A couple of days back, a dude named Luke Winkie (really?) wrote a piece for The Village Voice entitled “Six Songs About NYC That Make People Hate NYC.” Lists like this generally piss me right off (see this one as evidence of same), and this one was basically no exception to the rule.
First of all, Mr. Winkie — since you’re not a New Yorker but rather a resident of Austin, Tx (a berg, one could argue, equally saddled with a pompous hipster reputation) — what you invariably fail to realize is that New York City DOESN’T CARE THAT YOU HATE IT. Rest assured, it’s mutual.
Secondly, Winkie sets his sights on “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” by LCD Soundsystem. To my mind, this was one of the first songs in goddamn eons to rhapsodize New York City that actually managed to GET IT RIGHT. Sure, maybe you lament James Murphy for being cooler than you are (as he quite assuredly is), but isn’t the real deal a bit more satisfying than, say, “Empire State of Mind” by fucking Jay-Z and Alicia Keys (a staggeringly cliched and banal anthem you left off your list for unfathomable reasons, as it makes even me hate NYC, and I was fucking born here)? Whether you haunted the halls of Danceteria and the Mudd Club with Murphy’s forebears or not, there’s absolutely zero arguing that New York City used to be cooler than it is is now. That’s not a matter of opinion, that’s just a fucking fact.
Maybe because they’re easy targets, Winkie also fails to cite “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra and “New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel ... or maybe he just thought they were too hallowed to harp on? You could also argue that "Back in the New York Groove" by Ace Frehley (originally penned by Argent's Russ Ballard for a British band dubbed Hello!) and/or "Native New Yorker" by Odyssey are ripe for condemnation, being that they're both hopelessly dated.
Anyway, it's an infuriating piece, but if you like, you can read it all here.
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