My Top 10 Records of the Ought Nots

Rozie said it best when she described the process of picking just 10 records as ballz.  To help make the pick, I consulted my Last FM to see what recently still gets plays but also relied a bit on my memory for those records that were a big deal at the time.  Some bands had a mighty decade but their best record was actually a 90s, so I left off By A Thread or Jimmy Eat World.  Two bands I played heavy in the 00s.

Couldn’t chose anything from 2009 as it just doesn’t have that decade-ness to it yet and only one record from 2008, a record that didn’t even make my top 10 last year! All these records had their moment when they were fresh and I continue to revisit them to make me smile.  Except Explosions In The Sky which I discovered later in the decade.

I am sure I’m missing stuff and its hard to really wrap my head around what I loved in the first half of the decade sometimes… so this is the best of the 2000s as I can remember today.

01) The National – Boxer (2007)

Easy peasy pick to lead off my list.  They are my favourite band.  When people used to ask me my fave band I’d hum and haw and whine that it was an impossible question, but now I just say The National.  Tyson turned me on to this group just before their album Boxer came out.  When Boxer arrived I was primed and anxious for it and gobbled it up as soon as it arrived.  Coral and I went to see The National in Vancouver at Richards and I might have cried.  I am sure I have blogged about the The National before, but basically, they are one of the few bands that I get kinda fan-boy over in regards to the fact that I make a point to stay up on them in the news, buy their records, travel to concerts and generally love them.  though you know what, I don’t even know the names of any of the folks in the band?

Is that weird?  Maybe… or maybe it just means I like chicks man, not dudes.

Key Cut: “Slow Show”

02) The Replacements – Don’t You Know Who I think I Was: The Best of the Replacements (2006)

Does this record count?  Sure does to me.  Replacements I discovered in the 2000s and they are huge to me.  This greatest hits collection is the greatest thing Rhino ever did.  I used to just throat punch people that said they liked “80s music.”  Like what does that even mean.  i still do, cuz likely those kinda folks don’t rock the Replacements, but now I don’t think it was ALL bad.

Songs that get me hot and bothered: “Answering Machine” “I Will Dare” “Here Comes a Regular”

03) The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (2006)

The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls arrived and I soaked in it.  What a rocking good time.  The songs “First Night” will be an all time fave of mine that I’ll be a curmudgeon over when I’m old.  If the radio still exists in 2020 and Madelyn is 12, we’ll be driving down the airstreet in our hovercar and it’ll come on.  I’ll crank it up and say, “now this is good music… all the music of the 2020s is shit!”

Make out to: “First Night”

04) Band of Horses – Everything All The Time (2006)

If you don’t wanna make out to the Hold Steady you’re a communist OR you have Band of horse fired up while you fiddle with the bra clasp.  Another band that I’ve been fortunate to see a couple times live (Coral has seen them 3 times! LUCKY!).  I coulda put Cease to Begin on here too, I know that Rozie pulled that stunt… duel entries for the same band with multiple great records… but I’d get out of hand with that.

Pretty music, makes me think of Madelyn for some reason.  Its definitely a family record ’round these parts as both Coral and I adore Band of Horses.

Its all good but if you steal one song make it: “I go to the barn because I like the”

05) Interpol – Turn on The Bright Lights (2002)

College radio turned me into a music snob and by 2002 I was at my bitchy zenith.  This record I liked, then Antics came out and I loved it, then with time it became wonderfully clear, Turn on The Bright Lights is a better record that I’ll likely always go back to.  This is an album I tend to gravitate too when I have a trip or car ride and just want one, really good album.  When I first came into contact with Interpol, “Obstacle 1” was my fave.  But now, its “Untitled.”

I already said it: “Untitled” but you’d serve yourself well by grabbing “Obstacle 1”

06) Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends (2002)

Another album that I’ll always smile about.  I was really into this “scene” by 2002 and one of the best records of the style continues to be in my opinion, Tell All Your Friends.  I played it tons on The Morning After Show, blogged about it when I wrote for Indulged, it came on camping trips and lived in my Discman as I skytrained to work in Vancouver everyday.

I moved to Victoria and it was a huge part of lonely nights when I was new in town and my girl at that time lived across the straight.

One of the oddest experiences in my life involved a trip to Bob’s cabin at Christina Lake one summer.  We had just arrived on the property and were unpacking.  I had climbed up the stair in behind the cabin and around the side where there was a clearing looking out over the lake.  It suddenly began to pour rain very heavily.  The song “You Know How I Do” began to play loudly, inside my head… but the sound seemed to me to be originating from outside my body.  It was very surreal, like I was engulfed in sound. It was loud and drowned out every other sound.  A magical moment that has never replicated itself in my life, but I hold out hope that it will again one day.

When not tripping balls to “You Know How I Do” I’ll recommend: “You’re So Last Summer”

07) Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 (2003)

Judge me not!

I like love: “The Crowing”

08) Tool – Lateralus (2001)

The soundtrack to my shit job as a telemarketer for Telus.  I remember driving to the call center the day they first played “Schism” on the radio and being happy.  I still enjoy their sound but this record tends to be what I gravitate to this day when I need a Tool fix.

My second Tool concert was the Lateralus tour at GM Place.  The show I got wicked stoned and sat way up high and just sucked it up.  My third show was heading to Seattle with James to check out the 10,000 Days tour.  We got to fly in a sea plane! ahhh, the 2000s.  The times were good.

I likey: “The Grudge”

09) Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight (2008)

This album didn’t even make my Top 10 of 2008.  What?  I’m an idiot.

Do I have to pick one? “Backwards Walk”

10) Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003)

This was a hard one, I kinda wanted to include Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois on my list.  When Sufjan’s state themed concept record came out in 2005, it topped my Best of 05.  I listened to it all.the.time.  BUT, I rarely rock it now, if ever.  It was fun, we had some times Sufjan… you got weird and stopped making music I care about.

Explosions in the Sky… now here is a band I always play… even if just a bit… but very consistent.  Super epic music with no lyrics.  Its like a chose your own adventure… song!  Whatever I’m feeling, I can wrap EITS around.  Their set at Sasquatch was the highlight for me (and the final show I saw over the three days).

Chill the eff out! “Your Hand in Mine”

Go with yourself