Hootie 2.0

This might make me a music snob, but I'm OK with that: Around 1997, I basically stopped talking to a friend of mine because he told me that he was - willingly - going to a Hootie and the Blowfish concert. 

Well, 14 years ago this week, one of Hootie's biggest hits, "Let Her Cry," was inexplicably near the top of the charts. Although, apparently, it was just a dark period in pop music history, because the No. 1 song in the land at the time was Bryan Adams' immortal "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" which featured this soul-crushingly inane lyric: Just tell me have you ever really, / really, really, ever loved a woman? You got to tell me / Just tell me have you ever really / really, really, ever loved a woman?

See how he got "really" to rhyme with, um, "really?" I know, brilliant, right?

Anyway, I've been thinking about Hootie lately because in the history of popular music, few songs have annoyed me as deeply and consistently as did the Blowfish's big hits of the late 1990s. In addition to "Let Her Cry," there were musical atrocities like "Only Wanna Be With You" and "I Go Blind." Actually, what annoyed me wasn't that the songs were so unthinkably terrible - which they were - but that radio stations just kept playing them over and over and over and over....

Now, it's Kings of Leon that have unleashed their Hootie-esque aural assault. Every fricking time I turn on the radio, it's playing "Use Somebody" or "Sex on Fire." And I just... can't... take it anymore. And I mean they're on every station I listen to - I swear the country and classical stations are playing them just to mess with me.

I complained six months ago about the unfathomable number of times Viva La Vida was being played on L.A. radio, but that was nothing compared to my Kings of Leon nightmare. So I'm writing to ask you to please let me know when the radio is Kings-free and it's safe to turn on my radio again. Until then, I shall take refuge in my iPod.

Add your two cents below: Are there any new releases that you've heard about a thousand times too many? Click "Comments" to share.

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Two more things:

1) We're closing in on Sorry For The Convenience's 10,000th hit - now just 54 away! I'm going to have to do some kind of celebratory contest, but I need to figure out how to work it. Stay tuned.

2) Blogger just made it easier to become an SFTC follower. If you're logged in to your Google account, you should see a button at the very top of the screen (up there on the line with the "Search Blog" button) that says "Follow Blog." Knock yourself out and join up, baby.