So it's America's birthday today. You may have noticed, most likely 'cause your newsfeed's been choked up with mutual friends wishing the Old Lady well. Or because your recently gentrified neighborhood has been popping with little firecrackers the last few hours. I TOTALLY don't mean to sound sarcastic, but it is easy to knock a gloaming World Power who's history is steeped unflinching pride despite a number of, I guess, Bad Things we had to do to Get Where We Are. But it's a great place where you can really almost do just about whatever you want, so I'm not gonna take any cheap shots - I'll let these songs do it:

Porsches on the Autobahn - "Dance American"

A meta-meta joke band that still make you want to dance your pants off, POTA seem to be making fun of Americans, but then seems to be making fun of Europeans, but actually are taking a shot at Americans' ignorance and propensity for stereotyping. In the end, I'm still not sure who's the butt of the joke, really; I just want to break dance while doing karate moves.

David Byrne - "Miss America"

The former Talking Head might come across as a little snide in personifying the nation as a beautiful prostitute, but the guy seems to genuinely love, almost as much as he laments, the ease with which he's made that association.

DOM - "Living In America"

Pill-Pop supergroup Dom aren't exactly being sarcastic in boasting the "sexy" freedoms of being a youth in the US - being hot, shopping, hitting the beach, and wearing cool clothes all the time are PRETTY awesome perks to living in the nation that invented "cool." But guess what, he's an idle hipster, and meanwhile you gotta don some khakis and get back to the Data Entry Center at 8am tomorrow, sucka.

Bane - "Release The Hounds"

Man, this song is an absolute brutal critique of what it really means to be the "Greatest Nation In The World." Consumerism, violence, subjugation, and more consumerism. After making you feel uncomfortable about everything you used to feel comfortable about, "shouter" Aaron Bedard closes with the line, "Everything is gonna be alright, so suck your fucking thumb." And you'd pretty much have to.

Trey Parker - "America FUCK YEAH"

On a lighter note, AMERICA FUCK YEAH. You know what? Sorry about all this snide bullshit. It's America's Birthday, so crack a cold one, and blast this jam already.