Dan DaranciangBruce Springsteen
I am from New Jersey and I hate Bruce Springsteen. And now, unfortunately, “The Boss” is back. Since his political stint with Vote For Change, it feels as if he’s everywhere these days and I feel as if I need a semi-automatic. His grating and obnoxious vocals (particularly on “Secret Garden” … ewww), his mediocre lyrics and his arrogant persona (just think of his butt on “Born in the U.S.A”) make it hard to believe that he makes Rolling Stone’s “Best Rock Performer” lists again and again. He has built a musical legacy without the proper tools-and nobody else seems to notice. Can’t you see? The emperor has no clothes and Bruce Springsteen has no talent!
– Susannah Cahalan
The Postal Service
Iron and Wine’s treatment of “Such Great Heights” from the “Garden State” soundtrack has only solidified this duo’s status as one of the Great New Bands. (Of course, Sam Beam’s “I’m a gentle, bearded guy with a guitar” routine could probably make 2 Live Crew lyrics date-worthy material.) The truth is, there have been greater feats accomplished with vocals and a laptop. Dntel’s minimal beats belong in an iPod commercial, and Ben Gibbard is, well, Ben Gibbard: Even as a thirty-something with a receding hairline, he feels the need to leave his diary lying around so his crush can discover how he really feels. Admittedly, “The O.C.” has introduced some great music to the mainstream, but in this case, stop the Seth Cohen train-I wanna get off.
– Matt Simonton
The Flaming Lips
Don’t get me wrong. The Lips are a really good band. They’re also extremely fun, with an unmatched love for pageantry. That being said, animal costumes and nitrous oxide-induced ruminations on giant androids do not good music make. Yes, I’m talking about “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” aka “Our Midlife Acid Flashback,” which was almost everyone’s introduction to the Lips and definitely the wrong place to start. These guys hit their peak back in ’95 with “Clouds Taste Metallic,” when they were still actually taking drugs. Now they’re probably lined up to pen the next theme song to “Reading Rainbow” or something.
– MS
Family Guy
To most college students, calling “Family Guy” overrated is akin to saying the Gospels are a bit on the preachy side. Undergrads swear by this show as they might a first-born child, and yet it’s little more than a super-postmodern exercise in non-sequitur humor. Yes, it’s funny, but for God’s sake, it’s not that funny.
– Tyler Weaver
Ghost World
In a truly just world, all those “Fight Club” and “Office Space” posters (which deserve whole essays written about their overratedness) would be replaced with the image of Enid and Rebecca. Seriously, what the hell happened to this movie? Are we seriously still joking about “Vote for Pedro” when we could be revelling in this minor masterpiece? “Ghost World” has everything: a young Scarlett Johansson, nerdy record collectors, Thora Birch as a thrift store-rifling hipster, a dude with nunchucks and a bar band called Blueshammer. Plus, it’s brought to us by the awesome directorial skills of one Mr. Terry Zwigoff. Some conspiracy in heaven has obviously decided to deprive this film of its deserved popularity and give it to “Super Troopers” instead. It’s not too late, people! Join the fight to save “Ghost World”‘s reputation as one of the finest and funniest movies of our generation. At least watch it again. It speaks to all dis-illusioned, 21st century post-high schoolers. And that probably includes you!
– MS
The Decemberists
To be honest, nothing bad has yet been written about these whimsical tunesmiths. You could blame it on lead singer Colin Meloy’s thesaurus-slinging lyrical style, but wasn’t Morrissey overly intelligent, too? Anyway, even if Meloy keeps you reaching for your Oxford English Dictionary, his words are married to such sublime melodies that listening is like falling in love with that cute college professor. Their song “Billy Liar” is so perfect you’ll swear phrases like “’til your sinews spoil” were tailor-made for TRL. They certainly deserve one radio hit; in the very least they could take the place currently occupied in our collective memory by Harvey Danger. Remember “Flagpole Sitta”? The Decemberists have written entire albums that catchy.
– MS
Ween
Many would simply disregard Ween as a dirty-joke band, and they’d likely accept that title with pride. (They do, after all, have a song titled “Put the Coke on My Dick.”) Over the course of eight studio albums, though, they’ve established themselves as some of the best hook-writers since the Beatles-they didn’t name one of their records “White Pepper” for nothing. Not only that, but their experiments with a myriad of styles-country, progressive rock and straight pop, to name a few-have all yielded phenomenal results. Ol’ Gene Ween has been known to pull off a wicked guitar solo, too, for those keeping count. Try “Even If You Don’t,” “What Deaner Was Talking About” and “Transdermal Celebration” for a sampling of their impeccable songcraft. And if you can tune out the lyrics to “L.M.L.Y.P.,” it’s a fine piece of smoldering, Prince-style bedroom funk. (I’ll let you look up the full title yourself.)
– MS
Leona Naess
Quite simply, the woman behind one of the best albums you’ve never heard-the self-titled “Leona Naess.” Lilting, richly organic, romantic rock-pop infused with soulful purpose, quite literally every song on the LP matches up with, say, classics from Joni Mitchell’s “Blue.” This is not to make a comparison between the two-there’s plenty of Joni-haters out there who would get down with some Leona-but rather to underline how great the album is by using what you’d probably consider hyperbole. It’s not. Her first two records-“Comatised” and “I Tried To Rock You But You Only Roll”-bear occasional pleasures of their own (the latter album’s sublime “Sunny Sunday,” in particular), but “Leona Naess” is the CD you need-NEED-to have. That Tori Amos, Damien Rice, Ryan Adams and Bright Eyes have followings and Naess doesn’t is criminal.
– TW
Best Week Ever
For those of us who are pop-culture junkies and sardonic bastards, “Best Week Ever” is the greatest show in the world. Occasionally the jokes fall flat, but the show still usually manages to get more laughs from me than anything else on TV (aside from “Arrested Development”), mixing some of the best young comedians and comedic writers. VH1/MTV/Viacom needs to take off all the “Fabulous Life of…” and “Real World Road Rules Challenge” crap that no one cares about, show more videos and keep “Week” as their only non-music focused program. (Well, that and “Pimp My Ride,” because Xzibit is a national treasure.)
– Adam Summerville
Entourage
“The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City” are/were great shows. However, for some reason or another, they seem to be the only HBO shows in recent memory that have built a fan base (though “Deadwood” is on its way). “Entourage” is the network’s best show since “The Sopranos”‘s first season, but its future is in jeopardy since no one watches. This truly is a shame-it is the best written and most entertaining show currently on cable.
– AS
Garden State
Is “Garden State” a good movie? Yes. Does writer/star/director Zach Braff show promise? Yes. Does his film deserve all of the praise it gets? No. The movie is capably acted with Braff putting in a decent performance, and both Peter Sarsgaard and Natalie Portman contribute their best work to date. People tend to ignore the fact, however, that most of the dialogue is stilted and clich‚d. There were better independent films released last year, but “State” seems to be the one that gets all of the glory.
– AS
Napoleon Dynamite
Sure, it has a few memorable, quotable lines and a humorous dance scene, but that’s all “Napoleon” has going for it. The awkward high school student element was done much better in “Rushmore,” and “Napoleon” only became popular because MTV used its vast marketing effort to convince people that it actually was good. The movie is either too weird or not weird enough, and it needs to pick one side of the line to stand on.
– AS