2000 Great Songs #1343: You Don't Mean It

Scott McCaughey has long been the busiest man in indie rock--fronting two different indie bands (the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5), playing guitar on the road with latter-day R.E.M. and recording various side projects with R.E.M. members, releasing solo albums, and about a billion other projects; hell, even a serious stroke barely slowed him down. One of these days I need to put together a McCaughey playlist; but in the meantime, at least we have 2001's split double-album pooling Fellows & Minus 5 releases to show his myriad styles.

The Minus 5 half of that effort--Let The War Against Music--is particularly strong, full of great indie pop songs. And while it's a tough call, I think "You Don't Mean It" was the highlight, one of those wonderfully catchy, sing-along power pop songs that any rational listener hearing it in a vacuum would assume was a Top 10 radio hit. Which of course it wasn't, because people are just plain crazy.

Live on Conan 2001:

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