Apparently I am an indie rock nerd
13
Jan/101
Jan/101
I was thinking about doing something about my favorite albums of the 2k oo’s and I came to realize that apparently, I am an indie rock nerd. Almost all of my favorite albums come from this genre and really, I had no idea. I think this is something that I for some reason keep secret from everyone. It’s not on purpose. It’s just that there is “hanging out with my friends” music (Tesla, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson), “songs I sing in karaoke” (Heart, George Michael, Outkast) and then the stuff that I listen to at home (Wilco, Hold Steady). I’m hardcore about this stuff. I don’t want to be that guy who plays a song on the jukebox at the bar that nobody knows and/or likes. I don’t want to be the guy singing The Pixies in karaoke, I want to be the guy singing the stuff that makes people say “woah who is that smooth mf-er”. That’s me, that’s how I roll.
Anyways, I don’t normally do music stuff because I’m always so behind on it but there is enough here to give you a little taste of what I’m all about. My best music of the double zeroes is:
- Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Most likely my favorite album of all-time.
- Wilco – A Ghost Is Born: Not as good as the previous, but still really, really good. It has a couple of my favorite Wilco songs of all-time, especially “Handshake Drugs” which is probably my favorite.
- Wilco – Kicking Television: Does a live CD count?
- Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
- Wilco – Wilco (The Album): Don’t listen to this as much as the rest of these, but “Wilco (The Song)” is one of my favorite Wilco songs.
- Franz Ferdinand – (self titled)
- The Hold Steady – Seperation Sunday: This is the album that hooked me for life on these guys. “Silly rabbit, tripping is for teenagers! Murder is for murderers! And hard drugs are for bartenders!“
- The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America: Their most complete and probably best album to date. I remember everyone comparing them to Bruce Springsteen when this came out, but I’d call it more like ‘Bruce Springsteen if he was awesome’.
- The Hold Steady – Stay Positive: I don’t like this as much as the other two, but it’s still real good and the title track gets my rocks off.
- Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
- Fergie – As The Dutchess: HIT MACHINE! I know the words to way too many of these songs. It’s weird how many hits this CD had and that the same people who made those thought that “Mary Jane Shoes” was a decent song.
- The White Stripes – De Stilj
- The White Stripes – Elephant: “Seven Nation Army” hooked me and the rest of these only exist in my list because of that song. I love all of these equally though.
- The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
- The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan
- Blue Scholars – Blue Scholars: Seattle underground hip hop, FTW.
- Blue Scholars – The Long March EP: It makes me feel cool and like I actually lived in Seattle to listen to this stuff.
- Blue Scholars – Bayani: I slightly prefer the Blue Scholars full length to this, but it doesn’t really make a difference. I need to see this group live so bad.
- Jay-Z and Danger Mouse – The Grey Album: I didn’t really like the Black Album all that much when it came out. Sure, a few songs were good but overall it didn’t do that much for me. Then this thing came out and… wow. Stuff like this is why the internet is awesome.
- Jay-Z – The Blueprint III: Feels like this should be in here.
- Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP
- Jack Johnson – Brushfire Fairytales: Honestly, Hawaii killed Jack Johnson forever to me. It was just so completely overplayed at that point and then the entire island of Maui decided to adopt it for every bar, restaurant and nightclub and that was that for me and Jack. (Every movie, commercial and TV show also picking up on him didn’t help either.) A shame really because I remember when I was cool and discovered this before anyone I knew and played it repeatedly for six months. This album is the reason I own an acoustic guitar that I don’t know how to play. Still, “Flake” is such an awesome song even now after I have heard it 7000 times.
- Travis – The Invisible Band
- Travis – 12 Memories
- The Shins – Oh, Inverted World: Full Disclosure: The only reason I ever heard of this band was the movie Garden State, which I saw in theaters more than once. That movie (and it’s soundtrack) feature the songs “Caring is Creepy” and “New Slang” which are two great songs that I proceeded to play 15,000 times. Probably every single indie song I have liked since can be traced back to those songs. So thanks for that, Zach Braff.
- The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow: The Shins followup to Oh, Inverted World is the better overall album, but doesn’t feature one song that is nearly as memorable as “Caring is Creepy” or “New Slang”. Still a great listen.
- The Shins – Wincing The Night Away: In the top 5 of my favorite albums of all time. I love every song on this CD. This is the CD I want people to like. “Turn On Me”, “Girl Sailor” and “Australia” are probably my three favorite songs, but it doesn’t really matter this thing plays beginning to end with ease.
- Damian Marley – Welcome to Jamrock
- Rilo Kiley – Take-Offs & Landings
- Rilo Kiley – The Execution of All Things: Love this album. “A Better Son/Daughter” is really good, but I’m probably more of a “The Good That Won’t Come Out” kind of guy. I never understood why Jenny Watson doesn’t just sing on every song though.
- Dashboard Confessional – A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
- Kanye West – The College Dropout: Definitely an “I remember where I was when I first heard this” kind of album. “The New Workout Plan” is probably my favorite song off this disc, but it always surprises me how much I like the 12 minute spoken word “Last Call” at the end.
- Kanye West – Late Registration: Here’s my theory on Kanye. His first album’s success gave him the confidence to make this album, which is incredible. It gave us “Gold Digger”, it needs to be put in some sort of safe for future generations.
- Kanye West – Graduation: And the success of that album gave him even more confidence and he made this one, which is very good but a definite dropoff. Some really great singles here, but it almost seems like he took the album for granted in some way. Hard to explain.
- Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak: Still brimming with way too much confidence Kanye decides to do something different with his next album and then he has some serious personal problems and ends up making this. Which is so good that I don’t know if I can ever doubt the guy again. I probably like this more than most people, but who cares? I love it.
- The Strokes – Is This It
- The Strokes – Room On Fire
- Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (Jon Brion version): In case you didn’t know, Fiona Apple is my #1 “I’m depressed, I’m going to drink wine” music, except it’s always just too damn good to stay depressed.
- Justin Timberlake – Justified
- Justin Timberlake – Futuresex/Lovesounds: From like, a critic standpoint, this is the best album of the 00’s. No doubt.
- Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antarctica: Good. Totally insane. “so we’re drinkin, drinkin, drinkin, drinkin, coca, coca, cola“
- Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News: The earlier stuff is cool, but this was their least “insane” album to date and that made it the best.
- Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank: BUT THIS IS THE MASTERPIECE! THIS IS SO GOOD!
- The Killers – Hot Fuss
- LCD Soundsystem – (self titled): Have you heard “Yeah”? Do you even like me?
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast – Once More With Feeling
- Dr Horrible – Music from Dr. Horrible
