Sufjan Stevens and punk rock.
There. I said it.
Are there, maybe, some similarities between some of the British punk, around, you know, 1977, and ol' Suf, both especially and starting in the "Michigan"-era stuff? I mean, they're both coming out of economically depressed areas. Isn't "Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head" as much of a call to arms as, say, "Guns of Brixton?" They're both attempts to forge some sort of identity, to take control of national or regional identity, i.e, "God Save The Queen," "London Calling," naming two albums after States. Economic depression and the class system in Britain (I'm over simplifying, of course), and economic depression and a war with much of it's currency based on one idea of what America is.
Besides, aren't the Stooges from Detroit?