The Top 100 Songs of the Aughties, 90 - 81

Wassup Hepcats.
Wicked sorry for the delay, got laid up up with a touch of the sickness.
One good thing about it was I got to speed through season one of "True Blood". I'm not one usually to go for the whole vampire thing, but I found this show surprisingly enjoyable. Still waiting for season two to show up on demand, but if it matches season one in terms of vampire mayhem, buckets of gore, and gratuitous nudity, I'll be pleased. Plus maybe the greatest title sequence of the last ten years.


See? Sex, death, swamps, and hillbillies. Plus that song ("Bad Things" by Jace Everett).
On to the tunes.

90. "Dazed, Beautiful, and Bruised" - Catatonia (Equally Cursed and Blessed, 2000). I expected huge things from this Welsh band. This album had 3 really good songs on it, and they had a hot lead singer wearing net stockings on the album cover. But it's never a good sign when the 3rd record a band puts out is a "greatest hits" package. Broke up in 2001.

89. "Wendy" - Jesse Malin (The Fine Art of Self-Destruction, 2002). A strong candidate for underrated singer-songwriter of the decade, Jesse Malin was like the love child of Bruce Springsteen, Joey Ramone, and Billy Corgan, if three men could have sex and produce a musically gifted child, without the tabloids being aware. Good song about the cool chick at the bar.

88. "Imitation of Life" - R.E.M. (Reveal, 2001) The fact that R.E.M. only placed one song on this list, and that was only at number 88, would have caused 19 yr old Timmy a heart attack. This is a beautiful tune, though (with a groundbreaking video). Just let's not tell 19 yr old Timmy just yet.


87. "Nothing Better" - Postal Service (Give Up, 2003) One of my favorite lyrics of all time: "Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures", sung in counter-melody by Jenny Lewis. Fuck, this should have been higher. Also, your girlfriend loves Postal Service.

86. "Fight Test" - The Flaming Lips (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, 2002) Why this over "Do You Realize??" or the title track? It's all a mystery. (I know, lame cop-out. Something about this song just grabs the cockles.)

85. "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor" - Arctic Monkeys (Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not , 2006) Arctic Monkeys took the Franz Ferdinand sound and slummed it up something hellish. This song came out when my girls were 2 months old, and I used to imagine that this would be the song I'd be getting ready to go out to. Not wistfully, mind you, just thinking about alternate realities.

84. "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" - U2 (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, 2004) The best non-cheesy death-of-a-father song ever. "Our house doesn't make a home, don't leave me here alone." Aw, hell.

83. "The Rat" - The Walkmen (Bows + Arrows, 2004) Lady, I wouldn't ignore this guy. He sounds serious. And that drumbeat is fucking SICK.

82. "Buick City Complex" - Old 97s (Satellite Rides, 2001) A coy little song. Rhett Miller laments the loss of his apartment building, but is more worried about : "Do you wanna mess around?"

81. "Gone" - Ben Folds (Rockin' the Suburbs, 2001) Orchestral pop worthy of Brian Wilson, hell, better than Brian Wilson. Ben Folds is too smart to sing about surfboards.

Pardon the Interruption

Wassup Hepcats,
Sorry for the delay, but I'm pretty sure I've got the old H1N1.
We'll continue Best of the Aughties tomorrow, meanwhile....

The Top 100 Songs of the Aughts, 100-91

Wassup, Hepcats.
Some housecleaning before we get started:

• Halloween 2009 With The Twinnies: Not a success. Twinnies scared of fellow trick-or-treaters. Fellow trick-or-treaters now on the list of Scary Things along with dogs, the dark, and Miss Kristen.
• My Billy Mays costume: a qualified success. The people who knew I was wearing a costume knew who I was, but some thought I was just wearing a blue shirt with khakis, with a bottle of Oxi-Clean on my belt and a big bag of coke in my pocket. These people must think I am awesome, and I resolve to spend more time with them.
• Baseball happened tonight (yeah it did), college football did not. No further discussion required.

Okay. So let's get started on the Top 100 Songs of the Aughts (2000-2009).  Our Artist of Decade (revealed later) placed three songs on the list, while the following all placed two: Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Cat Power, Death Cab for Cutie, The Hold Steady, The Killers (I know, right?), Kings of Leon, The Mountain Goats, Neko Case, Rilo Kiley, Ryan Adams, The White Stripes, and Wilco. That list (mostly) looks about right. I'm not sure how The Killers ended up with more songs than The New Pornographers,  but in honor of Chuck Klosterman:
ANYWAY
100. "The Late Greats" - Wilco ( A Ghost is Born -2007) A bouncy little tune about some (fictional) bands that faded away due to lack of popularity. Fittingly, the most accessible song on an obtuse album.
99. "San Francisco" - Brett Dennen (Hope for the Hopeless - 2008) He likes his girl, but he loves his city. "Go if you wanna go, but I won't follow, just so you know." Fantastic.
98. "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, N.J." - Titus Andronicus (The Airing of Grievances - 2009) 90 seconds of noodling and ghostly vocals, culminating in a 120 decibel "FUCK YOU!", and then a maelstrom of metal guitar, keyboard, and pipes. Even more awesome than it sounds.
97. "The Grey Estates" - Wolf Parade (At Mount Zoomer -2008) Crack-catchy melody + xylophone = a great pop song from a band that can seemingly turn them out at will, but just doesn't care to.
96. "The Hardest Button to Button" - The White Stripes (Elephant - 2003) Jack White's refusal to pronounce the "t"'s in the word "button" just haunt you. Bonus points for "I had a ray gun, and it was 1981." Plus One for Puns!

95. "That's Not My Name" - The Ting Tings (We Started Nothing - 2008) Well of course she sounds bitchy, that's not her name. Stop calling her Lisa. Great counter melody at the end.
94. "New Slang" - The Shins (Chutes Too Narrow - 2003) I know you hate this song. You hate that Natalie Portman told you it would change your life, and then it turned out to be a campfire singalong. But six years later, I dare you to turn it off. (Bonus points for sounding just like every song on the Bon Iver album. Bon Iver didn't make it onto this list, but I feel like including "New Slang" makes up for it.)
93. "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" - eels (Daisies of the Galaxy - 2000) A hidden track, and people still argue about the title. There's something rebellious about singing, "Goddamn right, it's a beautiful day. Uh huh."
92. "Chop Suey" - System of a Down (Toxicity - 2001) You've heard it. It's fucking insane. WHY'DYOULEAVEYRKEYSUPNTHETABLE?
91. "When You Were Young" - The Killers (Sam's Town - 2006) They got a lot of shit for trying to make a "Springsteen album", but goddamn if this doesn't sound exactly like what The Boss would have recorded if he was 25 in 2006. The rest of the album, er, not so much.

Tomorrow: 90 - 81!