As The Lawrence Arms make the rounds to promote their new album, Metropole, which is out January 28, 2014, frontman Brendan Kelly spoke to The AV Club about why he hates R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People."
But when push comes to shove, the main reason I hate this fucking song is that it's so annoying on every single possible level. The lyrics irritate me, that fucking jangly riff in the beginning of it makes me insane, and the sad French circus breakdown is fucking pompous. I think there's an intellectual reason to hate this song and there's a visceral reason to hate this song, and I firmly hate it for both reasons.
Check out the whole interview here.