smashing pumpkins' sweet sweet is the worst song on earth. no question or competition.

Worse than "We Built This City" by Starship? or "bugs" by Pearl Jam?

She must really mean it. This is the earliest she's ever responded to a Five for Friday topic. Usually it takes her six months to a year.

and i am over two years behind now. 25 months in fact.

i have fond memories of dancing around to starship as a little kid in the 80s. bugs i can't remember either way.
but as much as i love corgan's voice, this is the song that grates my nerves and makes me want to claw my ears out. i used to be able to recognize it in about the first two notes [when my cd player was on random] so that i could turn it off by the third. now with the magic of ipod i get all the good things from siamese dream and no song that makes me want to kill. boybands and the ilk i can tune out. this song i can't. because in theory it should be good. but in reality. no. bad. i'd rather listen to conor oberst. or be at a hannah montana concert.

or be at a hannah montana concert.

I'd like to see that.

didn't know you liked tween programming...

Meaning I'd like to see you at that.

"or be at a hanna montana concert". wow...it IS bad.

1. Michelle - Beatles. yuck.
2. Shiny Happy People - R.E.M. BAD. They have many songs that could be on this list.
3. Illegal Alien - Genesis. ya, I like Genesis...what you lookin' at?.
4. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies. I like quite a bit of their music, but not this one.
5. Kokomo - Beach Boys. Was there a shark in that video? should have been.

Within the past couple of week's I tried explaining to someone (I think firthofforth) how awful that "Illegal Alien" song is. The problem is that it gets stuck in my head so easily.

I mix it up in my head with Sting's "Englishman in New York" weird stuff happenin' up there...

oh NOOOOOOoooo! I just listened to a snippet of that...

its no fun....being and illegal alien...

The first time I met Jenni B I just finished playing that song, back sold and made the comment that Gary Wescott was on next with what would be his farewell show so, I concluded, that I bet Gary's in a similar situation. Jenni screamed into the studio the very second I closed the mic and gave me my first FCC decency tutorial. At least I didn't say 'none of this fuckin shit works around here'

At least I didn't say 'none of this fuckin shit works around here'

Hee hee hee.

I think it was probably Gary Logan-Atwill's final show. Gary Wescott was our hated rival at WSPT at that time.

ya, well I DID. fuckstick.

1. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul McCartney Ugh, does this song ever end!

2. Hats off to Roy Harper - Zep, Back in my Zep freak days this one would always get skipped.

3. Time of your Life - Green Day Yeah, I know its a sappy graduation song and all of that but it never did anything for me.

4. Start Me Up - Stones, First time I heard it was real cool then after the 20,000 time, well, you know.

5. Maggie May - Rod Stewart I don't know what it is about this song but I dread it. My fingers can't hit the "Seek" button fast enough when this one comes on. And generally I like most of the early stuff that Rod did.

#19

Time of your Life - Green Day

I do find it funny that anyone who drags this song out for a supposedly sweet, celebratory send off apparently doesn't realize that the full, official title is "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)." The "Good Riddance" part is more prominent. Doofuses.

Seriously! That always makes me laugh.

Heh, the Maggie May song? UGH! It was big when I was in kindergarten, so people called me "maggie may" all the time. And that wasn't very flattering, actually, since he said "Maggie, I wish I'd never seen your face."

I can tell you it's about an older woman that he slept with when he was young. And he never once says "maggie MAY" just Maggie. Which I think is odd.

1. The Cure, "The Hanging Garden"; I dunno....just never really fancied this one.

2. Screeching Weasel, their cover of "I Can See Clearly Now"; while this is admittedly a great cover, for some reason, I just never took to it. I would skip it every time I got to it on the CD.

3. Joey Ramone, "Maria Bartiromo"; okay, while the concept of the song is funny, it was just too hard to hear him sing "what's happening with Yahoo" cause I just can't picture him on stage singing THAT into a mic. It's just wrong.

4. The Queers, "No Tit"; from a less-than-well-endowed girl, I just don't like this song. And I dislike that word anyway....

Okay, so now I am stumped so I am going back in time here: song I like from band I generally don't like

5. Sugar Ray, "Rivers"; from the Scream soundtrack and written in homage to Rivers Cuomo, it really sounds Weezer-esque and I like it a lot

1. 3 little birds - Bob Marley: Blame a select few over privileged high school classmates for returning from a Jamaican spring break trip for ruining this ditty for me.

2. Shiny happy people - REM: The only saving grace for this song is their sesame street remake titled shiny happy monsters

3. 57 channels - Springsteen - "57 channels and nothings to watch" then turn the damn thing off and write a decent song.

4. Closing Time - Semisonic: Typically enjoyed everything Dan Wilson has been a part of but this one irritates me, I think mostly because bars should never close.

5. Sunken Treasure - Wilco: Love this song but it made my list because the CD is currently in my alarm clock and the crunchy out of tune guitars and noise during the bridge is nearly as bad as waking up to the default alarm beep beep beep beep beep. Especially at 6am.

#2: dude.

um, "the yip song" is amazing and if for no other reason the line "love will comes from all our sins." it's good to be reminded of that sometimes.

There's admittedly wisdom in there once you get past the yips. I just have too hard of a time doing that.

I think it may have been a little overplayed at 90FM at the time of the album's release. That contributes.

Also, if Yip-Yip covered it, that would be amazing and all my reservations about the song would slip away.

we have GOT TO make that happen!

1. The Velvet Underground, "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "European Son." While these songs are undeniably important (while most of the Velvets' first album incorporated Reed and Cale's love for the avant-garde within conventional pop/rock structures, "Black Angel" and "European Son" wallow in avant-garde stylings to an extent that is rather shocking, especially for 1967) , their clattering racket has never done much for me, especially since I think the Velvets were at their best when they blended their boho love of free jazz and noise with their equally compelling love for pop songs and garage rock. Also, their later attempts at stark avant-garde and noise rock were far superior to these early attempts (see all of White Light/White Heat or "The Murder Mystery" on the self-titled album). Compared with "Sister Ray" or "The Murder Mystery," "Black Angel" and "European Son" sound more like petulant provocations, not artistic expressions.

2. Frank Black, "Kicked in the Taco." When Paul Westerberg sings about Gary having a boner, it's charming in the shambling, slapdash way the Replacements basically patented in their twelve-year career, but while I will defend "Gary's Got a Boner" (or any of the other "filler" on Let It Be or Hootenanny), I can't defend Black's "Kicked in the Taco." It's not charming, it's just dumb. This is a shame though, since Black's solo material is woefully underappreciated. In fact, I'd stack up his first two solo albums against any of the releases by the Pixies proper. They're that good. But Black came crashing back to earth with the album "Kicked in the Taco" belongs on, 1996's The Cult of Ray. It's unimaginative, tired and a lot of times, just plain boring, something I'd hardly ever say about Black's material, solo or otherwise, and while "Kicked in the Taco" isn't boring, it always makes me cringe.

3. Blur, "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club." While they didn't hit the peaks that most of their brethren in the upper echelon of Britpop (Oasis, Suede, Pulp, Supergrass) achieved, Blur were arguably more consistent than any of them. Every album from Modern Life is Rubbish to 13 is well worth listening to, and after all the hubbub of Blur v. Oasis has long since died down, those albums hold up surprisingly well within the canon of that distinctly British pop/rock sound of the Kinks, Small Faces, Jam, Squeeze, etc. But once Graham Coxon left (sometime after 13) and Damon Albarn started providing the voice for a singing animated primate, the group became very boring very fast. Think Tank is the definition of a band going through the motions, and in "Moroccan Peoples" they not only sleepwalk through a song, but they trade on the musical stylings of a third world country that Albarn would undoubtedly profess to respect and admire, making it not only boring but uncomfortably colonialist.

4. Hole, "Sassy." I hate to bring this one up, because doing so always means that someone inevitably makes the case that Courtney Love was seemingly incapable of writing music that was listenable before she managed to attach herself to a series of more talented males who "helped" her with her songwriting. There probably is some truth to this, songs like "Sassy" off of her rather unlistenable debut album, Pretty on the Inside, certainly make the case for that theory rather well. However, contrary to the insinuations of most who have made that case to me, that doesn't make me think any less of Live Through This or Celebrity Skin. They're still great albums, with amazingly charismatic (if not always precisely on pitch) vocals from Ms. Love. Yeah, "Sassy" and Pretty on the Inside suck, and yeah Courtney Love probably didn't write "Miss World" all by herself. I'd still rather listen to it than almost any of the other mainstream alt rock being peddled to me at the time.

5. Bob Dylan, "Visions of Johanna." This is a little unfair. There are many Dylan songs I like far less than "Visions of Johanna," but there's something a little cheap about knocking Dylan for some lame track on Knocked Out Loaded or Under the Red Sky. It's akin to knocking the Stones for a lousy track on Voodoo Lounge. Sure, it might be true, but there's a self-evidence to it that takes the sting out of the dig, making you just seem small and petty. If you're going to take on one of the giants of rock, I kinda feel you have to tangle with them in their prime. Otherwise, for anyone who's had more than a ten-year career, it just becomes too easy to find an offending track without, well, offending. Anyway, "Visions of Johanna" has always been one of my least favorite "great Dylan songs." It's too long and it lacks the potent melody or passionate vocal that makes some other really long songs by Dylan ("It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," "Desolation Row," "Idiot Wind," etc.) not only bearable but exhilarating. The lyrics are undoubtedly beautiful. "Johanna" was at the height of Dylan's stream-of-consciousness-type style and there are some wonderful turns of phrase and pungent couplets strewn throughout its 7+ minute length, but in the end, that's just not enough for me. Whenever I play Blonde on Blonde, "Visions of Johanna" is the one song I struggle to make it through. Despite the lyrics, my attention wanders. It just doesn't grab me like the best of Dylan's epics do.

Michael C

"Kicked in the Taco." Good lord.

Good to see you back here, my friend.

bjork- "unravel"
i love that little genius icelandic faerie a whole bunch and chomp at the bit whenever she is about to release some more music. but this song has never resonated with me the way it does with other bjork patrons. there is hope though: i use to feel the same about her song "all neon like," but over time i've grown quite fond of it. maybe that same thing will happen with "unravel" one of these days.

fiona apple- "the first taste"
this is one of those songs i always skip. it's a little too 'adult contemporary' for me.

tori amos- the beekeeper
the entirety of said album really bores me. i'm glad her latest is a much needed improvement.

sonic youth- "the diamond sea"
really guys? 20 minutes? and then you release, like, a 30 minute version? you know i love you and will stand up and defend you on most things, but really? if you'd just used the middle 5-6 minutes it would be a much better song.

modest mouse- "dance hall"
no thank you.

That longer version of "The Diamond Sea" is on my iTunes/iPod. I don't think I've ever listened to it all the way through.

I've got to take this a step further and go with albums I don't like by artists I generally love:

"Modern Times", Bob Dylan - There are one or two decent songs on the album,
but overall it's too lounge-singer for me and not enough depth.
"Conspiracy of One" (and everything else afterward), The Offspring - They
tried to change with the times, but it didn't go well. Some bands are
meant to stay with their roots.
"The Crane Wife", The Decemberists - Though I listen to it, I can't listen to
all of it. "Shankhill Butchers" is by far one of my favorite songs from
the group, but in going more rock, the album is not as appealing as
previous ones.

Now songs:

Aerosmith - "Pink" Though I thought it catchy when I was 13, this song is
rather annoying.
Six Pence None the Richer - "There She Goes" I believe it's a cover, but I
really HATE when a song repeats the same verses over and over so that the
entire song consists of one or two verses! There other stuff was kind of
fun.