Idolator

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. More »

MTV writer wants to know why he's no longer moved by the (new) work of one Rivers Q. Cuomo, Esq. Idolator writer occasionally finds himself wondering same thing. "It is because both of you are no longer 20-years-old," you say. Perhaps. But is that it entirely? More »

Rilo Kiley remains an all-time favorite band. But their latest album, Under the Blacklight, broke my spirit. Where was the bittersweet loneliness? Where were the trademark prickly-yet-vulnerable lyrics? All the essential elements of Rilo Kiley were absent. In my initial stages of grief, I just drove around listening to their first two albums, wallowing in the past. But then I got to thinking, what's behind this woeful nosedive in quality? Could it have been the switch to a major label? Lack of creative focus? Finally I landed on an answer: pants. More specifically, the length of Jenny Lewis's pants and skirts. More »