The No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the year 2002 was Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me.” Of all the aggressively boring and boringly aggressive bands that visited their scourge upon us in the first half of this decade (Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Creed, etc.), Nickelback was perhaps the most palatable, but nonetheless still an abomination. Their proliferation in commercial radio was total, oppressive, and totally oppressive. It seemed that year that every single station on the dial, no matter what the format–Top 40, alternative, AC, Tejano, smooth jazz–was playing “How You Remind Me,” and to my mind this had two consequences: 1) We finally had proof that the Canadian mafia did exist, was very powerful, and worked to achieve exceptionally nefarious goals; and 2) Chad Kroeger’s maudlin frowny-face presence made this country a lot more grumbly and downtrodden that year. Six years later, I’d like to put forth my theory for making 2002 vastly more enjoyable. It involves the help of one man: Ben Kweller.
Kweller released his solo full-length debut Sha Sha on March 5 of that year. It was the perfect pop-rock album from start to finish, with few curveballs that would deem it unfit for commercial radio (unless you consider adorableness a liability)–but it went completely unnoticed by the Top 40 format. What, after all, does Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” have that Kweller’s “Wasted & Ready” doesn’t?
Malaise? Electric guitars? Some sort of reference to alcohol abuse? A vague sense of contempt toward women? “Wasted & Ready” has all of these things, but–and here’s the important distinction–it is actually fun to listen to. Now, “fun” may be a subjective concept. So here’s an experiment:
1. Put on “How You Remind Me” and sing along. You’re pouting, aren’t you? You feel weighed down somehow; you can feel your angsty goatee coming in, right?
2. Repeat step 1, only replace the Nickelback with “Wasted & Ready.” Try it in a car, with the stereo’s volume turned way up. It’s got a nice buoyant quality that picks you up, and doesn’t you down, Chad K.-style, after a rousing sing-along.
(And, just as a sort of afterthought–how is that Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” was the most ubiquitous song of the late ’90s, but the line “Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti” never caught on?)
For yet another straightforward guitar rock Ben Kweller track that should have made it to at least rock radio, I give you “Commerce, TX”:
What’s wrong with this song? Is the line “I got a pet hedgehog/Drinkin’ Jager all day” just too intellectual for the masses?
While those two songs conquer “How You Remind Me” in the electric guitar league, the track off of Sha Sha perhaps most deserving of radio domination is the unbearably sweet piano-driven “Falling”:
(Speaking of unbearably sweet: Ben Kweller and a baby!)
For the four minutes that this song encompasses Ben Kweller are an amazing fluke of pop music, a perfect combination of Billy Joel and Carole King, seemingly poised to save us all from the depths of muddy alt-rock forever. And yet, somehow, millions of teen girls were never given the opportunity to let themselves get caught up in the bridge-to-chorus crescendo where the drums slowly build and the violins swell and Kweller sweetly declares “Wanna hold you like never before, ’cause we’re falling and I love you more and more.”
It’s way too late now to save 2002, but here’s hoping that someday commercial radio will stop short-changing listeners so severely and give artists like Ben Kweller even a solitary spin–or, at the very least, scale down the Nickelback. For everyone’s sake.
I saw Kweller open for Jeff Tweedy in 2001 (I think…) and have been a fan ever since. Second the notion that radio finally embraces him.
All opposed?
In regards to the first track - Nickelback was channeling Pearl jam - Kweller was channeling Weezer.
Advantage - Nickelwhack.
Oh, and this is my alltime favorite Nickelback video. Be sure to watch at :45 in
+ Watch video
Rivers Cuomo probably paid programmers not to play Kweller. That, and Saves the Day had better publicists at the time.
I really like “The Rules,” which, according to Wikipedia, came out in 2004. Too late to counter Nickelback’s 2002 domination, but a pretty good song nonetheless.
By the way, I really like the posts under the tag “Theories”. Fun reads all around.
Once every year and a half since 2002, I have looked at that Ben Kweller CD on my shelf and said, “Boy, I should listen to this again. It was a pretty fun record.” And then I listen to half of it and smile. Then I forget about it for another year and a half.
What, no defense of Kweller’s days in Radish?
Oh, man, Sha Sha - loved that record. Played the hell out of it. Back then, when I was debating with my girlfriend (now my wife) about the validity of “emo” as a label and a musical genre, I remember telling her, “If all emo sounded like this record, I’d be a bigger emo fan.”
Anyway…
For the record, “How You Remind Me” was Billboard’s top single 2002 on a technicality. It’s actually a 2001 record. As I’ve mentioned in my column from time to time, the Billboard chart year runs from December of the prior year to the end of November, due to publishing deadlines. That often means songs that came out in the last month of the year are named the No. 1 song of the following year. I break it all down here.
Though not nearly as consistent an album, the title track off “On My
Way” still chokes me up. But then again, so did the House finale, and
that was a crap episode. I should really work on that.
Dude, the House finale was awesome!
It wasn’t all bad, but BOOOOOO on figuring out anything via dreams,
hallucinations, figments of one’s imagination, electroshock weirdness,
or any combination of the above. You might as well hang a sign around
his neck saying “Out of fresh (but believable) ideas.”
@blobby: totally! I was bawling like a baby.
He tried playing ACL with a massive nose bleed a few years back-Ben Kweller,that is.
Even begged the crowd for tampons to stick up his nose.
He ended up having to cut his set short,it was that bad.
But he was a trooper,and makes some great music.
And I’m sure he could grow a goatee better than Nickelback guy.
I saw him with Death Cab and he walked out and said in a turbodouche voice, “HELLLLLLLLLOOOOOO PROVIDENCE!” and then we left as he starting singing horribly off-key. It’s now the shorthand impression we do when a musician is being obnoxious.
Like the records though. And THE BENS — that’s a happy accident that could stand to reoccur.
the truth is that if he became a pop darling in 2002 we wouldn’t like him anymore and would probably be lamenting about someone else being shortchanged because we are snobby.
@Marth: That’s EXACTLY how I feel about Sha Sha. It’s sitting in my music folder, and all the songs are pretty well rated, but I still consistently skip over them when they pop up in a shuffle.
Not to be one of those “they were better back then” people, but I think that Ben Kweller is a prime example of someone who got worse the more “developed” they got. The songs that made it to Sha Sha can all be found in better forms on his earlier EP (”Freak Out! It’s…). As for the follow-up album… take everything good about “Wasted and Ready”, invert it, and add a second dose of self-pretension (the first comes from inverting the slacker malaise of the original song).
@Pop Cesspool: I’m pretty sure Radish is why Ben Kweller didn’t save 2002.
Voice isn’t right for Top 40 radio. Pure and simple. He sings like he’s lazy.