Best #1 Modern/Alternative Rock Song of the Year: 2006

Bleh. I’m glad these are almost over. I guess Weezer will be my vote, as it’s the only song I can moderately stand. As always, alternative songs from 2006 I liked that aren’t on here:

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Adventure Rocketship
Camera Obscura - Lloys, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken
The Coup - My Favorite Mutiny
Beirut - Postcards From Italy
Yo La Tengo - Beanbag Chair
The Divine Comedy - To Die A Virgin
Jay Reatard - Don’t Let Him Come Back
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness - The Ghost
Hello Saferide - Get Sick Soon
The Radio Dept. - The Worst Taste In Music

ETA: I take it back - I vote for The Raconteurs. Missed that one when I first saw the list.

Tossup between the Raconteurs and the Killers for me. I went with the latter because it’s a great song and it represents the point in their career where the Killers really found their voice as a sort of Springsteenian blue collar depressingly-awesome Americana band as opposed to the pseudo-New Wave sound of their debut album.

Also, in retrospect, the main riff of “Steady As She Goes” is, intentional or not, totally a ripoff of “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” by Joe Jackson.

Nine Inch Nails, though I also liked the Killers and some others.

Sue me, I like The Black Parade.

Wasteland wasn’t bad either, but most of the songs on here are middling songs by good bands.

The Raconteurs song always makes me immediately change the station, so clearly I share much different tastes in music from y’all.

I was between The Killers and Raconteurs, but I opted for Killers.

Raconteurs and I actually really like My Chemical Romance - my kids really like them so I heard this a bit.

Otherwise, yeah - overall “interesting-ness” of the songs isn’t there for me…

I went with the Killers too. I personally loathe “Steady As She Goes.” Musically I find it rather boring, and the lyrics sound like they’re turning life into one long to-do list.

I, too, voted (easily) for the Raconteurs. I, too, would’ve voted for the Killers if the Raconteurs hadn’t featured on this list. My third choice, however, would be System of a Down. Wait, wait, let me explain.

There was a time, from the mid-eighties through the early nineties, when I was pretty actively into heavy metal, starting with the hair bands and then progressing on to Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, thrash, and groups like Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. And then Nü Metal happened. Let me tell you, I really don’t think it’s possible for me to have loathed groups like Limp Bizkit and Korn any more than I did/do. But at the tail end of nü metal’s reign of terror and woe, System of a Down came out and were promptly lumped in with all the other nü excrement. But to my ear, they couldn’t have sounded less like their mook rock brethren; in fact, they reminded me more of the Mothers of Invention than of crud like Staind. And so I became a fan (even though I pretty well gave up on all things metal circa 1996), and have remained one to this day.

So there.

I also like the My Chemical Romance song, but by this point I’m lucky if I recognize more than two or three of these songs per year, so no vote for me.

Interesting list. At this point I was almost exclusively listening to an Alternative rock format (independent/non-Clear Channel) that plays a wide variety of current “singles” as well as a good dose of older, though mostly mid-80s-present alternative hits and non-hits.

I also think they have played every Foo Fighters song ever released.

Yet, I have no idea what this is: Foo Fighters - DOA
I’ve never heard of: 10 Years

I have heard System Of A Down and Three Days Grace songs, but only on “hard rock” stations, and probably not since around 2002 and 2004 respectively. I think maybe because there are some “modern rock” stations that embraced some harder and nu metal stuff longer than others.

I don’t think I heard much Incubus on the radio post- “Megalomaniac.” This song definitely didn’t make the cut here.

AFI did have 1 HUGE hit song on alternative radio around this time, but this wasn’t it.

Most Red Hot Chili Peppers songs post-Californication all sound the same to me, and they all seem to have some lyric/melody that goes like “Hey Nowww, yabba dabba doo” at some point in the song.

I heard this a lot, but nowhere near as much as the other remaining songs:
Pearl Jam - World Wide Suicide- Probably one of their most forgettable songs during their most forgettable era, IMHO.

These were played All the Time:

Nine Inch Nails - Every Day Is Exactly The Same (I guess a little better than every song being exactly the same, but doesn’t standout for them)

The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes (My least favorite Jack White project and song)

The Killers - When You Were Young (I don’t generally like The Killers, but this was better than all their whiny recent songs, I guess. I kinda like it but there are things about it I dislike with no explanation, like the “beautiful boy” lyric. Maybe I just don’t like second person lyrics sung by a whiny guy about a girl)

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade - Wow, I guess I’m forced to pick this. I remember hating them around 2003-2004, and being surprised this was embraced how it was. I resisted it but eventually liked it well enough to say it wins this weak class for me.

Interesting how polarizing The Raconteurs are. Myself I rather like that album and the cut, though the latter probably isn’t my favorite. They’ll get my vote and sadly this is just about the year I start becoming less and less relevant to these polls as I started listening to less and less new music.

[shakes head sadly]Ah, old fartdom.[/shs]

ETA: Well, I’m usually also a moderately big Yo La Tengo fan, but I can’t even place that cut mentally. Again, getting old :D.

Huh, a year when I am not inclined to vote for RHCP as my default - fancy that. Went with MCR because the Raconteurs song just annoys me and I prefer my Killers as a “pseudo-New Wave” band - Somebody Told Me and Mr Brightside are just perfect pieces of PPR pop. When We Were Young is the start of the Whiny Flowers era for me

No need to explain. They’re a fun band and write some interesting music. I don’t really lop them in with nu metal, either.

I went with the Killers off this list. They manage to work enough stuff that I don’t normally like together into a few albums that I’ll happily listen to. They’re an odd band to me.

Jack White’s work consistently gets less interesting to me as one adds more instruments.

Didn’t even realize this was posted - I had a busy weekend, I guess.
I’ll add my vote to the Raconteurs, decent song.

Also-Rans from 2006, courtesy of Playlist Research

So why bother posting that now? 'Cause Muse’s “Knights of Cydonia” is on that list, a catchy little ditty with a fun little video that I got some of my friend to listen to and like. And that’s my claim to fame for 2006…

I’ve said it before, but I was completely shocked by how much I love “The Black Parade.” Killers/Raconteurs duke it out for second place because I like both those songs equally.