Happy Belated Columbus Day.

Monday wasn’t the greatest ever day at the office, so I was doubly excited to get home and check my mail; I’m expecting some mail order vinyl and a couple of comic books and I figured at least one of those things would be in my box, waiting to cheer me up a touch.  (Few things are better after a shitty day than good mail; often it’s arrival is a surprise and you get the anticipation of opening it followed by the payout of grooving on whatever you got.  All good things.)  When I rolled into Citizen Dick headquarters the mail wasn’t in the box yet.  I didn’t think too much on it, as our mail is notoriously late.  I told Mrs. Citizen when she got home that the mail wasn’t here yet and she gave me the look that says she thinks I’m an idiot.

“It’ s Columbus Day. (idiot)”

I hate Christopher Columbus so much.  I want my mail!  Why do we celebrate this shit stain?  Chris Rock’s got the bit where he says that Columbus discovering America is like me discovering your back yard.  Dude “discovered” some place where people already lived.  And then gave them a whole bunch of diseases.  How do I get this thing undeclared as a national holiday?  Jesus.  In my lifetime there were still states that didn’t celebrate Martin Luther King Day, but we still have a holiday for the inventor (more or less) of white hegemony.  Awesome.  I’m not breaking any new ground here, cracking on Columbus for being a dick, but I am pissed off that I didn’t get my mail.  (If you’re down for a way more scholarly treatment of the issue,  without the non-sensical anti-post office ranting, 1491 is absolutely top-shelf.)

To celebrate yesterday’s holiday, we’ve got “Cortez the Killer;” we’re talking about European invaders, so I’ll say that it’s close enough for our purposes. (Quick aside:  I saw Pearl Jam on the Vote for Change tour in Toledo; Neil Young showed up for the encore.  Weirdly, Peter Frampton was in the house.  The rendition of “Cortez the Killer” that Neil and Pearl Jam (and Frampton, again weirdly) kicked out that night was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen live.  Loud and fierce and explosive.  Awesome.)

(Editor’s Note:  The track below comes from the always on-time Aquarium Drunkard, who took the compilation it came from down soon after it was posted, at the request of Mr. Young’s counsel.  We’re hoping that the issue with the AD was the number of tracks posted, not their posting in general.  As always, we encourage the readership to support the artists we push financially.  Get off your ass and buy some Neil Young, in other words.  If you, or someone you know, represents Neil Young and he (or his counsel) is pissed, let us know and we’ll get the track off the site immediately.)

Neil Young – Cortez the Killer – Live – London, 1976

In a weird moment of concordance, I listened to all of 1970’s Live at the Fillmore East (Which you should own.  If you don’t, buy it now.  See above.) on my way to Mississippi this weekend.  I was thinking of hitting a Neil Young post soon, so the Columbus Day thing is a nice coincidence.  I was planning on posting a live version of “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” which kicks Live at the Fillmore East off with a bang.  I couldn’t turn up a decent audio version that I could ethically post, but the video below certainly does the trick.