appropriately classic, tough, traditional, football-y, etc.

One thing the NFL does that has always impressed me is known how to market to very distinct types of people. Are you a dude who wears vintage (or vintage-inspired) clothes and bums around all day in plaid shirts and plastic glasses? (Er, yeah…) They’ve got you covered. Wear Ed Hardy and love downing Smirnoff Ice? There’s room for you, too. Whatever your personal style, you can show your love for your favorite team and stay consistent with it!

I’d buy the shit out of some Bears memorabilia with Kull’s logo on it — and I’m a Bears fan, so my team’s branding is already pretty strong. Imagine being a Carolina Panthers fan, and being able to replace this absurdly dated Reality Bites-style bit of brand identity with something sharp?

Today’s Song: “Not Dark Yet,” Silversun Pickups
There’s a four-disc Bob Dylan tribute record due out as an Amnesty International fundraiser. That stuff is usually pretty played out — someone covering Dylan songs??? Sign me up! — but one thing I really like about it is how some of his later work has been incorporated into the canon. Old-Man-Dylan’s voice sounds so different from the earlier phases of his career (though, to be fair, Nashville Skyline-Dylan sounds really different from Another Side Of Bob Dylan-Dylan, and neither of them sound like Time Out Of Mind-Dylan), and so many of the greatest hits/best-of/anthology parts of his career had already been compiled by the time he started writing interesting songs again in the late 90’s that it almost feels like a different dude.

So it’s cool that they have bands doing songs like “Not Dark Yet,” which would make Dylan a noteworthy artist even if it were the only great song he ever wrote. Mariachi El Bronx show up with “Love Sick,” as well, and Adele going all Adele on “To Make You Feel My Love.” Hearing all of these songs in very different voices — Raphael Saadiq’s “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat” doesn’t sound any more traditional than Silversun Pickups doing “Not Dark Yet” here — reframes Dylan a little bit, and that is really hard to do at this point.

Nothing from the Christmas album, though.