A HARD RAIN

The Weather Underground’s epic folk-rock captures the spirit of mid-century revolutionaries

By Cristina Black

You can tell a lot about a band from their “Top Friends” on MySpace. Or at least you can tell a lot about the Weather Underground, which populates that section with poets, philosophers, visionaries, and Bob Dylan (who is, of course, all of the above). “We’ve gotten in trouble with our friends for that,” says front man Harley Prechtel-Cortez, “but we’re interested in enlightenment, in the people who moved things along.”

Considering the L.A. folk-rock outfit named itself after the radical leftist group (which in turn took its moniker from Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”), their revolutionary bent makes sense. “We believe that rock and roll and rebellion should coincide,” Prechtel-Cortez declares. Who can argue with that?
The Weather Underground’s three self-released EPs are rife with mid-century literary and political themes. The song title “Neal Cassady” confirms the hints of beatnik in their epic, folk-driven sound, and the band carries that spirit of idealism into the contemporary world with warm harmonies and soaring choruses. “Fight Song for the Desalojos,” conceived on a trip Prechtel-Cortez took with his cousin and band mate Diego Guerrero, is a mariachi-tinged battle hymn that addresses the current plight of Guatemalan farmers being displaced by North American mining companies. But Prechtel-Cortez insists you don’t have to wander far from L.A. to find multicultural fodder for inspired music. “There’s such a stigma attached to the city and what it stands for,” says Prechtel-Cortez. “but it’s really a big ball of cosmic energy.” He pauses, then offers another analogy. “It’s like a thrift store. You just have to seek out the treasures.”