Culture Greyhound

Today I conclude my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting the final ten songs.

10. Justin Timberlake – SexyBack (feat. Timbaland)

JT’s sophomore solo album was miles different from the R&B-influenced debut Justified.  For one, it was dirtier, sexier, raunchier.  Timberlake had all but washed himself clean of the boy band label he had established in ‘NSync, and on the other side was a sharp dressed man with smart production and crisp, Prince-leaning erotic pop.  The surprisingly simple, yet undeniably infectious “SexyBack,” the album’s first single, is producer Timbaland at some of his most creative, and catchy, creations.

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Back in the 70′s, there was only Johnny Carson.  But since the retirement of the undisputed King of Late Night in 1992, there has been a plethora of new shows pop up, each with the same basic formula, but unique in their own way. After reading Bill Carter’s The War For Late Night, I have become addicted to late-night television all over again.  So I am starting a new series of posts dedicated to the many hosts out there currently making us laugh after prime time, analyzing one at a time.

After Strangers With Candy and a long, successful stint on the Daily Show, Stephen Colbert had a pretty genius epiphany.  With the aide of Jon Stewart, he launched the Colbert Report, modeled after the insanity of conservative television pundits on Fox News, blindly partisan and patriotic, ignoring facts over feeling.  The prime mocking/homage target was “Papa Bear” Bill O’Reilly, who, unlike his Faux News peers, has taken the jabs in good spirit and half-flattery.

While it was common knowledge Colbert would be playing a character every night, an irrational, interrupting, bombastic, overly patriotic, conservative blowhard, no one would have imagined the following he would capture, the media attention he would get, and the long-lasting spectacle that the character would become.  From delivering his press correspondent’s speech in character to visiting the troops in Iraq, to, most recently, lambasting the new de-regulation on election campaign finance by starting his own Super PAC, Colbert has lassoed in a slew of diehard followers, affectionately known as the Colbert Nation, who will follow him and Stewart, Glenn Beck-style, to the National Mall donning costumes and humorous signs.

And while Colbert usually gets lumped as Robin to Stewart’s Batman, the show and demeanor are anything but alike.  While the Daily Show attacks the issues of the day with a straight-forward, mocking, sometimes too-preachy-for-some tone, the Colbert Report is the lighthearted alternative, focusing on the absurd and more visual gags.  He tackles the issues in a different light, mocking, yes, but as an individual pretending to defend idiocy and hypocrisy.  And if you’re not in on the joke, you just might be fooled.  It’s that level of creativity that makes Colbert sometimes even sharper than his “opening act.”

Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.

20. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights

My favorite Ben Gibbard album is Give Up, even amongst all those great early Death Cab masterpieces. Before the twee synth became commonplace, Gibbard took it to every first-generation iPod, car commercial, and teen soap montage (I’m looking at you, The O.C.). And of course, he did so with this song, still as beautiful as I remember it back on WOXY-FM my sophomore year of high school.

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Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.

39. Outkast – Stankonia

The underground hiphop sensational duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, now Grammy-winning superstars of today’s pop landscape, were just a blip on the radar when they dropped the now-classic Stankonia, an hour-long space-age, futuristic pimp, Southern rap adventure. The boys had made a name for themselves with equally strange-yet-funky albums ATLiens and Aquemini, but with the hit singles “Miss Jackson,” “So Fresh, So Clean,” and the explosive “B.O.B.,” Outkast launched onto MTV and pop radio almost overnight.

It’s hard to believe it’s been over ten years, and the guys have since made a double album of solo concepts, a movie with a better soundtrack, and their own solo material (Big Boi has stayed the most productive in that realm, dropping the amazing Sir Luscious Left Foot last year, while Andre has yet to make his first solo album, instead collaborating as a guest star on many A-list tracks since the release of Idlewild nearly five years ago). Still, Stankonia remains for most their crowning achievement, an apocalyptic sounding rap catastrophe in a world that had just survived Y2K. Who would have known then that a song called “Bombs Over Baghdad” would come to broadly define the next ten turbulent years?

Outkast – Miss Jackson

Outkast – B.O.B.

Outkast – We Luv Deez Hoez

Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.

30. Johnny Cash – Hurt

Some artists are so talented they have the capability to make a cover song sound like their very own creation.  The Beatles, Tom Waits, and, most recently, Lissie, come to mind.  But no one did it like the Man In Black.  Johnny took Soundgarden’s grunge-ridden “Rusty Cage” and made it a Wild West, gun slinging, outlaw affair.  And then he took Nine Inch Nails’ haunting, spooky “Hurt” and turned it into a somber deathbed lamentation.

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Back in the 70′s, there was only Johnny Carson.  But since the retirement of the undisputed King of Late Night in 1992, there has been a plethora of new shows pop up, each with the same basic formula, but unique in their own way. After reading Bill Carter’s The War For Late Night, I have become addicted to late-night television all over again.  So I am starting a new series of posts dedicated to the many hosts out there currently making us laugh after prime time, analyzing one at a time.

If one were to watch old Daily Shows from the 90’s, when it was Craig Kilborn at the helm, a completely different program would be found.  Where Kilborn, as he usually did, made the show more about the host than the topics discussed, Stewart transformed the Daily Show into an award-winning political/news satire program.  Kilborn’s show was novel and goofy; Stewart’s is smart, irreverent, and edgy.

In the twelve years Stewart has hosted, he has become a prominent figurehead in news, comedy, politics, and punditry, whether he likes it or not.  Many young people have claimed they “get their news” from the Daily Show, essentially a comedy program, and Jon Stewart is their anchor.  Some call him a hero; Fox News likes to call him a cog in the liberal media machine.  He and colleague Stephen Colbert even held an enormously successful rally at the Washington Mall.  The theme? Restoring sanity to America.

Many thought that with the exit of goofball President Bush, many topical comics, Stewart included, would have little to rant about.  But the Daily Show is as fresh as ever, lampooning colossal fuck-ups by politicians, verbal hypocrisies from the Tea Party, and general fear-mongering from the cable news outlets.  Even though we have a more articulate, poised President, there’s still plenty of material to be found, and Stewart dishes it out each night.  In addition, his team of “correspondents” is one of the best in the show’s history, featuring rising stars Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver, and Jason Jones.  Asif Mandvi and Samantha Bee throw some worthy punches as well.

But the star is undeniably Stewart – the material changes with the news, but Stewart always acts as the voice of reason, usually merely stating the obvious so bluntly it is utterly hilarious.  His interviewing is conversational and purposeful.  Jon is casual with Hollywood stars, attentive with insightful authors and professors, direct and in command with political and media figureheads.  He knows his audience, who aren’t like the rest of Comedy Central’s dreck tuning in for Daniel Tosh – they are here to laugh, yes, but also to learn.  Jon knows when to tickle the funny bone and when to bring the viewer in closer for an honest, earnest look.

If there’s any doubt Stewart’s influence is apparent, we need only look to last December, where he devoted an entire program to the 9/11 First Responders Act (a bill that would give financial aid to firefighters and policemen suffering from medical issues related to the attack on the World Trade Center), a bill that Congress and the media were ignoring, and one Jon Stewart felt very passionately about.  He interviewed a group of NYC firefighters and police officers, first responders to 9/11, all of whom were suffering from illness because of their heroic deeds, and who couldn’t afford their medical bills.  The episode aired on Thursday; by Saturday, the media circus around the bill was staggering, and within weeks, Congress made it law.  Stewart started the conversation, and the nation listened.  To a late-night comedian.  Who, unlike most un-funny “news” anchors, actually has something to say.

Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.

40. At the Drive In – Relationship of Command

Admittedly, I didn’t really get At the Drive In upon first listen to Relationship of Command, their best and final album.  It wasn’t until some time after their breakup that I dusted it off and gave it another shot, and from then on it became a staple for my road trips and, even recently, my city commutes.  I blame my myopia on high school ignorance and misdirected expectations; I was yearning for a fix to my Rage Against the Machine obsession (who had recently called it quits), and first single “One Armed Scissor” seemed to suggest to me At the Drive In were apt to fill the void.

Obviously, that was unfair to the sheer punk this crew were offering the masses – where Rage gets their prowess from old-skool hip-hop, the aggression of At the Drive In can be found in the slicing choruses of “Arc Arsenal,” the tongue-in-cheek comedy of “Rolodex Propaganda,” and the undeniable infectiousness of my personal highlight, “Pattern Against User.”

As we can all see today, this was the El Paso group’s high point – the always-convoluted Mars Volta and the downright terrible Sparta have been poor alternatives to the focus that we discovered on Relationship of Command, and for that matter, At the Drive In as a whole.  While we all anticipate/dread the reunion at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2015 (where they will play Relationship in its entirety), we still have this album to keep us banging our head, maniacally shaking our oversized Omar-homage hairdos.

At the Drive In – Pattern Against User

At the Drive In – One Armed Scissor

At the Drive In – Enfilade

Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.

40. Junior Senior – Move Your Feet

Lost to the forgotten one-hit wonder ether that is the early 2000’s indie world, Junior Senior’s most memorable track is one of the decade’s best, and definitely one of the danciest.  The duo was a profile-worthy pairing – a skinny little straight guy and an overweight, flamboyantly gay guy.  The spirit was one of fun-loving shimmying and partying, and “Move Your Feet” is the highlight.

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Back in the 70′s, there was only Johnny Carson.  But since the retirement of the undisputed King of Late Night in 1992, there has been a plethora of new shows pop up, each with the same basic formula, but unique in their own way. After reading Bill Carter’s The War For Late Night, I have become addicted to late-night television all over again.  So I am starting a new series of posts dedicated to the many hosts out there currently making us laugh after prime time, analyzing one at a time.

For years, Jay Leno has had the reputation of being a workaholic, spending hours upon hours working on his monologue and the best jokes for it.  In fact, he reportedly works on almost nothing else, including the scripted bits, questions for the interview, and other areas of the show.  That’s what the writing staff does; no, Jay’s baby, his pride and joy, is the opening monologue, the longest one in late night, with the most punchlines, consistently, every night.  Jay is such a workaholic joke writer, in fact, that when the show is on break, he goes on tour, doing stand-up shows across the country delivering fresh material for an always-eager audience.

Why then, does Jay’s show feel so lifeless, so lazy and routine, so stale? It’s simple: quantity does not equal quality.  Jay delivers joke after joke after joke, all topical, all with predictable punchlines, all given in rapid succession, because the audience is usually just laughing politely, rather than genuinely.  The amount of time killed by the audience applauding after every punchline is staggering, all for jokes that don’t land because they’re not good.  The video clips superimpose figures and images – it’s obvious this show has one of the biggest budgets in late night – and still Tonight feels lost, because the material is second-rate.  These are the jokes that made it to the final cut?

I’m not gonna lie to ya – it was very difficult sitting through a week of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  I’m no masochist.  The jokes are not funny, the scripted bits usually rely on material from people not associated with the show, and the interviews are a bore.  It’s obvious Jay spends little time on anything but his opening, which is sad, really.  The interviews don’t rely on comic relief from the host, but the guest, who Jay will let sink if he or she isn’t keeping the audience captivated with their prepared anecdote.  Jay merely sits and asks questions – he kills time by finding clips to show during the interview, from the guest’s past and their current promotion.  He rarely adds anything interesting or cracks a joke; in comparison, while he feels more conversational than Conan O’Brien, at least Conan knows when an interview is going south, and he does what he can to improve upon it.  Jay is merely there.

The funniest bits are the scripted ones, or the bits when Jay relies on material from his own audience.  I’m talking about Headlines and Jaywalking, of course.  And even these bits aren’t even that great, they’re just better than everything else around it.  One show had a correspondent talking to celebrities during a red-carpet Oscar-watching party, and got a few laughs from me.  Again, the laughs were not delivered by, and had nothing to do with, Jay Leno.  Headlines is, in case you are unfamiliar, newspaper clippings people send Jay from around the country, featuring funny pictures and typos.  Again, all Jay did was use a highlighter.  And Jaywalking, or this week, a “game show” called the Jaywalking All-Stars, probably the funniest thing the show consistently does, is just Jay asking regular dumb Americans simple questions about current events and general knowledge.  The answers are funny because the people are stupid, Jay’s reaction is the same as the audience watching it.  He becomes a spectator on his own fucking show.

The Tonight Show is well-rehearsed, flashy, smooth-running, and, ultimately, the most boring hour in late night television.  A talk show personality should have just that – a personality.  Jay’s direct competitor, David Letterman, has one, sometimes one that polarizes his audience.  Kimmel, Fallon, Ferguson, and the cable crew of Stewart, Colbert, Conan, Handler, and even Lopez all have let their personalities show on their program; when you’re hosting a show like this for a long time, eventually, it comes out.  At least, it does if it’s your show.  The Tonight Show with Jay Leno could be hosted by anyone, really, and no one would notice.  Because, even when Jay makes some observation, some critique about a celebrity or politician, to generate laughs, it always seems to sound like someone else gave him the idea, like it’s not his own.  It’s just a regurgitated comment someone else already made more cleverly, only this time it’s homogenized so the masses can agree with it.  Actually, that’s the thesis for Jay Leno’s entire show.

Today I continue a series of posts dedicated to the best albums of the last decade, posting analysis of one album at a time.

41. TV On the Radio – Dear Science

Though not as groundbreaking as the group’s first two albums, Dear Science was arguably the big breakthrough to mainstream popularity TV On the Radio had been working so hard to accomplish – they had finally found a way to incorporate their pop-craft tendencies into sharply constructed accessible songs. While Return to Cookie Mountain still had an experimental tendency, Dear Science is mostly a more straightforward recording all the way through – it simply picks up where “Wolf Like Me” left off.

Kyp Malone’s harmonizing is in full force here – it’s even more at the forefront, since that ultimately is TV On the Radio’s trademark.  His “oohs” and “aahhs” are backbones to some tightly built indie dance.  David Bowie’s not around to help lay down the boogie, but it hardly matters; wound up rump-shakin’ “Golden Age” and “Dancing Choose” are two of the best upbeat tracks the band has put together.  Meanwhile, the group continues to expand and flex their songwriting muscle, with jam “Crying” and the strong ballad “Family Tree.”

In just a few weeks, we’ll have the first new material from TV On the Radio since this album was dropped back in 2008, and first samples sound promising, even if they seem similar to the groundwork lain here.  With smart writing, concise production, and an always energetic live presence, Dear Science, which debuted on the Billboard 200 at #12, was the group’s first shining moment in the spotlight of “big bands” in the world of indie rock.  TV On the Radio has always been a progressive collective, and I look forward to their triumphant return in 2011.

TV On the Radio – Halfway Home

TV On the Radio – Dancing Choose

TV On the Radio – Golden Age