Tynan's Anger

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #1 The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

SONGS OF THE DECADE #1

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (2003)

While this list has been going on since September, it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I decided whether or not "Seven Nation Army" and "Losing My Edge" would go 1-2 or 2-1. When none of the obvious sources picked the supposedly obvious selection, I knew I had to go with "Seven Nation Army." Rolling Stone, Spin, Pitchfork, etc, would never go with "Seven Nation Army" lest they appear misogynist, racist, homophobic, nostalgic, or (worst of all) rockist. The key word in the previous sentence is "appear," which is why "Losing My Edge" appeared in my top 2.

"Seven Nation Army" isn't the best track the White Stripes ever recorded, but then again, Sergeant Pepper wasn't the best album the Beatles ever recorded, either. At the very least, "Seven Nation Army" earns this spot because it combines the Holy Trinity of pop culture: significance, success, and, pure, unadulterated greatness. The song is significant in that it helped introduce a generation to all the classics of the past just before they started turning off commercial radio. It is successful in that it was on commercial radio to begin with (and after the 2006 World Cup, all over the globe). And most of all, great, because it took the essence of rock and roll (a great guitar riff) and made it echo from closer to the hounds of hell than any pop song this decade. It was a less-pretentious "Stairway to Heaven," which is all rock fans have ever asked for from their rock gods.

77% of Americans aged 18-29 have a high speed internet connection, and even fewer get their music that way. If you're the kind of deluded fuck who doesn't think fan access is still a problem in rock 'n' roll, you're in the most likely demographic to hate "Seven Nation Army". If you're the even more deluded kind of fuck who hates that breed of deluded fuck while secretly hanging off that breed's every word, you're most likely to find "Seven Nation Army"'s success confusing. Both groups of music fans are probably larger than most people would like to think.

The song avoids most of the genre traps that would lead to this song being hateable. Does the dominance of one riff remind you of "Enter Sandman," that sellout Metallica song? This is a lot more minimalist, and there's more than one riff to contend with here, too. Think Meg White is a bad drummer? Try imagining "Seven Nation Army" being half as effective without Meg's drumming style. Do you think that it's a crap idea for guitars and drums to sacrifice a bass for minimalism? Guess how many people still think "Seven Nation Army" starts with a bass guitar. Think Elephant is overrated? Remember the rush this song gave you on first listen, and try understanding why hyperbole followed.

I've avoided academese like the plague on this list, but for the too-often ignored lyrics of the best song of the decade, allow me to indulge in a Hegelian dialectic. "Seven Nation Army" features a standard alternative rock quietLOUDquiet verse-chorus-verse structure, except with no lyrics in the chorus. The lyrics for the song's three verses, however, all reflect a stage in the dialectic of being a pop star in the era where success=selling out. In terms of integrity at the bully pulpit of rock, the three verses respectively end with a thesis ("Leave it alone,") an antithesis ("Find a home"), and a resolution ("Go back home.") Most rock stars never get past the first verse; the rock stars who make it to the second often die before they make it to the third. Those who make it to the third end up in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame, the richest, the happiest, and with the most people attending their funeral.

Overall, "Seven Nation Army" was arguably the least hateable song this decade produced, which, cynical as it may be, is a prime reason for it topping this list. That the world should be able to to have come this far, entered such terrifying territory, and still be able to mostly agree on one song, is rather astounding on its own and a lesson of how good music will, ultimately, prevail. Even if bad music occasionally does, too.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, Seven Nation Army, songs of the decade, White Stripes

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/30/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #2 LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge

SONGS OF THE DECADE #2

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

LCD Soundystem - Losing My Edge (2003)

In 2002, in the wake of 9/11, pundits were declaring irony dead. Assuming they were talking about Generation X, they were right on. The problem was that Generation Y didn't know anything else but irony, and by this decade's end the smartest people with the best education in their early, mid, and late 20s would be too burnt out to do anything but snark themselves to death.

At this crucial turning point in American culture came James Murphy, a Generation X music snob who somehow managed to survive the Culture Wars without losing his devotion to music. At 32, he released "Losing My Edge," a track that was so good that it even shut up his fellow survivors. In declaring the "Losing My Edge" the third best track of the decade's fist half, Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork Media, a site that at the time primarily consisted of Gen X writers, declared, "In fact, it's a bit ironic that Pitchfork has slotted 'Losing My Edge' /'Beat Connection' so high on this list, as our humble little site could easily have been considered part of the uber-serious tapestry towards which Murphy took his sardonic aim." Five years later, I would hope this decade's biggest musical tastemakers would want to take that statement back.

Pitchfork's audience, a group of primarily Gen Y music fans raised on the internet, which Pitchfork dominated in terms of music opining, was too scared to maintain the courage of their convictions. They took Pitchfork's word for it (or ranking for it). If you heard this song after "Yeah," "All My Friends," or "Daft Punk is Playing in My House," (easy to do in the Internet age, less easy to publicly admit), the song can be misinterpreted as a hipster rallying cry. If you didn't misinterpret it as a rallying cry, and took it seriously, it made you uncomfortable, and you listened to it less and less, except when afflicted with private generational malaise. This is admittedly an oversimplification, but it points the best and worst parts of this decade in pop music: more than ever, music culture was more based on innovation, sincerity and independence at the expense of accessibility and inclusiveness.

As that culture became more popular, it became easier to fake it. The definitive sardonic song of the past 20 years generation may have come a decade earlier, when Henry Rollins blew the cover of the coolest guy at the party with "Liar." In fact, "Losing My Edge" was intended as a warning call, telling a generation of cynics, who somehow thought High Fidelity was something to aspire to, that music doesn't have the answers, no matter how hard you try. You can try to burn out and not fade away all you want, but odds are you are not Kurt Cobain. You can throw out whatever record and instrument you want, but someone else will always pick it back up again and make you look like an idiot. Every critical publication, from Pitchfork to the Village Voice to Rolling Stone, latched on to this theme; almost none seemed to realize how lost it was on the new-found internet seekers.

The message of "Losing My Edge" has only gotten stronger in the past seven years, and Murphy proved himself to be smarter in 2002 than he thought, not to mention smarter than most of his adulators (even within the context of Intelligent Dance Music). And as the audience who discovered LCD Soundsystem in college discovers just what a big, scary world it actually is, the song will get more and more poignant, and more and more depressing.

In their end of decade assessment, Pitchfork had to ratchet up the cynicism in assessing "Losing My Edge" in order to deflect accusations of being hypocritical. At #2, the praise for "All My Friends" praises Murphy for his ability to overcome that same kind of cynicism (in Pfork's trademark backhanded manner of praise, Mitchum reintroducing this song's context as "Boy, good thing that's all changed, huh?".)

Yet the issues Murphy attacked in 2002 don't go away when you turn 30, whether or not you find it in you to reference Pink Floyd; in the wake of the counterculture, and therefore all of rock 'n' roll, they only got worse in world when coolness became an unending escalation against an invisible postmodern Boogeyman.

Murphy's been especially popular with the aging hipsters of rock criticism, rightfully, so, but for the wrong reasons. There's a huge gap between the standards of Baby Boomer rock critics who are skeptical of all irony and Generation X critics who see no other way, but that gap prevented Gen X'ers from fully appreciating their own sway. Young 'uns look for good music wherever it is to be found, and the internet levels the playing field, making music that sounds like Pet Sounds a click away from actual Pet Sounds. As big as the gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation X was, it's got nothing on the gap between Gens X and Y.

"Losing My Edge" may have started as an angsty decry of turning old to and being overtaken by kids who are idiots but actually kinda nice. It has since turned into something all previous pop music satires could never be, but what the Muses always intended: an enduring work of art that focuses on a running theme, one that doesn't go away with time. Murphy is less of a musician than Pete Townshend, and less of a songwriter than Bob Dylan. But "Losing My Edge" is "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Like A Rolling Stone" all rolled into one. The song turns the very idea of a generation-defining song into a generation-defining problem.

The fact that there's just one swiped sample of music actually adds to the song's impact, bringing the punk innovation of attitude-above-all-else to pop in an unprecedented manner. No matter what comes of music from now on, this song will still be relevant when I'm on my deathbed, whether that be 10, 20, or 80 years from now.

Labels: 2000s, lcd soundsystem, lists, Losing My Edge, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/29/2009 02:00:00 PM   1 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #3 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

SONGS OF THE DECADE #3

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (2006)

Danger Mouse via last.fm

"Hey Ya" was a throwback to an era where one song could dominate the American cultural spectrum. "Crazy" had the same effect, but its quirks, both musically (a soul singer and a hip hop DJ collaborating on a song about mental insecurities), business-wise (how could two artists with no commercial track record suddenly overtake Madonna and Britney Spears?), and culturally (how did we go from the joys of "Hey Ya!" in 2003 to the mutterings of ubiquity in 2006?) are all distinct products of the Aughts.

It's harder to come up with a definitive musician of this decade than it has been for half a century. You could easily pick one for the '50s (Elvis), the '60s (Dylan), the '70s (Bowie) the '80s (MJ) or the '90s (Cobain). The definitive artist switched from Eminem to Outkast to Jack White to Kanye so fast it was impossible to keep up, to the point where most people stopped trying. So why not pick the decade's most masterful mash-up artist, who happened to turn into the decade's best DJ and producer (with only Kanye and Nigel Godrich coming close) as a worthy candidate?

Brian Burton may have made his name as DJ Danger Mouse with The Grey Album, but unlike a decade's worth of disposable mixers and mashers, DJ Danger Mouse proved he had legs. "Crazy" was seen as ubiquitous to the point where it got annoying in 2006, but it took a remarkable song to come even close to point of ubiquity by the decade's second half. "Crazy" was the only song to accomplish that; "Rehab," "Umbrella," and "Paper Planes" "Lollipop," and "Single Ladies" all tried, but failed to win quite as many hearts and (especially) minds.

Their have been similar success stories from the mash-up world this decade (Dan Deacon and Girl Talk, for starters), but in order to sustain prominence after the mash-up's novelty wore off, most veterans were required to slap together a half-assed ethical justification for glorifying music people either used to hate or music they liked before they knew how to have taste (in other words, the equivalent of cannabis for casual music fans, and heroin for hipsters). As a man raised in hip-hop culture who broke through by discovering that he liked Woody Allen and Pink Floyd, Brian Burton learned the hard way that listening to your friends isn't as important for musical creativity as listening to music with open ears in your little room and working it out yourself.

As it turns out, Burton had one of this decade's biggest audiences, and he was able to take the fame and money for himself without taking advantage of others' intelligence. With "Crazy," DJ Danger Mouse provided you with a ubiquitous good time without judging you if you didn't have a good time. In other words, he was a DJ who didn't have to declare, "I am not a DJ" to be popular.

In 2004, people were saying Burton was going to destroy music. In 2006, he was pop music's biggest hit and potential savior. He did so while promoting a critically beloved soul singer in Cee-Lo to the limelight, and with a song that asked a rather poignant question for any devoted pop musician, fan, or critic this decade: does that make me crazy?

Labels: 2000s, crazy, gnarls barkley, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/28/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #4 Outkast - Hey Ya!

SONGS OF THE DECADE #4

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Outkast - Hey Ya! (2003)

Image via Wikipedia

There were plenty of #1 hit songs this decade; odds are you didn't hear most of them. That's understandable in a compartmentalized, increasingly niche culture, which makes the ubiquitous #1 hit song almost as hard to come by as a platinum album.

Which is perhaps what makes "Hey Ya!" the last true, undisputed "hit" in all of rock 'n' roll, certainly the last this decade. It was the song that Art Brut dreamed about writing, a song that for a good six months you could not step outside the door for 30 minutes without hearing, a song that provided a common bond among all Americans, and that never grew tiresome for critics or fans. Outkast didn't have to fake their way to do it either, as most rappers of the time were doing. A hip-hop band for which individuality always came fist and accessibility second, Outkast missed more than they hit on Speakerboxx/The Love Below. For at least one song, however, they hit it out of the park. On "Hey Ya," as it turns out, picking up a guitar didn't make you less black, keyboards didn't make you rock any less, simulating an old-fashioned pop song didn't make you a poser, and approaching music with a smile on your face was still a path to fame even with a new, scary war raging. You won't find this song played in bars quite as often anymore, as it's easier to listen to pop songs from an where you have no personal attachment, be it the '60s or the '80s. Something tells me this song hasn't really gone away; the euphoria it produced in America circa 2003 was almost impossible to replicate, and it's a testament to the song's staying power.

Labels: 2000s, hey ya, lists, outkast, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/27/2009 02:00:00 PM   2 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #5 M.I.A. - Paper Planes

SONGS OF THE DECADE #5

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

M.I.A. - Paper Planes (2007)

M.I.A. via last.fm

One of the few unanswerable questions that has always plagued sampling was whether the main appeal was the element of the original recording. Certain sampling "pioneers" eschewed that question with empty ideology in a desperate rush for attention of today’s dog eat dog music world. M.I.A. may have accidentally found the right answer: what if an artist used a dominant sample to make a song that was better than its source? M.I.A. may not yet have surpassed the Clash’s vitality to pop history, though she's getting close. Nonetheless, if you try listening to "Straight To Hell" after "Paper Planes," M.I.A. kicks Joe Strummer's butt, pure and simple.

M.I.A. has been commended by polemicists for merging punk and hip-hop culture for a new generation of young, global American working class. Musicians and critics love her because she's as good a beat artist as the Dust Brothers and as good a singer as Nina Simone. The world loves her for all of that, and more. In a perfect world, I'd be putting this song at #1 in my revisionist songs of this decade list in the future. We'll see what the world has in store for the next decade, but at least in art, slumdogs can become millionaires.

Labels: 2000s, lists, M.I.A., Paper Planes, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/26/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #6 Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood

SONGS OF THE DECADE #6

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood (2001)

Before this song, Damon Albarn's most visible success in the U.S. was little more than an elaborate prank: "Song 2" spoofed grunge and became a grunge hit, and Albarn, the greatest British pop musician of the 90's, was able to look across the Atlantic and laugh.

Eventually, the joke got old, and Albarn decided to let his best song also be his most popular in the U.S. It's still successful in an Albarn-ish way, as the assumption that it's somehow miraculous that such a weird act can become popular assumes that casual music fans care about more than a funny video and a catchy chorus.

Like Nirvana did a decade earlier, Gorillaz brought a series of widely disparate cross sections of rock and roll into an accessible pop package without sacrificing anything artistically. The differences between "Clint Eastwood" and "Teen Spirit" were a) the musical subcultures Gorillaz was working with had all taken place in the mainstream, and b) rather than bring those influences into the limelight out of a sense of duty, Albarn got to work with musicians he actually liked as people, including Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlitt, underground stars Del the Funky Homosapien and Brian Burton, and other musicians that still somehow remain anonymous.

Those distinctions are only important to those who want to see what's behind the Gorilllaz screen; what Gorillaz revealed with their breakthrough hit was that rock 'n' roll had never been more than a cartoon view of reality to begin with. Of course, cartoons can still be awesome, too-the best show of the previous decade had been a cartoon, after all. Musically, the overwhelming success of Gorillaz was no less unlikely to those who had some previous vision of what was possible for pop music, highbrow, lowbrow, or somewhere in the middle.

Labels: 2000s, Clint Eastwood, gorillaz, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/25/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #7 Lily Allen - Fuck You

SONGS OF THE DECADE #7

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Lily Allen - Fuck You (2009)

Lily Allen is the best pop star diva of this decade. I use the word "diva" intentionally, because of all the drama it applies, and for its associations with Arethra Franklin, Diana Ross, Cher, and several other rock n roll Hall of Famers. She has sold less albums in the states than Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, and Jessica Simpson, and while some lists may include "Toxic" on lists because of four synth notes, the dearth of the others on most comparable lists should show you just how TMZ-ed lists supposedly based on artistic merit have become.

Lily Allen has whined as much as those artists, as have Amy Winehouse and Kelly Clarkson, also included on this list. What separates Lily Allen as a diva is the unfiltered space between her brain, her mouth, and the tabloids, and the fact that none of that has sacrificed her artistic merit.

What separates Lily Allen both as an artist and as a cultural force is more nuanced. The progression of her career in many ways follows the generational progression of the Internet this decade. A breakout MySpace artist in 2006, when new media optimism was at an all-time high, she suffered from a backlash-y letdown from 2007-2008, when Allen was revealed to have come from a less-than-spontaneous musical background, did her rounds in the tabloids, and came crashing back down to earth on a human level when she had a miscarriage.

All of that led to 2009's It's Not Me, It's You, an album which, in a year when a lot of new media-fueled dreams came crashing down to earth, provided an almost perfect soundtrack. "Fuck You" is the lasting statement of every boom-bust Internet cycle, all the drama it has entailed from a middle school to global economy-sized level, and how, at the end of all that, the hatred of the adult world of previous generations still won out.

As gay bars were debating whether it was okay to play "Single Ladies" after Prop 8, "Fuck You" was playing on iTunes playlists of those stuck at home, either for gays too young or too timid to go to gay bars, or for young people of any orientation who were coming to terms with the fact that the Internet had broken lots of promises to young people. If anything, "Fuck You" will only get more relevant as more and more young people come crashing down to reality.

Case in point: the fact that a song with such a blatant obscenity front and center, unavoidable from the eyes of parents, could reach #68 on the Billboard chart, #1 on Billboard's dance chart, and reach #84 on iTunes most downloaded songs of 2009 (which would probably mean its sales were even higher offline). That kind of thing seems basic, but for the better part of the 80s and 90s, it would have been an almost impossibility due to concerns about obscenity in music. That kind of basic controversy hasn't gone away, but it's been muted while the music industry sorts itself out. As rough as this decade was on young adults, it's going to be even rougher for the next decade's young adults. Which makes the beautiful simplicity of "Fuck You", and its equal beauty as a song, all that much more vital.

Merry Fucking Christmas Eve:

Labels: 2000s, Fuck You, Lily Allen, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/24/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #8 Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage!

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/23/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #9 Le Tigre - Deceptacon

SONGS OF THE DECADE #9

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Le Tigre - Deceptacon (1999/2000)

Don't let the DFA remix of this song fool you; that song's only on several best of the decade lists a as a placeholder for the original. Allow me to cut through the arbitrary decade markers and invoke the London Calling rule just this once for a song released in October 1999, but with a larger impact felt in the following years.

With one song, Kathleen Hanna was able to prove that musical maturity did not mean losing lyrical bite, that polemics still has a place in pop when applied in the proper context, all while pointing out the flaws in the perception of girl pop that reoccur in rock 'n' roll again and again and again. What makes the song so prescient is that the same rage that was originally applied to "Suck My Left One" and "I Like Fucking" was now applied to the music community itself. Before the tribalism of what was once known as alternative rock began to shine through, Hanna was daring her detractors to depoliticize her rhyme over a keyboard that out-camped the campiest B-52's track. Ultimately, people found it easier to ignore Hanna's voice than to deal with the issues Hanna was addressing. A decade later, that voice has proven to be just as individualistic, impassioned, as vital as it was when it first emerged. "Deceptacon" is the primary article of one of the most important bands of the decade; I cannot leave it off the list due to a technicality.

Labels: 2000s, deceptacon, le tigre, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/22/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #10 Kanye West - Gold Digger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #10

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Kanye West - Gold Digger (2005)

Image via Wikipedia

Kanye's ego belittles the fact that he may, in fact, be right more often than not. He just may be the greatest voice of this generation of this decade, but now that he's looked like a jerk for saying so (let alone a comment that made him the jerk flavor of the month), fewer will believe his statement than would before. All of those contradictions are there in Kanye's most famous song: his reverence for the stars of the past (Ray Charles) and the present (Jamie Foxx), his insecurity about just how brash he can be (I ain't saying she's a Gold Digger), and yet still maintaining the courage of his convictions (but she ain't messin' with no broke n*ggas). Kanye's is actually rather modest compared to many of his peers in mainstream hip-hop (which was his whole appeal from the start); he gets into trouble when he doesn't shut up about it. As it were, there's a whole word out there that was desperate to hear what he had to say, no matter how un-TV friendly, for whatever reasons. Kanye became a star, for better or for worse, simply by being true to himself.

Labels: 2000s, Gold Digger, kanye west, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/21/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #11 Grinderman - No Pussy Blues

SONGS OF THE DECADE #11

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues (2007)

No Pussy Blues - Grinderman

Spoiler alert! Despite my previous inclusions of less-praised LCD Soundsystem tracks, "All My Friends does not make this list." For the reason why I haven't chosen the decade's best song about being in your 30s, look no further than "No Pussy Blues," a song by Nick Cave's side project Grinderman. Against all odds, Cave reached the golden anniversary of being born around the same time "All My Friends" was topping polls.

With a song that took to the oldest trope in art like salt takes to a slug, the pope of trash rock proved, beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, that he was the smartest man working in pop music today. It’s one thing to be smart enough to knows that old habits (misery, sex, jealousy, aging) die hard; it takes something closer to the divine to know when to pounce on a culture in dire need of a leader. No wonder Cave conceived of this song like something of a mad prophet. After a handful of soft-spoken albums, Cave turned back to his nastier, scarier roots just as rock was starting to forget why those roots mattered. In one song, Cave tries every trick he knows, including mocking contemporary purse Chihuahuas, citie classical poets, violence, and good husbandry. None of them work. At 50, Cave has stuck to his guns, however pointless the whole endeavor may have been 30 years ago. Yet somehow, he’s as popular now as he ever was. In 2007, Grinderman nearly started a Stravinsky riot in Madison Square Garden opening for the White Stripes. A year later, Cave was headlining the same venue. If music was religion, I think Nick Cave's work in this decade's latter three years would be enough to earn him sainthood.

Labels: 2000s, grinderman, lists, Nick Cave, no pussy blues, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/20/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #12 !!! (chk chk chk) - Me and Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story)

SONGS OF THE DECADE #12

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

!!! (chk chk chk) - Me and Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story) (2003)

It's the best-titled song of the decade, first of all. That may be superficial, but it helps to get listeners. Much in the way naming your band !!! got you to the top of an iTunes playlist in 2003. But unlike many bands with a good marketing strategy, !!! used their powers for good, not evil. Dance rock in 2003 was a wide open door for creativity that got shut at an alarming rapid rate. In the meantime, !!! brought in an unforgettable 9 minute song that seemed at least 5 minutes shorter, freshened up your day, your roof party, or wherever you wanted it to be played, and was smart enough to be cynical without going overboard in its cynicism. Crossing just about everything rhythmic and instrumental boundary you can imagine, it was also a critical marvel. By 2007, !!! was at the bottom of every iTunes playlist, but the band was getting rave reviews for their still under-appreciated second album Myth Takes. Turns out, the unpronouncable band wasn't a gimmick after all; they were a good band in a milieu that made finding good bands rare even while on marketer's terms.

Labels: 2000s, chk chk chk, lists, Me and Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story), pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/19/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #13 Eminem - Lose Yourself

SONGS OF THE DECADE #13

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Eminem - Lose Yourself (2002)

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Eminem was and still is something of a contradiction. He's a white rapper. He speaks from personal pain, but wants to kill those who caused it  mercilessly. He is called out for being misogynistic and homophobic, but if you point out the same themes in his even more extreme black contemporaries, you're a racist.

Most perplexing of all, Eminem's a good musician, a really good one. Nonetheless, his skin color and musical style of choice make it exceedingly hard to defend him on purely musical terms.

For a few months in 2002, however, all that noise stopped. He had to make a movie to do it, and he had to stop screaming and sobbing for just one second. But he did so with a song that lifted hearts and minds, the kind of song that is always needed, and especially from an songwriter deemed, however fruitlessly, to be the greatest of his generation. That emotional effect still stays even 5 or 6 purported "generation defining" artists later. Listening to this song without the entire context is difficult, but worth the effort. At the very least, watch 8 Mile and wait two hours to let its emotional resonance sink in.

Labels: 2000s, eminem, lists, lose yourself, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/18/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #14 Tom Waits - Road To Peace

SONGS OF THE DECADE #14

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Tom Waits - Road To Peace (2006)

Road to Peace - Tom Waits

The bleakest, most depressing, so-sad-you-don't-even-want-to-talk-about-it political crisis in the world has known has never had one thing it truly needs: a great blues song to match. Tom Waits, whose greatest strength is his informed unpredictability, took a risk in an unprecedentedly one-sided American debate to start with the perspective of the Palestinians, working his way to the middle ground.

People who have a political stance will inevitably take sides on this track, and those that have none will ignore it. Yet there was no better musician to take on a politically dangerous, dirty truth with the Weep to match the Reap than Waits, the rock star who had an old soul in his 20s. So long as there's still a crisis in Israel, this song will never get old, and if the crisis is ever resolved, well, there are worst fates than one song losing its vitality.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, road to peace, songs of the decade, tom waits

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/17/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #15 Green Day - American Idiot

SONGS OF THE DECADE #15

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

American Idiot - Green Day

Billy Joe Armstrong's mission to turn Green Day into a latter-day Clash was perhaps the grandest, noblest failure of this decade in music, and it failed for reasons completely out of Armstrong’s control. Those factors were in part political: Green Day came out with an album and single that inspired an entire generation ready to get rid of George Bush two months before he was reelected. Just as the winners get to rewrite history, so do the losers get to rewrite it on the winners' terms: by resenting a band that filled them with hope that never arrived.

Another factor was a cultural one: from the '60s even on to the '90s, lefties believed music really had the power to change the world, even though a long-term perspective would view music as more of an impetus for political awareness. If you didn't give up on music by the time you hit 30 (in other words, if you were old enough to remember when Green Day was still new), American Idiot was the closest thing to London Calling pop music as we know it may ever give us again: no less astounding, no less ambitious, no less inspired or inspiring. What's changed is not Joe Strummer or even Billy Joe: it's us.

Labels: 2000s, american idiot, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/16/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #16 Radiohead- The National Anthem

SONGS OF THE DECADE #16

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Recaps: 100-75, 74-50, 49-25

Radiohead- The National Anthem (2000)

The National Anthem - Radiohea...

"Everything in its Right Place" was one of the most baffling album opening tracks in rock history, but in order to make the Kid A experiment work, Radiohead needed a song that could link their new direction with the band that produced "Creep," "Just" and "Subterranean Homesick Alien." Enter "The National Anthem," a song with as much of a satirical bite as anything in Radiohead's notoriously hostile catalog. Colin Greenwood's scathing bassline was the only traditional pop touch on the album, and upon first listen in 2000, it would be easy to think "this is where the band returns to normal." It ends up not being normal in the rigid structures of pre-electronica pop, but normal in what music is supposed to do in the first place-please you with sound, and bring you to a new state of mind. OK Computer had been an attempt to move beyond the star lust and electioneering that had come to dominate rock by the end of the 20th century, but because it was so good, it only made the star lust worse. So Radiohead stripped every pretense of vocals-guitar-bass-drums-verse-chorus-verse rock out of their sound, returning music to its spiritual roots even while fully engaged in the technological tools that have made that spirit increasingly rare. As ironic as kids raised on Radiohead would become, if this song would actually become the national anthem one day, it wouldn't be all that ironic. Radiohead would be wise to return to this song's lesson themselves; the only reason I haven't placed this song higher is the self-righteous promotion of Kid A's greatness that has caused "Everything In Its Right Place" to appear on these lists more often.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, Radiohead, songs of the decade, the national anthem

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/15/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #17 Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low"

SONGS OF THE DECADE #17

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Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low" (2003)

Lil' Jon via last.fm

Get Low - Ying Yang Twins, Lil...

Crunk rap was a parody of itself on arrival into the mainstream, which is perhaps why Chris Rock said it best: we're all going to hate ourselves for liking this fucking song. Turns out this song was less stupid and disgusting than a public service: any music aficionado who enjoyed this song pretty much had to remove the word "guilty pleasure" from their lexicon, and any causal music fan who enjoyed this song had to do the same with "anything but hip-hop or country."

More importantly, Lil John found a way to make stupid, disgusting hip-hop work like no other mainstream rapper past or present: if you're already a joke as a musician, and there are no obstacles to your obscenity, the only way to push boundaries is to make the joke as blue as possible while still getting played on the radio.

Depending on whom you ask, Lil John is either underappreciated musically or overrated because of his preposterousness. I'll take the middle ground: "Get Low" is an essential recording of early 21st century populist filth, one that manages to win over music snobs while still appeasing those who see pissing off parents and squares as the primary point of pop music. There were lots of copycats in Lil Jon's wake, none of whom will sniff a best of the decade list outside the hip-hop press. The joke gets old rather quickly.

Labels: 2000s, get low, Lil Jon, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/14/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #18 The White Stripes - I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)

SONGS OF THE DECADE #18

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The White Stripes - I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet) (2005)

I'm Lonely [But I Ain't That L...

At this particular junction Jack White's career, his need to be cool was waning. Elephant had already made Rolling Stone's greatest albums ever list at the same time Pitchfork was slamming it, crystallizing the dissonance that would eventually overtake music criticism in this decade's latter half. So what do the White Stripes do with what essentially amounts to a free pass? Make a concept album with little resembling Jack White's earlier guitar work, one that would be difficult for mainstream fans to like if the Stripes weren't already a top 10 band.

Get Behind Me Satan was less popular than Elephant, but it was still more popular than the vast majority of critically-beloved indie bands. It was dismissed by the indie press for being under-produced with a bevy of resources, despite the generally critically-endorsed sentiment that jamming econo is a good thing. It's also the most complete album front-to-back that the White Stripes have ever produced, and its closer is the greatest sweetest, most heartbreaking closing ballad of any album this decade, perhaps the only pop song from a new artist this decade worthy of being played at a funeral.

Jack White's previously superficial influences of Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton showed themselves here in a much deeper sense, and he didn't need to be alt-country to be country and still cool to music snobs. If "Hey Ya!" was the last time a pop song could captivate an entire country, "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)" is a perfect epitaph to the divide between the mainstream and underground that had been in rock and roll since its inception.

Labels: 2000s, i'm lonely but i ain't that lonely yet, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the white stripes

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/13/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #19 Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

SONGS OF THE DECADE #19

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Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart (2003)

Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren...

The 2000s weren't all that bad for some musicians from the 60s. This was especially the case for musicians who had been underappreciated but had made a lot of good friends and good music along the way. Warren Zevon, who would be near the top of any underappreciated artists list written in 1975, was unfortunate enough to have his moment in the limelight come when he was dying. But what did one of the greatest American songwriters of all time do about it? Write a song that summed it up.

"Keep Me In Your Heart" has been played at countless funerals this decade; it's been played at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and even Yom Kippur sermons (including one I attended in 2007). For all the value we place in the aesthitics, business, or underlying culture of art, art's main function in American life is to bring a rare sense of joy. Zevon's genius was to recognize that the most important thing was to die with happiness, dignity and satisfaction, a sentiment perhaps none of his peers realized as elegantly.

Labels: 2000s, keep me in your heart, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, warren zevon

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/12/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #20 The Hold Steady- Stuck Between Stations

SONGS OF THE DECADE #20

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The Hold Steady- Stuck Between Stations (2006)

Stuck Between Stations - The H...

Quoting Kerouac was the easiest stunt the Hold Steady pulled off on their remarkable third album. What took Boys and Girls of America to another level was the way both singer Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler successfully used that quote to make "Stuck Between Stations" a thesis statement for the most literate concept album the  21st century has yet to produce. Boys and Girls is what happens when Zen Arcade-style ambition mixes with Paul Westerberg's honesty and Bruce Springsteen's musical vitality. In other words, it exists at the nexus of everything great about post-baby boomer rock 'n' roll. Vaguely alluding to the crushing effects of mixing good sex with good life and good music, "Stuck Between Stations" raised rock to the poetic level it has lacked at least since Nick Drake.

What separates the Hold Steady from even rock's greatest poetic acts is the way Finn and Kubler find the pathos in rock 'n' roll without sacrificing it for logorrhea. Finn's ingenious wordplay on "Stuck Between Stations" complements the music rather than detracts from it; as a man who would later toast Saint Joe Strummer, it's not surprising that Finn's poetic apex would be more "Death Or Glory" than "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." All of this is made even more remarkable by the fact that Finn is reading more than he's singing. The Hold Steady is the only band to emerge this decade that I could see playing halftime at the Super Bowl one day, and I love them all the more for it.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, stuck between stations, the hold steady

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/11/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #21 Maldroid - Heck No! (I'll Never Listen To Techno)

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/10/2009 02:00:00 PM   1 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #22 Bob Dylan - Things Have Changed

SONGS OF THE DECADE #22

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Bob Dylan - Things Have Changed (2000)

Cover of Things Have Changed

Things Have Changed - Bob Dyla...

So if Dylan defined his generation in the 60s, what’s to say he can’t define his generation 40 years later? The generation that came of age in the Mad Men era have gone through nothing but turbulence, trauma, selling out, mindless loss of life, money, drugs, faded hopes, and hatred. Dylan lived it all, saw it all, and overcame it all, and produced a song that expressed a bitterness that culture warriors on both sides can get behind. “I use to care/ but things have changed” is a cheap, simplistic generational statement, and not exactly Dylan’s most poetic. But it’s concise, gets the point across, and is backed by decades worth of work, music, poetry and compassion. Only Dylan could get away with this song, and only Dylan could make it understandable to teenagers who can spot their parents’ hypocrisy younger and younger. He’s an old man now, but he’s the kind of old man everyone should try to be, overcoming just about every turbulent moment with wisdom, creativity, conscience, and in many cases, genius.

Labels: 2000s, bob dylan, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, things have changed

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/09/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #23 Outkast - B.O.B.

SONGS OF THE DECADE #23

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Outkast - B.O.B. (2000)

B.O.B. - OutKast

"B.O.B." is probably #1 on Pitchfork’st list because

(a) It’s a searing, maniacal song that threw a landmine into any one-dimensional perception of hip-hop
(b) It’s the best song by a critically-lauded popular act
(c) It casually alludes to the region that has caused the most political strife this decade

For me, (a) is the only thing that matters, and it’s because of that electricity that it’s here. Musically, "B.O.B." may be Outkast’s best song, but culturally, it ain’t even close. It’s not even their most politically-important song: the cash “Hey Ya” generated means a lot more than the lyrical allusions a song from 2000 made to a country we’d be at war with three years later (and had been at war with nine years previously). It’s a preposterously good song, but it will never be fully appreciated for its merits as a song alone, even if Pitchfork declares it the best song of the decade. What makes "B.O.B." the musical variation of the generation-defining tragedy (on a much smaller scale) is the way it's been co-opted by revisionists. I guess that's culturally significant enough

Labels: 2000s, b.o.b, outkast, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/08/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #24 Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone

SONGS OF THE DECADE #24

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (2004)

Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clar...

The biggest problem with American Idol on American pop music has not been Simon Cowell, the rise of snark in amateur singing, putting bad music on national television or its hopeless relationship with celebrity: the biggest problem is that it has promoted one kind of singing—the Clay Aiken screech, rehashed year after year (a case could be made that Randy Jackson has done more damage on that show). Adam Lambert has been such a sensation in part because he doesn't sing that way, but we've yet to see any trace of musical quality close to meriting that kind of celebrity.

The more appropriate exception is Kelly Clarkson, perhaps the only former American Idol singer to actually sustain a career using her lungs. The bellowing chorus line of Since U Been Gone is impressive enough musically; what's more impressive was that, for once, the best musical song out of a movement was also the most popular. Kelly Clarkson is a hero to every young girl in the side of America where Walmart is the only source of music, and where ironic culture is unfathomable when you're working away from fundamentalist opining. Ultimately, Clarkson's self-empowering tour-de-force is one thing pop music has rarely been, especially in the past 20 years: classy.

Labels: 2000s, kelly clarkson, lists, pop music, since u been gone, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/07/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] 49-25: Recap

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/07/2009 11:00:00 AM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] 74-50: Recap

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/07/2009 10:30:00 AM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] 100-75: Recap

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/07/2009 10:00:00 AM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #25 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?

SONGS OF THE DECADE #25

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone? (2003)

Where Have All The Rude Boys G...

What happens when an stable democratic society is taken over by a right-wing, warmongering government that doesn't conscript it's angry young men? For one, you get apathy through the roof, and a sense of prolonged rage that manifests itself in jangled nerves and hopeful skepticism until the next election comes along.

But what happens to the angry young men/punks/rude boys in between? Ted Leo, the de facto successor to Ian MacKaye's indie consciousness, provides something of an answer in "Where Have All The Rude Boys" gone. Musically, the song takes risks—sounding too jammy in a ska-rock song, a genre that became bastardized in the previous decade, would be poison for much lesser musicians.

But Leo injects his Specials homage with a bit of the Cars and a lot of the Clash, and the song ends surpassing genre standard "Rudie Can't Fail." Lyrically, Leo starts off with questioning all the alternatives: killing yourself, killing the bad guys, dancing the night away, taking on the bad guys with music. None of those work. The remainder of the song is a desperate attempt to find the remnants of a tool of social protest that seems to have disappeared. The song's desperate sincerity is pretty much at the heart of the song, and it's the fault of younger musicians that six years later, we're still looking. Without a guaranteed source of income, healthcare, or sustainability, perhaps its understandable why few musicians want to put their neck on the line. But the fact remains that 6 years later, Ted Leo's question remains to be answered.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, Ted Leo, ted leo and the pharmacists, where have all the rude boys gone?

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/06/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #26 Kanye West - We Don't Care

SONGS OF THE DECADE #26

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Kanye West - We Don't Care (2004)

Image via Wikipedia

In 2009, it's easy to forget whatever endeared people to Kanye West in the first place. For the unenlightened, I'd like to turn your attention back to 2004, when Kanye West, the underappreciated producer of just about every hip-hop album of note for the first half of the decade came out with his first masterpiece The College Dropout, a landmark both in hip-hop production, style, and most notably, attitude.

"We Don't Care" is what united those who were raised with hip-hop on the radio to the social conscious that made people consider hip-hop dangerous 20 years ago. The song goes through all the social mores that had been ignored in major-label hip-hop for a good 15 years, but rather than sound like an angry Chuck D. clone, Kanye was smart to ignore just about every convention, usually joyous music with smart-ass lyrics to introduce something that hip-hop had always been lacking—nuance. The first three tracks of The College Dropout, with "We Don't Care at the center," may have been the first time a hip-hop album skit actually mattered since 3 Feet High and Rising.

What made The College Dropout such a joy was that it was the commercial breakthrough of an artistic personality in spite of industry conventions. What made it portentously maddening was its need to pander to hip-hop bling obsessions. Whatever you can say about Kanye, his skills as an artist are never in question. On "We Don't Care," there was still nothing else to question.

Labels: 2000s, kanye west, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, we don't care

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/05/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #27 Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up to Boston

SONGS OF THE DECADE #27

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up to Boston (2005)


Scorsese’s enough of an artist that when he says a song is worth listening to, you listen. The Departed uses rock n roll in the same way most of his previous movies do: using a popular, familiar rock song to set the mood. When this song defined a movie that also featured the Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and the Allman Brothers, you take notice. And though the lyrics come from Woody Guthrie, it's not the lyrics that draw you in to "I'm Shipping Up To Boston."

Niche culture's dark side is its ability to create the herd mindset it was suppose to destroy. Few critics will admit to liking any song merely because of its use in film. But music fans like it overall, and so do great filmmakers (Scorsese) great TV Shows (The Simpsons), and people from places with historically great minds (Ireland, Boston). If you hate any of those people for whatever reason (being a jerk, being past their prime, being drunk, being an annoying sports fan), you probably don't like the Dropkick Murphys. If your life is based on love, however, you can look past the negative and admit that this song kicks balls.

Labels: 2000s, dropkick murphys, i'm shipping up to boston, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/04/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #28 Fugazi - Cashout

SONGS OF THE DECADE #28

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]


Fugazi - Cashout (2001)

For those wondering where the fuck Fugazi went after The Argument, they didn't go that far if you looked for them: Ian MacKaye recorded 2 albums with the Evens, which has been his primary band for the past 9 years with the mother of his child. Guy Picciotto has avoided his major label emo followers to support Vic Chestnutt, a hilarious parapalegic folk singer who regularly opens for Jonathan Richman. The perpetually underrated Joe Lally has done the most solo work and gotten the most talk on Pitchfork of his former bandmates. Brendan Canty has become a prolific indie session drummer and producer.
If you didn't look, you wouldn't know. Then again, if you didn't care about music from before 2002, you probably haven't heard about Fugazi (I know more indie fans like this than I'd like to believe). For the original bandmembers, anyway, they have stayed true to themselves, which I thought was the purpose of punk to begin with. That their last great song was called "Cashout" a quiet(ish) ode to the end of an era brought on by greed, gentrification, and generation-wide denial. If it wasn't their greatest song, so be it. But it's better spiritually, ethically, and musically than most of what I've heard since. That it came from a group of artists who had 20 years worth of life-changing music made it even better. If you wanted to hear all of that.

Labels: 2000s, cashout, fugazi, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/03/2009 02:00:00 PM   1 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #29 The Mountain Goats - No Children

SONGS OF THE DECADE #29

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Mountain Goats - No Children (2003)

No Children - The Mountain Goa...

The fact that I am a native New Yorker (which means New York, for me, is home rather than an escape from home for something better,) and the fact that I wasn't raised in any sort of Christian environment, has excluded me from enjoying a lot of music that only makes sense if the previous two conditions do not apply. One thing my four years living in Chicago taught me was not to make assumptions about the rest of the country from my East Coast goggles. It also taught me how lucky I was to be living in New York.

This culture clash rings especially true with basically the entire body of work of the Mountain Goats, a band I have always liked, but never have been able to worship. Nonetheless, for those raised anywhere east of Los Angeles and west of Hoboken, John Darnielle is as close to a indie rock god (and I almost felt the need to capitalize "god") this decade has produced. If you want to know why, look no further than "No Children," a song about burning bridges, hating your shit childhood with shit parents, and escaping to a better world. If I had it my way, all karaoke copies of "Don't Stop Believing" would be taken out, smashed, and replaced with possibly the best song about redemption written this decade. But that would require way too much sincerity for karaoke (or New York).

Labels: 2000s, lists, no children, pop music, songs of the decade, the mountain goats

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/02/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #30 Black Mountain - Druganaut [extended version]

SONGS OF THE DECADE #30

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Black Mountain - Druganaut [extended version] (2005)

Druganaut (Extended Remix) - B...

Of all the fantastic releases to come out of both Vancouver bands and Jagjaguwar Records this decade, very few actually rocked hard in any sense of the term. Black Mountain isn't quite a metal band, but they're as close as though who hate meathead metal get to restoring hard rock aesthetics. Stripped of jocks, girls and cars, it turns out hard rock still has remarkable durability. What made Druganaut such a fantastic single (and please, do yourself a favor and only listen to the extended version from now on), was the way it combined some of the greatest developments in rock music of the past 30 years—a bit of Television-style guitars here, a pitch of Beta Band-style trip-hop there, and a touch of shoegaze effects—all come together in a cohesive whole, a song that's as good as anything psychedelia produced in the '60s, and features some of the best hard rock guitar work since the heyday of '80s metal.

Black Mountain has the reputation of being a band best listened to high, but not only does "Druganaut's" eclecticism work by association with just about every substance (stoner metal, grunge heroin, psychedelic mushrooms, and Madchester club drugs), it works just as well sober. Well, at the very least, on the legal drugs that most of North America is on right now.

Labels: 2000s, Black Mountain, Druganaut, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 12/01/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #31 The Roots (feat. Cody Chesnutt)- The Seed (2.0)

SONGS OF THE DECADE #31

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Roots (feat. Cody Chesnutt) - The Seed 2.0 (2003)

The Seed (2.0) - The Roots

As the decade winds down, people are looking for ways we've irrevocably gone bad. "The Seed (2.0)" provides a blueprint for how music, like the world, proves remarkably adept at curing seemingly irrevocable ailments. Reinventing a Cody Chestnutt song about giving life to make it about knocking up a girl (and about mixing the pop music genome) would seem like a cynical touch, but the song's success on just about every level imaginable only confirms that the Roots are one of the smartest hip-hops bands ever. The song takes the bleak realities affecting hip-hop and American life--the kind featured in Cannibal Ox's debut--and mixes in soul, funk, and full rock band and finds a way to squeeze out some hope. Released in March 2003, days after the U.S. invaded Iraq, it was difficult to see just how perfect the timing of "The Seed (2.0)" would seem today. As soon as America would give birth to a conflict it was not prepared for, here was a song that gave you hope, however fleeting, that there's a way out of any quagmire.

Labels: 2000s, cody chesnutt, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the roots, the seed (2.0)

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/30/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #32 Cannibal Ox - Iron Galaxy

SONGS OF THE DECADE #32

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Cannibal Ox - Iron Galaxy (2001)

Iron Galaxy - Cannibal Ox

Some facts about New York circa 2001: there were more black people in the NYC area than the entire state of California, 124,000 violent crimes took place at the same time the papers were celebrating a crime dip, the cops behind raping Abner Louima's police were beginning double digit jail sentences at the same time the cops behind killing Amadou Dilalo were walking. And after the towers fell, Bush dragged his feet on giving NYC the promised aid, all the while with crumbling school systems, another Republican in City Hall, and street violence in the non-gentrified areas of NYC all but ignored by whites within NYC and the rest of the country.

All this led to the greatest independently released hip-hop album this decade, a masterpiece by Cannibal Ox that's continued ignorance 9 years later probably had more to do with hip-hop's artistic demise than anything. Iron Galaxy, the debut track of The Cold Vein, set an awe-inspiring poetic portrait of how the other half of NYC lived, backed by a masterfully inventive production by El-P.

Simon Reynolds, who just a few weeks ago argued that hip-hop has almost irrevocably demised, wrote possibly the definitive quote about independent hip-hop in his 2001 piece on Cannibal Ox: "El-P's the anti-bling king, with an approach to sound that equates 'independent' with 'f*cked.'"

Artistic integrity is a luxury most cannot afford when you're just trying to avoid dying in a world almost completely ignored by the country deemed to protect you. That's why "Iron Galaxy" is relentlessly bleak, declaring that "New York is evil at its core." And that's just the first 6 minutes of 76 minutes of The Cold Vein a social portrait that's only grown more vital as the tentacles of white ignorance stretch further and further into the city's bowels. This isn't a song you'll hear in a loft apartment in Williamsburg, or a house party in West Harlem. "Iron Galaxy" is what you play after you've gone through yet another violent crime, as you cry yourself to sleep.

Labels: 2000s, cannibal ox, iron galaxy, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/29/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #33 Mission of Burma - Good, Not Great

SONGS OF THE DECADE #33

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Mission of Burma - Good, Not Great (2006)

Good, Not Great - Mission of B...

Mission of Burma, a band that was hugely significant to a few important people in 1983, didn't get proper recognition outside that group until Our Band Could Be Your Life came out in 2001. As the Pixies launched a sold-out reunion tour in 2004, MoB probably figured they could get in on it too. They didn't make as much money as the Pixies. Why? Because, musically, in the '80s, Mission of Burma was extremely good punk, but not necessarily great music.

Eventually, however, punk became the only kind of rock music that focused more on being good than popular. To castigate the culture that welcomed you back with open arms could have backfired, but MoB's skepticism towards the latest trends, and with 20 years of on-the-job experience at it, turned this good band into a great one. They were old enough and bitter enough to ram that fact through your ear drums. However, they were not bitter enough to forget what mattered: war, apathy, hatred, violence, self-righteousness. As voices from the past, it was their job to reorient a generation that's all about "me me me me me me me" to get their heads out of the sand.

With "Good, Not Great," Mission of Burma pretty much cemented their roles as indie rock's elder statesman of social criticism. None of the reunited punk bands came even close to producing as much significant new work this decade. If you're looking for a song that fully expresses the caveats of the Pitchfork generation, look to this two-minute track with no melody, structure, or sympathy for an age group with no compassion. It's less a defining song of a generation and more "Synecdoche, Rock and Roll," showing what a generation raised on hardcore punk nihilism has wrought.

Labels: 2000s, good not great, lists, mission of burma, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/28/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #34 The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl

SONGS OF THE DECADE #34

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl (2002)



Like a perfect storm, NME, MTV and music critics left and right all came together on White Blood Cells, a trifecta that has almost never been accomplished to the same level this decade. Even more impressive was that all these forces came together over a video that cynics would have loved to dismiss as a novelty. The only problem was the following: the sense joy that "Fell In Love With a Girl" produced could overcome any gimmick; the songwriting and skill was too tight, and the thrill of a young band coming into the limelight was really hard to ignore.

The songs on White Blood Cells still hold up nearly a decade later, even if it sounds less like a front-to-back album like it once did. Yet the fact that the White Stripes could follow up "Fell In Love With a Girl," a track that sounded so perfect as a chart-topper, with the 50 second fame poem "Little Room" showed this was not your ordinary MTV rock band. Considering that Jack White is still working maniacally, selling topping charts and not losing critical support, is as good a sign as any that he's earned the initial hype, with a longevity most bands would kill for.

Of course, it all had to start somewhere, so why not start with the most universal musical emotion of all? Bring out the legos.

Labels: 2000s, fell in love with a girl, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the white stripes

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/27/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #35 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

SONGS OF THE DECADE #35

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth (2005)

The Skin Of My Yellow Country ...

Four years later, "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" still sounds like one of the better songs of the decade, which is rather remarkable. In hindsight, what bothers me so much about the fate of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is not that they were overhyped, nor that they were the first to be overhyped in the "new way," nor that they may now be "under-hyped" because of the backlash to the initial hype. What really bothers me is that the test run for internet hype had to happen to a band like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a band whose entire appeal runs counter the the notion of hype. At their best, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was band of outsiders trying to make it in the city with no strings attached.

It's easy to see how this sensibility appeals to Pitchfork; it's harder to see that while Clap Your Hands owes all their fame to Pitchfork, they don't "owe" Pitchfork or anyone else anything of substance. All they offer is their music, and all they ask in return is that you listen. That's the whole freaking point of this band, and why "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" still sounds so vital. Its artistic accomplishment was able to overcome the economic forces (however puny) that made a good thing into a valuated product.

Labels: 2000s, clap your hands say yeah, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the skin of my yellow country teeth

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/26/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #36 Battles - Atlas

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/25/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #37 Mannequin Men - We Are Free

SONGS OF THE DECADE #37

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Mannequin Men- We Are Free (2007)

We Are Free - Mannequin Men

If the New Sincerity would ever let itself organize like the White Panthers (but that'd require meetings), Mannequin Men would be its MC5, and the line "we may be mannequin men/ but we can move/ we are free/ are you?" would hit the gut just as hard as the word "motherfucker" did 40 years ago. A free-thinking, unpretentious band that almost by definition aims low, Mannequin Men accidentally produced one of the decade's better lyrical onslaughts with 2007's Fresh Rot, and "We Are Free" was its punch-line.

Recognizing the flaws of scenesterism, fakery, and navel-gazing, Kevin Richards was able to look past all the fluff and look at the most important generational trend: considering the shit our parents did, why should we complain if we still get to make music at such a low cost? And if you have money, why aren't you making music?

More than any Radiohead song, "We Are Free" defined the "it's up to you" spirit that, for whatever reason, the generation of Americans under the age of 30 was handed from the start. Even as that freedom has proven more fleeting "We Are Free" provides a rope to keep you from the depths. It does to rock what "Young Folks" did to pop, and then some. That's something to be thankful for.

Labels: 2000s, lists, mannequin men, pop music, songs of the decade, we are free

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/24/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #38 Art Brut - Formed a Band

SONGS OF THE DECADE #38

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Art Brut - Formed a Band (2005)

Formed A Band - Art Brut

What I want from art more than anything else is its ability to foster more art; inspiring creativity however one gets is the only thing I have found to be a consistent quality of all works of art. "Formed A Band" was all inspiration without the creativity, which is perhaps why I found myself so in love with "Formed a Band" as a college sophomore in 2005. I didn't care that Eddie Argos' sarcastic non-singing singing voice annoyed me; I was willing to overlook his dubious assertion that his singing voice is not ironic. I'm glad I did, as four years I'm pretty sure he's right. Argos was too smart for his own good on Bang Bang Rock N Roll, yet somehow he became a favorite of the critical establishment, most of all Pitchfork and NME, praise the band took with a grain of salt even on arrival. "Formed a Band" is a crude attempt at sincerity, but it's dealing in (and named after) a crude art form. The best Art Brut could do was to be with the times. It helped that they were able play a couple of chords.

Labels: 2000s, art brut, formed a band, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/23/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #39 Be Your Own Pet - Becky

SONGS OF THE DECADE #39

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Be Your Own Pet - Becky (2008)

Becky - Be Your Own Pet

If all of life is an extended version of high school, than Be Your Own Pet's swan song is about as universally relatable as rock 'n' roll gets. It takes backstabbing back to its roots: teen-on-teen crime. It also shows how emotional vulnerability can destroy an otherwise innocent life. Most of all, it doesn't ignore the fact that the house always wins. "Becky" was going to be the lead single off Be Your Own Pet's second album, but Universal thought the murder implications were too strong for a Warped Tour audience. For a band so smart, how could they be stupid enough to sign to a major label from the Pleistocene Era? Simply put, a teenager is a teenager. This song's lyrics are too detailed with contemporary imagery to stay vital for that much longer, but the emotional weight of the song will never go away. No matter what comes future holds for the now defunct band, "Becky" showed the world that Jemina Pearl and co. will be around to blow our minds for years to come. They were the most precocious band this decade produced.

Labels: 2000s, be your own pet, becky, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/22/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #40 TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me

SONGS OF THE DECADE #40

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me (2006)

Wolf Like Me - TV On The Radio

As soon as TV on The Radio established their battle plan at beginning of Return To Cookie Mountain with "I Was A Lover," it was clear that the band needed a war cry. TVOTR, smart enough to know the perils of being bold in a culture that generally discourages it, put their avalanche of sound to the background for one track and let a power ballad sneak into the forefront. Catharsis was hard to come by in music this decade. It was even harder to come by if you were both educated and street-wise enough to move beyond blissful ignorance (and this decade produced one of the most educated class of music consumers ever). Return to Cookie Mountain's most accessible song was also the one that most made you feel like TVOTR was going to walk out of the studio midway through the track. "Wolf Like Me" is one of those rare songs that knocks your socks off on first listen, and only gets better with age.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, tv on the radio, wolf like me

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/21/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #41 Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty

SONGS OF THE DECADE #41

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty (2004)

Ocean Breathes Salty (Album Ve...

Personally, I've always preferred Modest Mouse at their loud-mouthed, snarky best, which is why I've rarely enjoyed anything the band has put out post-Lonesome Crowded West. That kind of raw sarcasm is difficult to achieve when you've "matured" like Modest Mouse did with The Moon and Antartica, but it provides perfect fodder to a "throwback" like "Ocean Breathes Salty," one of the few songs to combine the loopier parts of Isaac Brock's post-Moon guitar work with his Black Francis vocal inflections. On "Ocean Breathes Salty," Brock may have become the only '90s alternative rocker to integrate R & B/hip-hop traces in his music without seeming ridiculous (I'm looking at you, Chris Cornell and Rivers Cuomo.) Brock did so as the accidental result of his own creative process, not by throwing Timbaland at the helms and letting his publicists do the rest.

For better or for worse, Modest Mouse has redefined major label alternative rock—Brock set this decade's prime barometer for selling songs for ads when he told the A.V. Club, "Figuring out ways to pay the rent isn't really a tough decision." and Good News For People Who Love Bad News may have been the first major label rock album ever to be called "indie" rock in the mainstream press (of course, that's as much a product of the unlikely success of "Float On," a song from a band mainstream critics actually liked," as anything else. You can try to laugh away the fact that Modest Mouse is now a chart-topper, but it doesn't change the fact that the band has succeeded commercially with so little sacrifice to their artistic vision. They're not off the artistic roll call yet.

Labels: 2000s, lists, modest mouse, ocean breathes salty, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/20/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #42 Radiohead - All I Need

SONGS OF THE DECADE #42

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Radiohead - All I Need (2007)

All I Need - Radiohead

What happens when the best band of the worst half-decade in rock n roll history (and one of the best half-decades in American history) has to deal with the fact that boring people aren't really the biggest enemy anymore? You can turn to generic Bush/Blair bashing, as Radiohead did on Hail to the Thief, or you can mature your art at the same time you do your part to overthrow larger economic forces.

In Rainbows will always be tied to its legacy in the music industry, and its artwork will get overlooked by the fact that it didn't "innovate" as much as Radiohead's previous albums. Picky picky. It would be easy to overlook the fact that, musically, In Rainbows was one of the more all-encompassingly great Radiohead albums, and the crown jewel is "All I Need," a pop song that tones down Yorke's self-righteousness for a much darker, nuanced love song. Take time to listen to "All I Need," and you'll realize guys would be smart not to play with a girl over, and girls would be smart to run away if she heard a guy play it.

Despite the band's fantastic musical prowess (most of which is more Greenwood than Yorke), it wasn't really until In Rainbows that Radiohead reached an emotional range beyond teenage angst. Considering that Thom Yorke just turned 41, that makes him an appropriately mature spokesman for his generation.

Labels: 2000s, all i need, lists, pop music, Radiohead, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/19/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #43 Lambchop - Paperback Bible

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/18/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #44 Eve ft. Gwen Stefani - Let Me Blow Ya Mind

SONGS OF THE DECADE #44

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Eve ft. Gwen Stefani - Let Me Blow Ya Mind (2001)

Let Me Blow Ya Mind - Eve

Forget No Homo: how about we address the almost permanently ingrained misogyny in rap music before we start working on the homophobia? In the late '90s, when cultural forces still pressured hip-hop to be nicer to women, Eve was deemed the First Lady of the Rough Ryders. While surrounded by the likes of DMX and Jadakiss, Eve proved to be more commercially and critically popular in the long run, showing just how impressive a woman could be in a boy's club if given the chance. Backing Eve up on her most intense single (and also her biggest hit) was Gwen Stefani, an artist who had done similar work to break up the boy's club of mainstream post-grunge (Somehow I don't see anyone calling Stefani the Yoko to Gavin Rossdale's John.) A grenade thrown onto the club dance floor, it's too empowering a song to be played in a strip club, and too vivacious to be played on headphones. All the song did was prove that mainstream culture didn't know how to deal with a black woman with a strong voice that didn't cater to stereotypes, which is why one of the best-selling singles of the decade is all but forgotten today. Of course, the song's significance hasn't changed a lick.

Labels: 2000s, eve, gwen stefani, let me blow ya mind, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/17/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #45 Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/16/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #46 The Walkmen - In the New Year

SONGS OF THE DECADE #46

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Walkmen - In the New Year (2008)

In The New Year - The Walkmen

With one song, the band you had forgotten about over a half decade of indie rock (is there any other kind anymore?) all of a sudden became the band you brought home to your mother. The Walkmen are a New York band in heartland drag; Leuthauser's street savvy appeal belied the distinct American qualities of this rare indie power ballad. In fact, taking "In The New Year" out of a New York context only makes it better. It's not an experimental song, and has no business being compared to Brooklyn's perpetual avant-gardists. Instead "In the New Year" is a song that could fill an arena and a festival better than a rock club, but the song's earnestness—and that earnestness's rare, complimentary maturity—makes it stick.

Labels: 2000s, in the new year, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the walkmen

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/15/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #47 Jay Reatard - My Shadow

SONGS OF THE DECADE #47

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Jay Reatard - My Shadow (2006)

My Shadow - Jay Reatard

Picking one Jay Reatard single is like trying to pick one symphony by Haydn; distingushing one composion over all the rest belittles the fact that Reatard's prolific recording habits have been the most impressive part of his career. By the time he hits 30, Reatard will have been writing punk singles for 15 years, and there's no sign he's letting up anytime soon. All of these sings combine the unfiltered youthful energy that made punk such a viable force in the first place, but also combine a precocious maturity that still doesn't dismiss Reatard's roots.

If any one of Reatard's singles stands out, it's "My Shadow," and that may be because just how hard the beating heart is in the song. Reatard is smart enough to know that you can be emotional without being emo, epic without being bourgeois. Reatard is able to transition from a traditional verse to the sing-shout chorus seamlessly, something few bands this side of Nirvana have able been able to pull off effectively. "My Shadow" plays to Reatard's strengths, which turn out to be rather exceptional.

Labels: 2000s, Jay Reatard, lists, my shadow, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/14/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #48 The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli

SONGS OF THE DECADE #48

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli (2007)

Baby Fratelli - The Fratellis

There's a small, but important key to the Fratellis' appeal, one that their contemporaries from Jet to Franz Ferdinand to the Libertines lack: all those band's braggadocio comes from the attitude of "look at me." The Arctic Monkeys, like Oasis in the 90s (and James Blunt this decade), come from an attitude of "look at you." The Fratellis, conversely come from an attiude of "look at us."

The plurality of rock and roll is hard to come by, and it's always been hard to come by the third person in music. So let's settle with "Baby Fratelli," a song that includes everyone in Anglo-American western life of any race, sex, or religion. "Baby Fratelli" is not a love song, it's not a bromance, and it's not a drinking song. If anything, it's a song that starts with getting up to meet your mates, then realizing the joys that come with missed connections, hanging out, and all the drama that makes us human. That kind of shared revelry is what has made the Fratellis so much more popular among fans than they'll ever be among critics. In terms of songs this decade that got all the wonders of being in your 20s, "Baby Fratelli" takes the cake. The Fratellis were the only band this decade that let themselves have that cake and the cake, too, cholesterol be damned.

Labels: 2000s, baby fratelli, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the fratellis

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/13/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #49 Beck - E-Pro

SONGS OF THE DECADE #49

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Beck - E-Pro (2005)

E-Pro - Beck

Among the seemingly infinite tools in Beck's arsenal, he hasn't used the anthem hammer all that often. Perhaps that's because the first time he used it, he became an international star with "Loser," and half the fans were too stupid to get it. Yet, "E-Pro" has endured on soundtracks, playlists, and party mixes much longer than anyone could have imagined in 2005. Perhaps its because when someone as smart as Beck puts outside concerns aside and writes an anthem, it sticks in your brain. If the world wouldn't let Beck be David Bowie, at least let him be the Beastie Boys.

Labels: 2000s, beck, e-pro, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/12/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #50 Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/11/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #51 Heavy Trash - They Were Kings

SONGS OF THE DECADE #51

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Heavy Trash - They Were Kings (2007)

They Were Kings - Heavy Trash

25 years ago, Jon Spencer was excommunicated from D.C's Dischord scene (and D.I.Y. President-for-Life Ian MacKaye). Critics scoffed off the Blues Explosion in the '90s for Spencer's willful pomo posturing, which came right as the American mainstream had just accepted that stealing rock music from blacks may have been a bad thing. Despite being ahead of his time in his approach to rock plagiarism (imagine the accusations against Spencer being applied to Girl Talk today), Spencer's been relatively silent this decade. He still found time to crank out, with almost complete critical ignorance, his most blatantly sincere track yet. "They Were Kings" honoring the "misunderstood geniuses of rock and roll" in a time when the rest of the world stopped trying to do the same years ago. (In this case, the geniuses are as the Gories and Doo Rag, who were willfully posturing in the exact same style while Spencer was still in his teens.) Spencer's a contrarian fuck, but he's the best contrarian fuck in rock 'n' roll today, entirely consistent and self-aware in his indignation. If Spencer's unpopular, that's the entire point; from the very onset of his career, he understood that rebellion endures whether or not you have a cause, be it Vietnam, Iraq, or American Apparel. James Dean died so Spencer could live.

Labels: 2000s, heavy trash, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, they were kings

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/10/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #52 The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic

SONGS OF THE DECADE #52

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic (2004)

10 A.M. Automatic - The Black ...

This decade was sorely deprived of anthems from good young rock bands, and the tragic (if spurious) role of "10 A.M. Automatic" in helping facilitate the credit crisis may explain why. In a close-minded punk community, writing a rock anthem meant losing cred. In the twisted logic of commodified dissent, this made writing an accessible rock anthem more daring. With less competition, it was also easier to write a good rock anthem that carefully applies its balls to the wall, but also doesn't get lost in the cracks (commercially or critically). Complaining about this song's user in a Visa ad would assume that "indie bands" selling out is somehow exceptional. It's been the norm for the better part of the past 20 years, and addressing it now would be more important if music was still an economic force. I'd rather wax nostalgic about my spite when it comes to O.J. Simpson and healthcare. Meanwhile, I'll let the Black Keys rock out to 11, and use my credit card wisely.

Labels: 10 a.m. automatic, 2000s, black keys, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/09/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #53 TV On The Radio - Golden Age

SONGS OF THE DECADE #53

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

TV On The Radio - Golden Age (2008)

Golden Age - TV On The Radio

Hope springs eternal in TV On the Radio's breakthrough song of the Obama year, and while I have my beefs with the band's veiled cynicism, it's nowhere to be found on this era-defining track. After the band buried the world in an unremittingly bleak sonic vision in Return to Cookie Mountain, they were smart enough to bring their audience back with the right song with the right attitude at the right time. Realizing the need for eclecticism. This self-awareness is key: it's how TV On The Radio brought hip-hop and R & B to their ingrained alternative slant while ignoring the "bipster" controversy. The Obama sympathy vote may have caused Dear Science to get a bit more hype than it deserved, but "Golden Age" is a touchstone song for a generation that overcame the Bush years (both the politician and the band).

Labels: 2000s, golden age, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, tv on the radio

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/08/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #54 Saul Williams - List of Demands (Reparations)

SONGS OF THE DECADE #54

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Saul Williams - List of Demands (Reparations) (2004)

List Of Demands (Reparations) ...

The greatest bit of cognitive dissonant advertising this decade was watching a small, independently released hip-hop song militaristically demanding reparations in a Nike ad. For all the whiteness of indie rock, independent distribution was the most empowering creative development in hip-hop since the political rap of Public Enemy. It meant that that guy handing off records outside a Virgin Megastore could be more talented than the band at Webster Hall a few blocks away (perhaps explaining the revived ironic interest in Wesley Willis). What it meant for those producing hip-hop was that stardom was just around the corner in an industry that still rewarded talented rappers. Lil' Wayne was the commercial fulfillment of this promise, but Saul Williams was the artistic fulfillment; it's the first hip-hop song that was even scary to white indie kids who thought they could appreciate hip-hop with detachment. "List of Demands (Reparations)" uses the avant-garde rock tools of Throbbing Gristle and Pere Ubu (both of whom still scare indie kids) to makes it sound like there's a war coming. This is everything that the Fugees and Lauryn Hill promised to be, without the MTV whitewash.

Labels: 2000s, list of demands (reparations), lists, pop music, saul williams, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/07/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #55 Spoon - The Underdog

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/06/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #57 Sonic Youth - Sympathy for the Strawberry

SONGS OF THE DECADE #57

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Sonic Youth - Sympathy for the Strawberry (2002)

Sympathy For The Strawberry - ...

For those that thought that a '90s lens was the weirdest decade to evaluate a band like Sonic Youth, allow me to introduce you to the 2000s. What do you do with a band in its third decade, with millions of albums sold, a continuously prolific output whose members are all in their late 40s and early 50s, but will never, ever, be the kind of band to play the Super Bowl? For those who couldn't even appreciate the weirdness of the '90s in the current decade, you could turned back to '80s, as the Daydream Nation tour proved that one fantastic album is all you needed to sell out arenas in the 21st century (the Pixies having previously proved you needed two).

In the meantime, Sonic Youth stil had music to produce, especially after the Self Portrait-esque flop of 1999's NYC Ghost & Flowers. "Sympathy for the Strawberry," is one of the longest songs ever from a band legendary for making 7 minute avant-garde sessions sound like 3 minute pop songs. So what we have hear is a "Heard it Through the Grapevine" for a generation quite familiar with having crazy guitars get their juices flowing. It uses texture, progression and dynamics as well as any art rock song of the past 30 years, and it fully established that no matter how much people now want to dance their messes around with Thurston, Lee, and Kim, the band will always have more than a little Limburger in them.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, sonic youth, sympathy for the strawberry

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/04/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #58 Sleater-Kinney - What's Mine is Yours

SONGS OF THE DECADE #58

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Sleater-Kinney - What's Mine is Yours (2005)

What's Mine Is Yours - Sleater...

While the boys were reducing their shirt sizes from small to extra small, and when the conquest of cool suddenly became an arms race that ignored real music entirely, many of the best female rock bands were asking the world a pretty grave question: if a girl shreds on guitar harder than anyone else in rock, and there's no boys there to hear it, does the music world at large actually care?

Consider "What's Mine Is Yours," off Sleater-Kinney's last album The Woods. Carrie Brownstein had always been an skilled and innovative guitarist, Corin Tucker had always had a distinct, loud voice, and Janet Weiss had always pummeled drums very well. On "What's Mine Is Yours," however, Tucker-Brownstein-Weiss may have been the first female trio to approach Plant-Page-Bonham, minus the misogyny and the hobbits, but with genuine pathos, excitement, and attitude.

"What's Mine Is Yours" wasn't really epic, but it was the perfect reflection of how an album can take on hard rock with a feminine perspective, (and not just by females), better than anything previously. Sleater-Kinney's "hiatus" was particularly tragic because it came when the band had just taken a new direction that everyone wanted to see more of. Of course, within the next few years, there'd be a new batch of female shredders (Marnie Stern, Screaming Females, Yellow Fever), breaking stereotypes in a subtler, but more productive manner.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, sleater-kinney, songs of the decade, what's mine is yours

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/03/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #59 Animal Collective - Lion in a Coma

SONGS OF THE DECADE #59

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Animal Collective - Lion in a Coma (2009)

Lion In A Coma - Animal Collec...

"My Girls" took off because it was "transcendent," even if it was slow, and turgid, and not really anything at all resembling the pop masterpiece it was hyped to be. "Lion in a Coma" is the real highlight of Animal Collective's best album to date, featuring the kind of wild energy and variety that a freak folk band still in the Brooklyn underground should have. It's fun, fruital, and energetic, and the only time I've listened to Animal Collective and gone "Yes," not "Yes, but..."

I don't hate Animal Collective in the same way I don't hate Pavement—the state of affairs in the music industry that has led Animal Collective to become vastly overrated doesn't dismiss that their music is pretty good. What I'll say instead is that if Nirvana die-hards can consider "Lithium" and "Drain You" better songs than "Teen Spirit," and if Clash die-hards can consider "Clampdown" and "Death or Glory" better than "London Calling," that we can at least treat Animal Collective's "magnum opus" the same way. Of course, that would actually require actually devotedly listening to music (which means with no people around), being able to come up with individual opinions on it, and actually caring. Up until this year, I thought that's what Animal Collective fans were supposed to be the ones to do. At least the band in question is game for pulling the slack.

Labels: 2000s, animal collective, lion in a coma, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/02/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #60 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Me and Mia

SONGS OF THE DECADE #60

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Me and Mia (2004)

Me And Mia - Ted Leo & The Pha...

One formula for a great pop song has always been the following: focus on a specific theme, make the lyrics vague enough so that it won't be time sensitive, and have music that matches the lyrics. Ted Leo may have written the best sincere indie anthem since "Waiting Room" with "Me & Mia," a song, that, surprisingly enough, is not about a girl named Mia. A quick look at the lyrics will show that the song about eating disorders, which last time I checked, affected 10 million American women and 11 million Americans, with numbers that are only growing.

Yet, the song works universally as a reflection on self-control, which has always been a fleeting human trait, and ever more so in today's word. Most critics focus on Ted Leo as an album rock artist, and since Shake the Sheets was not his best album, it may never reach the same critical plateau. But it's still a great song, and one that would be a classic if educated Americans weren't afraid to talk about the issues that actually mattered.

Labels: 2000s, lists, me and mia, pop music, songs of the decade, ted leo and the pharmacists

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 11/01/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #61 The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #61

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The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger (2006)

Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis

"Chelsea Dagger" was the closest thing this decade got to "Song 2." The decade's best drinking song that moonlights as a sex romp and a post-punk revival spoof (if only Franz Ferdinand could swipe a Peter Hook bassline so carelessly), "Chelsea Dagger" was a hybrid of XTC and T-Rex under the guise of a slight Queens of the Stone Age rip-off. The Fratellis dared you to name that band, and didn't care if you liked them. They ended up as one of the U.K.'s most successful bands of the decade, and by selling the fuck out of "Chelsea Dagger "—much like Blur did with their grunge spoof a decade earlier, they struck earbuds in America that had missed them the first time through. The difference between Blur and the Fratellis was that last decade the music press was smart enough to be in on the joke. Despite the removal of all technical obstacles, Americans fail to see Britpop as more than a cult act, and most British bands and rags failed to adjust. Same as always, except this time the Fratellis could be themselves without anyone to stop them from succeeding on their own terms.

Labels: 2000s, chelsea dagger, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the fratellis

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/31/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #62 The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

SONGS OF THE DECADE #62

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The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) (2004)

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Ar...

Perhaps more than any other song this decade, the first track off The Arcade Fire's debut Funeral proved that you didn't need an enormous budget to provide an impossibly epic sound. At the same time the Majors were trying to pitch Sum 41 as a generational voice, The Arcade Fire showed an entire generation that the freedom to craft an intelligent sound with your own voice did not mean you had to stay buried in lo-fi hell. From the first few seconds, you can here a new generation of musical attitudes brewing. The only reason this song isn't higher is because it took an entire album to fully get the point across. Funeral is not a concept album, but "Neighborhood #1" is a "Sgt. Pepper" disguised as a "Teen Spirit." Within 3 minutes of music, the term "indie" stopped referring to a business model and started to become a synonym for "good." It just happened that "epic," "cathartic," and "awe-inspiring" were already taken by other genres.

Labels: 2000s, arcade fire, lists, neighborhood 1 tunnels, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/30/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #63 The Dead Weather - Hang You From the Heavens

SONGS OF THE DECADE #63

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The Dead Weather - Hang You From the Heavens (2009) 

Hang You From The Heavens - Th...

Before the decade began, Allison Mosshart and Jack White were in the exact same position: garage rock brats looking for any house party that would have them. As garage rock revival began to dominate America in the beginning of the decade, and as America began to embrace a British-style of boom and bust hype, these two deeply gifted, talented, and inspired musicians took two tracks—Jack took the high road of fame as America's "last great rock star," and Mosshart took the low road of preserving underground punk nastiness that led her to become the dark angel of American Rock 'N' Roll. By 2009, after The Kills were starting to became a headlining act and Jack White had already been down that path, two kindred spirits decided to meet on a project and a song that very much kept them on their mean side. The violent emotions of fame and celebrity—a long running theme in Jack White's work—needed a distinctly feminine voice to get the point across. "I want to grab you by the hair/ and hang you up from the heavans" may be the best anti-idolatry one-liner since "Forgive them Father," turning the dangers of cult of personality onto the members of that cult. It's a devastatingly harsh song too, one that only ganed traction because of one name associated with the act. Christ, you know it ain't easy.

Labels: 2000s, hang you from the heavens, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the dead weather

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/29/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #64 Marnie Stern - Transformer

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/28/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #65 LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous!

SONGS OF THE DECADE #65

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LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous! (2007)

Get Innocuous! - LCD Soundsyst...

In case the ad for Grand Theft Auto IV didn't already convince you, it is exceedingly difficult, despite your best intentions, to walk down the streets of New York City with "Get Innocuous!" blasting in your iTunes and not feel like the baddest motherfucker ever to strut in the city where strutting was born.

That obvious hyperbole is accounted for in the song's title, but more important is the quantum leap in maturity James Murphy showed on LCD Soundsystem's second LP. "Get Innocuous!" is one of the boldest opening tracks of any album this decade, and probably did more to cement Murphy's critical untouchability than any other track, more the "Yeah" Song, more than "Daft Punk," more than "All My Friends."

After being dance rock's chief sarcasm trader if the decade's first half, Murphy began 2007's Sound of Silver by bringing the Daft Punk kids back to the rock club. A tough, bulldozing song with distorted baritone vocals, "Get Innocuous" has more red meat rock with synths than almost any post-Pavement lo-fi guitar rocker, but overcomes any cynicism through pure raw power. "Get Innocuous!" may be as real as any synthetic rock song has ever gotten.

Labels: 2000s, get innocuous, lcd soundsystem, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/27/2009 02:00:00 PM   1 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #66 The Strokes - You Only Live Once

SONGS OF THE DECADE #66

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The Strokes - You Only Live Once (2006)

You Only Live Once - The Strok...

For all the comparisons of the Strokes to the Stooges and Television, all the Strokes debut album really did was bring the problems with 90s indie rock (scenesterism, spot-that-reference games, an undeserved sense of entitlement) into the mainstream. It took two more albums for the Strokes to deliver on their promise, with an awe-inspiring vocal performance by Julian Casablancas, Albert Hammond's finest guitar work, and the peak of the band's songwriting.

Even in a song about haters, "You Only Live Once" was the first time Casablancas sounded truly human, and he had all the emotions we associate with humanity: empathy, passion, spite, and ultimately, hope. There's nothing about this song that's as cool as the Strokes first two albums, and First Impressions of Earth was easily the band's weakest album. But that's scenesterism for you; there may be no track by a major label rock band that sounds so freaking alive.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the strokes, you only live once

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/26/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #67 Eels - Souljacker Part I

SONGS OF THE DECADE #67

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Eels - Souljacker Part I (2001)

Image via Wikipedia

Souljacker Part I - Eels

Like most art that was released the week of 9/11, Eels' "Souljacker Part I" was a victim of bad timing. Most famously in music, this meant the Strokes couldn't release "New York City Cops" off their debut album. But of all the bands hurt by 9/11, Eels may be the most tragic, because their failure to succeed in the U.S., exactly reflects the failures in American politics after 9/11, the ability to understand anything resembling nuance.

Eels, like the Strokes, White Stripes, The Vines all revived the garage rock motifs inherent in punk with an added cocksure that typified its decadent time. Unlike those bands, however, The Eels's had been working to that route since the early 90s, largely under the limelight of more popular and critically beloved bands, despite having the kind of continued chart success most bands of the last 20 years would kill for.

Of course, after 9/11, everyone was declaring irony dead, an idea that would last all of six months. That window was still large enough to reduce Eels to a lark in the U.S, while, predictably, he was yet another Yank to be received with more open arms in the U.K.

Why do the British like someone like Mark Everett more than Americans? For starters, Eels represent all the good sides of British invasion rock (intelligence, nuance, swagger) without any more of the bad parts (classicism, gossip obsession, uncalled-for rudeness) than any of the bands that got big in the U.S. for the same reasons.

Labels: 2000s, eels, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, souljacker part i

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/25/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #68 Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

SONGS OF THE DECADE #68

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Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma (2008)

Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend is about a lot of things. It's about youth, learning, love, live and let live...and about pretension. People who sneer at any mere reference to pretension hate Vampire Weekend, and hate "Oxford Comma" especially. But "Oxford Comma" is against pretension any way you frame it, whether you ignore words entirely or don't read beyond the song title.

All the title alludes to is an arbitrary relic from the past that people hold on to for no real reason. Copy editors debate the use of the oxford comma, and linguistics reject its important entirely. Nonetheless, it is something that those who believe it gives meaning to their lives to be grammar Nazis (assuming, of course, that it gives meaning to your life to be an anything Nazi) object to. That's not just high-end stupidity, it's also dangerous.

It's that disparity that connects those who don't listen to music all that carefully to those that study it well, and don't just study it. That's pretty much the ground that Vampire Weekend broke with their debut album. Is someone like Ezra Koenig, who went to an elite school, wears a tie, alludes to hip-hop, and makes classic pop automatically an asshole? Has he done anything to hurt you or someone you know? Or are people from those very elite schools just so burned out that they've forgotten how lucky they've been to have had that privilege?

If the world is going to improve as a whole, it needs each clan within it not to make judgments about any other clan, even a clan as big as America. Vampire Weekend is the musical equivalent of the ACLU, except that it works, precisely because the band addresses the presumptions that the ACLU ignored. "Oxford Comma" was the song that returned popular music back to "Live and Let Live" after even one of its blandest legends declared "Live and Let Die." That's a pretty fundamental shift in every way of thinking, especially musically.

Labels: 2000s, lists, oxford comma, pop music, songs of the decade, vampire weekend

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/24/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #69 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

SONGS OF THE DECADE #69

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Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. (2005)

Feel Good Inc (Album Version) ...

Until Demon Days, it was easy to dismiss Gorillaz as a lark, and their relative success as the result of novelty. However, if there have been any two musicians that have been consistently underestimated over the past 20 years, it would be Damon Albarn and DJ Danger Mouse. The king of Britpop and the King of the Mashup have managed to maintain their respective dignity despite all pressures to the contrary, and on "Feel Good Inc.," they put it all together on a track that emphasized that Gorillaz didn't need cartoon videos to write generation-defining music.

Realizing a good pop hit was impossible in an age when only bad hip-hop would push product, Gorlliaz worked with Danger Mouse's timeliness to use his underestimated talents as a producer of all kinds. The faceless, nameless rappers resembled those of "Clint Eastwood," but relied less on danger and more on an all-inclusive, multi-part pop hit that "Happiness is a Warm Gun" or "Paranoid Android" could never be, despite the desire to make them so. This is a fantastic concert concentrated into three and a half minutes, which, more than the presence of a former Blur member, is probably why it was so freaking universal.

Labels: 2000s, feel good inc, gorillaz, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/23/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #70 Amy Winehouse - Rehab

SONGS OF THE DECADE #70

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Amy Winehouse - Rehab (2006)

Rehab (Album Version) - Amy Wi...

The '90s saw the rebellion of the '60s turn boring and commercially driven; the next logical direction for cultural capitalism's invisible tentacle hand was to do the same to American trash. Contrary to popular opinion, Amy Winehouse is not the Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan of pop music — Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are the Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan of pop music. Winehouse is a product of the culture that produced and sickly celebrated Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan (and Britney Spears while we're at it), but she was the only product of that cultural strain to be backed by a fantastic classical R & B substance to justify her fame. Winehouse's train wreck life of a life was not just in the tabloids, but also in her music, as "Rehab's" unapologetic defiance proved. At first I hated that Winehouse was not allowed to have a career before having her "Bad Reputation" moment. Now I realize that her drug-fueled paparazzi baiting was her career (and that she was this legitimately this decade's Joan Jett), which made her actual musical accomplishments all that more astounding.

Labels: 2000s, amy winehouse, lists, pop music, rehab, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/22/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #71 Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/21/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #72 Tegan & Sara - Walking With a Ghost

SONGS OF THE DECADE #72

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Tegan & Sara - Walking With a Ghost (2004)

Walking With A Ghost - Tegan &...

Tegan and Sara are one of the few breakthrough bands of the past 5 years to break through without the approval of Pitchfork media. The reasons for that success are, unsurprisingly, pretty reflective of the misconceptions of predominantly male critics between the ages of 30 and 45.

On "Walking with a Ghost," Tegan and Sara proved they were not the Lilith Fair teenyboppers critics tried to peg them as, and crystallized their role as one of the better musical duos under the age if 30 to emerge in quite some time.

Like many of the best bands of the decade, Tega and Sara were helped out by Jack White, in this case an inferior cover version of "Walking With a Ghost." Nonetheless, it's easy to see the influence of T & S- the twee vocals, the upbeat pop with a subtle but unavoidable tint of vulnerability- on the later work of The Raconteurs, White Stripes, and Dead Weather. Three wildly popular albums later, and Tegan and Sara have succeeded in their own right, in one of the rarer instances of good music prevailing for reasons much larger than the easiest way.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, tegan and sara, walking with a ghost

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/20/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #73 Le Tigre - Get Off The Internet!

SONGS OF THE DECADE #73

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Le Tigre - Get Off The Internet! (2000)

Get Off the Internet - Le Tigr...

If only we could. Le Tigre's failure for proper recognition is a tragedy of the riot grrl moment, and to a lesser extent, feminism in general. More than being a feminist, however, Hanna was a political provocateur, so that her first single off the From the Desk of Mr. Lady EP seems especially uncomfortable now (it feels so 80s/or early 90s/ to be political/ where are my friends?) is rather the point. Hanna was also a rather good musician: the theme of this song is featured weekly on the local New York cable show "New York Noise" (without the lyrics, it's like taking the ibuprofen out of Advil). It's infuriating to think that such a radical polemic could be used to promote bands that are blind enough to completely miss the point. It's also infuriating to think that Kathleen Hanna, an icon of punk rage, could be married to Adam Horowitz of the Beastie Boys, the writer of "Girls." At the end of the day, good music, like good people, prevails. No commoditization and fetishization can beat that.

Labels: 2000s, get off the internet, le tigre, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/19/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #74 The Ponys - Let's Kill Ourselves

SONGS OF THE DECADE #74

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The Ponys - Let's Kill Ourselves (2004)

Let's Kill Ourselves - The Pon...

There's only one way I can explain just how brilliant "Let's Kill Ourselves" handles its subject matter: in a postmodern world, where nothing is real, suspicion is at a premium, and generational neurosis is at an all-time high, there's one frank way to escape: we could always kill ourselves.

Suicide is a tough issue to address in a song (it's easier in a band name), but the frankness and vocal shrug with which Jared Gummere maintains here and in his entire body of work makes the song something of a relief. In the context of an indie world where murder, rape, genocide, war and the apocalypse are all fair game, it seems strange that suicide would stand out. But that's kind of the point: if you're can write an anthem about any tragedy; it helps to start with a personal one. At least the tricked out wah-wah guitars, pulsating drums and Richard Hell vocals make it easier to ignore. Or, it makes the lyrics impossible to ignore, depending on what you want out of your pop song. Either way, this song is a fucking beast, and probably the best debut track any new band produced this decade.

Labels: 2000s, let's kill ourselves, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, the ponys

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/18/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #75 New York Dolls - Dance Like a Monkey

SONGS OF THE DECADE #75

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New York Dolls - Dance Like a Monkey (2006)

Dance Like a Monkey - New York...

If only all culture warriors could turn political within the confines of what made them famous in the first place. In their heyday, the New York Dolls embraced every vice of 60s while letting their music point a path to the 70s, and the combination of anti-rock femme fatality and Jagger idolatry didn't wane ever after the band returned to the studio over 30 years later with just two surviving original band members. At the end, they produced one of the pop music's greatest expressions of political camp, one that made the creationists seem more silly than evil, and pointed out that even if we were to come from monkeys, how much would that change things, really? The song's childlike innocence is actually rather incendiary, as creationist parents across the country won't believe what such a fun song has in tow if they actually listened to the lyrics. That's a rather pronounced effect for a band whose milieu long ago declared that Satan is Boring.

Labels: 2000s, dance like a monkey, lists, new york dolls, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/17/2009 02:00:00 PM   1 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #76 Eminem - Stan

SONGS OF THE DECADE #76

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Eminem - Stan (2000)

Stan - Eminem

Hip-hop enthusiasts black and white knew that Eminem was getting a ridiculously unfair and hyprocritical rap for the PC obsessed, and picked out "Stan" by necessity as a sign that Eminem's was more mature than his surface-level obscenity indicated. A decade later, the song holds up better than most anything else Eminem had produced to this point, and it may be because of the compassion that was easy to be cynical about in 2000. Here we see Eminem coming to terms with his fame, where the obsession with his image was taken to sick extremes, even if it was based on real emotions. The most chilling image on the track to me is not Stan taking his Eminem idolatry too far, or interluding chorus by Dido, which deservedly became a hit on its own. Instead it's the image of Eminem, sitting on his steps, realizing after the fact what he has just wrought. At the end of the day, if you don't keep the art interesting, nothing based on pure shock value will keep you fresh, something Eminem learned the hard way in the decade's second half. At this point in Eminem's career, he was used to being a brash young white rapper. "Stan" was the only time Eminem allowed himself some perspective.

Labels: 2000s, eminem, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, stan

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/16/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #77 LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing In My House

SONGS OF THE DECADE #77

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing In My House (2005)

Daft Punk Is Playing At My Hou...

Perhaps my favorite line about this song came from Andy Kellman of Allmusic, who called it a theme song for the "music nerd frat house of 2005." If such a movie is ever made, I hope it is made by someone who realizes how fucking preposterous that concept is. Frat houses are a relic of the old boys club world of the 1950s which features every hatemongering stereotype we still hold in American society. Whether or not individual frat boys fit that mold is another story; what's clear to me is that someone like James Murphy would never have been allowed in a frat house when he was in college, and if he would be, then and now, it would only be because he knew how to DJ. But if men act like robots, if nerds don't have emotions or a spine, that makes sense, so long as we keep stereotypes from letting people think for themselves no matter how free they may technically be. The Beastie Boys proved that making fun of frat boys can't be done with bare-bones irony. It took a much keener wit to do that in 2005, especially when people are dancing to it. And yet somehow James Murphy managed, writing a song about subculture scenesterism that he had been mocking for years. Intelligent Dance Music may have never gotten any smarter.

Labels: 2000s, daft punk is playing in my house, lcd soundsystem, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/15/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #78 Fucked Up - Crooked Head

SONGS OF THE DECADE #78

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Fucked Up - Crooked Head (2008)

Crooked Head - Fucked Up

He looks crazy, he sounds crazy, and he may, in fact, be crazy, but one thing Damian Abraham isn't is stupid. Instead of denying idolatry in rock n roll, he turns it into a big-ass punk song that's cathartic, melodic, and uninhibited. The raised middle finger of Sex Pistols-era punk was the first musical legacy of punk; the independent spirit was the second. 30 years later, when those two spirits have become sorely confused, it helps to have an audible clue provide perspective. In a body of work full of enlightened punk throwbacks, this is the one that came the closest to crossing over. Kudos to Matador for helping to correct a problem they had unintentionally helped wrought.

Labels: 2000s, crooked head, fucked up, lists, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/14/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #79 Pissed Jeans - False Jesii Part 2

SONGS OF THE DECADE #79

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Pissed Jeans - False Jesii Part 2 (2009)

False Jesii Part 2 - Pissed Je...

Pissed Jeans made a fantastic, unexpected leap into maturity with King of Jeans, and the crown jewel was opening track. The best noise rocker since the heyday of the Jesus Lizard, it was a perfectly-timed spike in the drink of placid (and flaccid) late-2000s indie rock. The lyrics were pretty much unintelligible, the guitars were scary, the production was as ominous as TV on the Radio but with thrice the intensity. It came at the perfect time too, which is half the fun. There's a time to be Sum 41 stupid, but there's also a time to be Ramones stupid. Now is certainly one of those times. And the Pissed Jeans are a lot smarter (in a stupid way) than most bands past or present. Hell, Matt Korvette can even keep up with Dave Yow, vocal tick for vocal tick.

Labels: 2000s, false jesii part 2, lists, pissed jeans, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/13/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #80 Of Montreal - The Past is a Grotesque Animal

SONGS OF THE DECADE #80

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Of Montreal - The Past is a Grotesque Animal (2007)

The Past Is A Grotesque Animal...

If Husker Du, the Minutemen, Neutral Milk Hotel and Magnetic Fields have taught us anything, it's that when great underground bands decide to produce a preposterous concept album, good things tend to happen. For whatever economic, cultural, or musical reason, that kind of approach was mostly absent this decade. The lone exception was the madcap brain of Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, who after 7 great (if mostly ignored) studio albums, decided to put it all on red with a concept album about going on anti-depressants, turning into some being named Georgie Fruit, and alluding to everything from Edward Albee to Georges Bataille to the curse of Prometheus. Sure enough, the album was seen more as a masterpiece than a work of pretension (and was pretty close to both), and on the 11+ minute turning point, "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal," you can see why: the use of insanely high-pitched synths with a consistent pulsating beat ranks up there with the early work of the Clean, and the song is constantly buzzing, never boring, and, after repeated listens, actually moving. Very few indie musicians this decade got to be this popular in this subculture while being this batty; the fact that Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? was Barnes' best selling album shows, yet again, that ambition need not sacrifice creativity, or vice versa.

Labels: 2000s, lists, of montreal, pop music, songs of the decade, the past is a grotesque animal

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/12/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #80 Le Tigre - LT Tour Theme

SONGS OF THE DECADE #80

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Le Tigre - LT Tour Theme (2001)

LT Tour Theme - Le Tigre

It's on the public record that Kathleen Hanna came up with the inspiration for "Smells like Teen Spirit." What should be a statement about the unity of the grunge and riot grrl movement has instead been relegated to fun fact. Accepting a revisionist perspective allows Cobain's death to be become a Courtney Love conspiracy theory, when the reality is that Hanna, who was just as iconic as Cobain in their original indie circle, got a chance to reinvent herself in a way Cobain never did. Le Tigre saw Hannah reach a level of fame and respect that she never received with Bikini Kill. On a lyrical level, "For the ladies/ and the fags yeah/ we're the band with the rollerskate jams," is as piercing of a response to hype as "Teenage angst has paid off well/ now I'm bored and alone." Musically, it's as jarring a transition from an album that set an impossibly high bar as "Everything In Its Right Place." The only problem is that Le Tigre's politics were radical in a way that Nirvana and Radiohead couldn't be. The problems of mass misinterpretation haven't gone away, but they've left an entire class of people afraid to even try. Kathleen Hannah did try with This Island, and if she failed, at least it was a noble failure. From my point of view, it's better to fail nobly and fade away than to burn out with a shotgun in your mouth at 27.

Labels: 2000s, le tigre, lists, lt tour theme, pop music

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/12/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #56 The Hold Steady - Positive Jam

SONGS OF THE DECADE #81

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

The Hold Steady - Positive Jam (2004)

Positive Jam - The Hold Steady

Sebadoh's "Gimme Indie Rock" is the most commonly cited song in describing the history of indie culture, but it's always been limited to the milieu of its time. "Positive Jam," the first song we ever heard from Craig Finn, showed just how much smarter the Hold Steady was than most indie/bar bands past or present, starting with the 1920s, when pop culture was born, and summarizing the state of the union in hipster culture within the confines of a three minute pop song. The Hold Steady would go on to do bigger and better things, but Finn knew that with the opener of his first album, he had every right to create a thesis statement. Sure enough, his subsequent body of work would become one of the greater careers of musical composition this decade. This sure isn't the Hold Steady's only appearance on this list.

Labels: 2000s, lists, pop music, positive jam, songs of the decade, the hold steady

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/11/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #81 Mission of Burma - Nicotine Bomb

SONGS OF THE DECADE #81

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Mission of Burma - Nicotine Bomb (2004)

Nicotine Bomb - Mission of Bur...

No matter what breakthrough Mission of Burma is famous for making, and no matter what they accomplished afterwards, reunion attendees would demand to hear "(That's When) I Reached For My Revolver," the indie equivalent of shouting "Freebird." "Nicotine Bomb" helped MoB sidestep this problem by providing a song closer to pop than "Revolver," but also happened to be a better Mission of Burma song. Unlike Flaming Lips fans who have no idea of what came before "Do You Realize?", obsessing on "Nicotine Bomb" is beneficial to Mission of Burma, the bands original fans, critics, and new fans alike. A successful Mission of Burma reunion in the studio was miraculous enough: the rarity of producing consensus in the subculture wars is arguably even more so.

Labels: 2000s, lists, mission of burma, nicotine bomb, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/11/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #82 Pissed Jeans - I've Still Got You (Ice Cream)

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/10/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #83 Tom Waits - Day After Tomorrow

SONGS OF THE DECADE #83

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Tom Waits - Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Day After Tomorrow - Tom Waits

The single most disillusioning musical moment I have ever had was seeing thousands of people at David Byrne's 2009 show in Prospect Park singing along to the chorus of "Life During Wartime" with two wars raging overseas. My God, how did we get here?

Perhaps it was the same reason that Tom Waits' war ballad was mostly appreciated by those who had never been to war. The song's major political accomplishment was being featured on a MoveOn compilation tape. It's main musical accomplishment was being listened to by fans who were devoted enough to go beyond downloading Rain Dogs. Because Waits is "establishment" simply by being older, he's already got a wider audience, even if this song's main appeal is to younger people who have never head it. Could it be that the man who Rolling Stone declared the most underrated musician in rock 'n' roll history is still underrated today? It may be that he's the right man for Rolling Stone to declare underrated, even if it's for the wrong reasons.

Labels: 2000s, day after tomorrow, lists, pop music, songs of the decade, tom waits

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/09/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #84 Nethers - Green Jean Jamboree

SONGS OF THE DECADE #84

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Nethers - Green Jean Jamboree (2008)

Green Jean Jamboree - Nethers

I was happy to see a renewed focus on small town life in small-time rock 'n' roll in the decade's second half. The only problem was that small town bands, from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to Bon Iver to Fleet Foxes, were being commandeered by non-small town folk without small-time ambitions. The Nethers were something of an antidote, the offshoot of the Carlsonics, one of New York's thrashiest garage punk bands, that made an abrupt change mid-decade to folk music straight out of Old Joy. What sets "Green Jean Jamboree" apart is the way it deviates back into urban noise even when trying to escape to a tired old country life. The song reverses the urban migration myth, but also shows that white flight isn't really the answer either. "Green Jean Jamboree" is the kind of song that's deeply nuanced, so much so that even the rare few that hear it are unlikely to full understand its brilliance. I was lucky enough to have fled New York City around the same time, only to realize the flaws of Midwestern lifestyle around the same time this song came out. More than anything, "Green Jean Jamboree" reminds you that running to the woods is a respite, not an escape.

Labels: 2000s, green jean jamboree, lists, nethers, pop music, songs of the decade

posted by Ethan Stanislawski @ 10/08/2009 02:00:00 PM   0 Comments

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #85 Kinky - Mas