What Makes Adam Green Act So Bad: The Government (My Conversation With Obama)

New Yorker Adam Green started out his career as one half the Moldy Peaches, who had a surprise retroactive hit thanks to 2007 film Juno. But by that time, Green was already a well-established solo artist, veering away from his old band’s endearing anti-folk territory with a style characterized by vulgar and cheeky lyrics while keeping listeners at an arm’s length. That’s not to say Green’s music (and life) hasn’t undergone its fair share of turbulence and change in the ensuing years, however. And he is certainly in a different place from the last time we spoke with him, as evidenced by his sixth solo album, Minor Love, released in February on Fat Possum. Recorded while living in an L.A. pool house in near-isolation, Minor Love shows us a more stripped-down, intimate side of the singer/songwriter. Green will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Green: Firstly, I feel indifferent about the government, so you can imagine that I was surprised when Freedom Williams called out of the blue saying Obama wants to get me on the horn! Me and the government have had very little dialogue for the past few weeks, but still I am thankful that I don’t live in England, because their government is far worse than ours. God created America, I believe, in hopes that we could solve the drug problem. But I find it’s a hard issue to tackle when I’m constantly touring. I called Obama last month, and I said, “Why is President’s Day a national holiday when people don’t even get the day off work when they’re actually supposed to vote for the prez?” And he said, “Because the American government is imperialist toward its own people.” So then he fired off a list of pro-rated salaries, saying he gets paid so little for doing his job as president; for example, if he worked at a Boston Market in Honduras, he’d make half as much, but the quality of life there is better, he said. He said that the amount he got paid for being the prez was unconscionable. Video after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnKxHFX7VE4