Tynan's Anger

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

2009-11-10T14:00:00.001-05:00

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

Theater Review (NYC) - The Lesser Seductions of History by August Schulenberg

2009-11-09T15:03:00.001-05:00

An adjustment of America's attitudes toward the sixties has been long overdue, and while Mad Men may be reminding people of how the adult world worked in the face of turbulence, August Schulenberg's The Lesser Seductions of History gets with the fresh faced college grads, caught in between the choices of the larger world and their personal demons. A crucial theme in Schulenberg's play is that

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

2009-11-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

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,

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

2009-11-08T14:00:00.003-05:00

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

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

2009-11-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

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 dissonance 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,

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

2009-11-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #55 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] Spoon - The Underdog (2007) Spoon was a pop band that was only a flop on a major label because the band was too good in an era when major labels were trained to underestimate people's intelligence. A decade later, they were selling out concert halls as fast as Nirvana, but unlike Nirvana, who were

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #56 Tom Waits - Road To Peace

2009-11-05T14:00:00.004-05:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #56 [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

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

2009-11-04T14:00:00.002-05:00

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

Young people swung the NYC mayoral race...for the Republican

2009-11-04T01:04:00.000-05:00

I was surprised to see that New York Assembly Districts 50 and 37, which consists of prime hipster/gentrification land, actually voted largely in favor of Thompson. The only problem? Those districts had the lowest turnout of any district in New York City that rich. [New York Times]

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

2009-11-03T14:00:00.001-05:00

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

This is not good music, good video, or good politics

2009-11-03T10:00:00.002-05:00

I Wanna Be Your Dog from LEGS on Vimeo. This video is getting a lot of attention in the film universe, and it's being called the most subversive cover song of the year. Very Short List describes it as such: Have the words "I wanna be your dog" ever taken on such dark overtones as when each pretty face blends into the next, all in the hopes of pleasing a visibly bored casting director? I don't

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

2009-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

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

Brighton Beach Memoirs Died So American Theater Could Live

2009-11-02T10:33:00.000-05:00

I love Brighton Beach Memoirs. I believe it is a sincerely underrated play dismissed by snooty old/dead theater critics who consider Neil Simon a sitcom writer. I have exceedingly fond memories of the play; performing monologues from it in the 7th grade was the highlight of my acting career. I was thrilled when I heard that David Cromer, the best director in American theater, thought the same

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

2009-11-01T14:00:00.001-05:00

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

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

2009-10-31T14:00:00.011-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #61 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-30T14:00:00.007-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #62 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #63 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-28T14:00:00.005-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #64 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] Marnie Stern - Transformer (2008) Here I was ready to heap on the praise to Marnie Stern—that she's the best female guitarist of all time, one of the most creative songwriters of the past decade, a hallmark of creativity, yada yada—and before I could get into full rock critic mode, I heard Marnie

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

2009-10-27T14:00:00.001-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #65 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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 if New York City with "Get Innocuous!" blasting in your iTunes and not

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

2009-10-26T14:00:00.002-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #66 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #67 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] Eels - Souljacker Part I (2001) Souljacker Part I - Eels Like most art that was released the week of 9/11, The 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

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

2009-10-24T14:00:00.002-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #68 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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.

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

2009-10-23T14:00:00.009-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #69 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-22T14:00:00.002-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #70 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] 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

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

2009-10-21T14:00:00.008-04:00

SONGS OF THE DECADE #71 [For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List] Weird Al Yankovic - White & Nerdy (2006) Whatever You Like (Main Versio... To include Weird Al on a best of anything list not directly related to comedy is rather controversial, so I may as well be the one to do it: Weird Al's biggest commercial success was not his greatest song, nor his most