Misleading song eras - Spoon, James and The New Radicals

Sometimes, when I listen to a song, I'm like, "Wow this sounds like it came out 20 years ago!" Then I'll look it up when I get home and find out that, shockingly, it came out like two years ago. This is an entry about those moments.

- The song that inspired this entry is "The Underdog" by Spoon [above YouTube link, or click here], a band that has always had a kind of folksy, acoustic sound to me. "The Underdog" sounds like it would be great on a soundtrack for a coming of age movie in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I imagine the lead character, a dude in his mid to late 20s, taking a walk as the song plays in the background, and in that moment, he decides to go after the love of his life, who is busy with some Dane Cook. (Note: Dane Cook is my new term for any glossy manwhore who is kind of funny, but acts like he is 40 times funnier than he actually is. Feel free to steal this and use it.)

However, the song actually came out in 2007. The more you know.

- "Laid" by James came out in 1993, but I feel like it could have came out in the late 1970s. I realize that there is a cover by Matt Nathanson floating around out there, made popular by the American Pie series of films, but I feel that is an inferior version of this song.

I think the howling vocals of the song is what makes me feel like "Laid" is really from the 1970s. Also, it came out in an era when bands like Nirvana, Green Day and Sublime were dominating the local radio. As a result, it sounded completely like anything else on the radio to me.

- And finally, similar to the above song and probably the absolute best example of this type of phenomenon, there is "You Get What You Give" by The New Radicals. With its lyrics and keyboard and synth, it sounds like something straight out of the 1980s. The lyrics toward the end give up its true age though, as Beck, Hanson and Marilyn Manson weren't really around back then.