90's Hit Parade #86

Len - Steal My Sunshine

If you hadn't guessed, the germ of the idea for this series was planted by Pitchfork, who published a "Best Songs of the 90's" list last year. Pitchfork stole a bit of my thunder by including this song, a minor hit from c.1999 that I was sure few people liked and almost nobody remembered, on their list. Pitchfork pretty much got most of what's great about this song, the way it's summertime vibe and catchy bubblegum lyrics work so well with it's cheap-sounding white funk arrangement, so I won't go into that, but hey, look at the video! Like Goldfinger, this is the first time I've seen the video, and I'm again surprised to find that the guys in this band look like a bunch of douchebags. I was expecting skinny indie kids. But unlike Goldfinger, I think I actually like this song better knowing that it comes from these beefy frat boys riding around on goofy scooters with muscle shirts and backwards baseball caps. Maybe it says something about the mainstreaming of "indie culcha" or whatever in the post-Nirvana, post-Beck world of the late 90's, or maybe it's just another fun juxtaposition in a song that's already juxtaposed half to death.