I don't think any of the songs on this list were released after 2004 and creating the list prompted me to wonder why. What *happened* in 2004? Well, sir. The first Electric Grandmother show was on June 9, 2004. It occurred to me that after we started playing out and going to local bands' shows, we both lost interest in mainstream popular music. This makes so much sense to me and I'm going to go with this theory.
Pete, however, thinks it's because the 90s really were the last great decade, which must be somewhat true because he didn't just make that up. Even if true, I think the big exceptions to this theory is clearly that cool little postpunk revival that happened in the early part of the 2000s. It seemed like every day some new band popped up and surprised you with some weird, amazing music. These songs always remind us of our first apartment in Columbus together (actually in the suburb of Westerville) and whenever a song from this era comes on, we know the other is thinking of those sepia-toned images from that apartment that was too big for us to keep clean, when we were eating sauteed chicken with cream of broccoli soup, going to school, and learning how to drink on Smirnoff Ice.
Of course Modest Mouse had been around for a while before this song was released but as far as I know this was the first "big hit" they had. I went out and bought the album myself on behalf of our household, which was unusual because Pete usually took the lead on this stuff. I think on that same trip I also bought the album from that band Thursday but I don't remember anything about that band. Pete called them my "experimental purchases." As I recall, I enjoyed the album pretty well, but it didn't really take. This song endures, though. At my last birthday karaoke party a friend put this song on, I lost my mind, and jumped on the mic. The hook is really the only part of the song that's particularly musical, but I think that's part of its magic. The verses are clunky and aggressive but the lyrics are self-deprecating and the chorus is such an earworm. It's so odd and so excellent.