A whole decade come and gone. At the start of the decade, most of us (well, me anyway) were relying on word-of-mouth, calling the college radio DJ to ask what song they just played, a magazine subscription, or good luck at a record store listening station.
While those things are still part of our (or my) music discovery process, the Internet is predominantly the means by which I find new artists, and new albums from artists I’ve liked previously. Through the rise of mp3 blogs, podcasts & online radio, myspace and other social media, I personally find at least 20 times more music than I used to.
To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. While it’s great to discover so much new music, it also crowds out the ability to really bond with the music I already have. And I can discover a ton of new bands in a week, but if someone asks me if I’ve heard of so-and-so, and I haven’t, I still can feel out of the loop. There’s got to be some equilibrium, but I just haven’t it yet.
This has also come into play as I’ve been putting together these Best of the Aughts shows. I found that it was actually easier to think of more songs from the earlier part of the decade, when I knew fewer bands, than the later years.
This is Volume 1, covering the year 2000 and most of 2001 (more in Volume 2). In all of these volumes, I’ve not always selected music that I considered the “best,” though I like all the songs, or “important,” as in, songs or artists that you’re supposed to like. It’s the music that’s most memorable and enjoyable to me, and/or was my first introduction to an artist I really like, and/or a song that sums up their work. I hope you enjoy them!
(artist - song - album + purchase link :: extra info)
The New Pornographers - Letter From an Occupant - Mass Romantic
Badly Drawn Boy - The Shining - The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Elliott Smith - Color Bars - Figure 8
The Apples in Stereo - The Rainbow - The Discover of a World Inside the Moone
Dressy Bessy - I Saw Cinnamon - Sound Go Round
Ballboy - Public Park - Club Anthems
Björk - In the Musicals - Selmasongs
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Airline to Heaven - Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
Belle & Sebastian - I Fought in a War - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
Jonathan Richman - Tonight - Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow
Superchunk - Late Century Dream - Here’s to Shutting Up
Built To Spill - Strange - Ancient Melodies of the Future
Death Cab for Cutie - A Movie Script Ending - The Photo Album
Figurine - [bonus untitled track] - The Heartfelt
Gary Jules & Michael Andrews - Mad World - Donnie Darko
Jurassic 5 - Quality Control - Quality Control
The Beta Band - Squares - Hot Shots II
Air - Radio #1 - 10,000 Hz Legend
The Shins - Know Your Onion! - Oh, Inverted World
They Might Be Giants - Man, It’s So Loud in Here - Mink Car
