2006 Todd Ten - Number 1 (Finally!)
It’s pathetic that this post has been collecting dust in my notebook for months. But in the interest of completeness, here you go.
For the first time ever, I have named co-number ones. It’s fitting because they are both such active participants in the conversation about the role of religion in American life. But first, the music.
The Thermals are loud and fast and fun. The type of band about 250 people get blown away by every night. Tight, focused and frantic, but ultimately pretty straight ahead.
The Hold Steady are a little more ambitious. The video below for for the hit “Chips Ahoy” is set in a forgotten and dusty motel at the side of a desert road. The music is a perfect soundtrack.
The Hold Steady, “Chips Ahoy”
They still rock, to be sure, but where the Thermals just tell you what they think, The Hold Study are much more likely to reach for a metaphor to say how they feel.
Both albums tackle topics of religion head on. The Thermals deliver rock’s traditional middle finger to the establishment with the lyrics of 2006.
We were born to sin.
We were born to sin.
We don’t think we’re special, sir.
We know everybody is.
—The Thermals, “Pillar of Salt”
That’s not to say they’re solely reactionary. Picturing God as an authoritarian on a power trip, The Thermals’ Jesus looks to the sky and screams “Dad, I’m afraid!”
Ultimately, the record makes one overarching point: Extremism, absolutism, and authoritarianism are (A) central to a whole lot of modern religious practice and doctrine and (B) anti-thetical to rock’s rabid individualism.
I’m tempted to cast my lot with rock and roll.
On the other hand, my sister’s friend Benn basically says The Hold Steady are actively undermining the fabric of rock. As he sees it, the arc of the morality tales playing out in their songs is simple: Jesus saves.
If, as the Thermals seem to, you believe that rock is inherently anti-religion and vice-versa, this is really a pretty subversive claim for an buzz bin rock band.
I’m not sure Benn’s take is entirely accurate. Yeah, the lyrics mention how one character “wasn’t that good of a Christian,” but the story of religious salvation is pretty oblique. In most songs, the characters are saved by love.
The imagery is probably vague enough that the “love” in question could be God’s divine love, but frankly the idea that love can lift up addicts and prostitutes is probably Christianity’s most noble aspect.
If the angry vindicitve God of the Old Testament and The Body, The Blood, The Machine were reigning hellfire upon the characters in Boys and Girls… songs for their egregious sins, I think Benn would have a point. When hippie New Testament Jesus is raising up the least among us, it’s hard to feel too angry.
The idea that each and every one us has innate value and that we each bring something special to the party is precisely what I hope rock and/or roll is all about.
Previous 2006 Todd Ten Entries
3. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
4. Rock Plaza Central - We Are Not Horses
5. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
6. Roddy Woomble - My Secret is My Silence
7. Infadels - We Are Not the Infadels
8. The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
9. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
10. Band of Horses - Everything All The Time
Congratulations - it took you six months to prove that you are a complete music snob.