Journal

1.Ra Ra Riot -Suspended in Gaffa (Kate bush cover)
2.The Envy Corps -Wires & Wool(Daytrotter Session)
3.Mogwai -Killing All the Flies
4.HEALTH -Die Slow
5.Efterklang -Swarming
6.The Veils -The Letter
7.Zeigeist -Tar Heart
8.Big Spider's Back -Perfect Machine
9.Amazing Baby -Smoke Bros
10.Wild Beasts -Hooting & Howling
11.Land of Talk -Some Are Lakes
12.Lost In The Trees -Fireplace
13.Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin -Glue Girls
14.Thee More Shallows -The 8th Ring of Hell
15.Thee More Shallows -I Do So Have a Sense of Humor
16.Thee More Shallows -Night At The Knight School
17.The Sea and Cake -Sound & Vision(David Bowie cover)
18.Sleepy Sun -Sleepy Son
19.Slint -Breadcrumb Trail

I need your two cents on this.

1. Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
It's been over nine years. Frankly, I'm all talked out and have been for some time. I didn't even put up a fight when my cousin dismissed it out of hand recently, having only heard it once, years ago. However, anyone reading this has probably heard Kid A already and formed their own opinion long ago, so what more could I add that hasn't been said too many times before?



2. Björk - Vespertine (2001)
It's her idm album, but it's also her songwriting album. Vespertine showed me how glitchy electronics could be warm, but harps, strings, and one of the most gifted and talented singers of all time help make this an immaculate listen. I think this is one of the most underrated albums of the decade and in her vast, impressive discography.



3. Aphex Twin - Drukqs (2001)
Although not a cohesive listen in the traditional sense, to take in Drukqs is to go on a wild ride through the mad genius of Richard D. James. Here, he revisits his classic techno of the early to mid '90s (setting the stage for his return to acid in the mid to late '00s) but aided by every production skill and compositional strength he's developed since then. As if that were not enough, the modern day ambient master let's us hear his beautiful, Erik Satie-inspired piano pieces and a series of avant-garde acoustic workouts and freakouts. Never has one album offered so much and received so little appreciation and understanding in return. No wonder Aphex Twin stopped making albums.



4. Hood - Cold House (2001)
This album will always be dear to me because it helped get me through a difficult time. It also serves as an awesome example of the promotional power of the mp3, as I'd never heard Hood until browsing Audiogalaxy (R.I.P.) when they were a featured artist with three legal downloads from this album. I was quickly taken by Hood's fragile, gorgeous, melancholic sound, and today I own 12 of their discs. In an ideal world, this naturally flowing, genre-blending album would get at least half of the acclaim heaped on Kid A.



5. dead prez - lets get free (2000)
This is quite simply one of if not the most inspiring album I've ever heard. Listening to this gets me charged every time. I may not agree with every unabashed, radical political stance espoused by M-1 and Stic.Man, but how can anyone disagree with messages like Be Healthy and Discipline makes things easier? Besides the raw, jaw-droppingly brilliant, poetically expressed lyrical content, the album is musically amazing. Few emcees have ever sounded this consistently sharp, focused, and hungry, and every beat knocks and sounds beautiful at the same time. The fact that dead prez had an active role in producing the album makes it all the more special.



6. Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (2000)
This album is just a lot of fun, even if Dan the Automator's production makes an album set far into the future sound dated. Del tha Funkee Homosapien was seriously in the zone writing and recording this album.



7. A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms (2000)
I don't think it's fair or accurate to call anything above a rock album, so that makes this debut release by Maynard James Keenan's side-project the best rock album of the decade and them the best new rock group, at least for my tastes. I love how their songs completely rock but are full of nuances and subtleties. The arrangements are great, and the production is perfect. Rock needs more of this.



8. Deftones - White Pony (2000)
The production may be a little cold on this album, but it works. The songs rock hard but sound delicate, too. There isn't a bad song on the initial release, which is what I have and is the intended tracklisting.



9. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006)
If you'd told me any time before 2006 that I'd be putting a singer from *NSYNC and former Mickey Mouse Club member ahead of most of my favorite artists in my top albums of the decade list, I'd have never believed you. Have you listened to this album though? It's incredible. Very rarely do I listen to an album and just envy the music the whole time as if I wish I'd made it, but this is one of those. No longer an industry puppet, Justin grew up (perhaps trying a little too hard in the process) and, with the able assistance of Timbaland and Danja at the height of their pop prowess, created a masterpiece.



10. Madvillain - Madvillainy (2004)
Rarely do dream combos work out as well in reality as they do in theory, but MF DOOM and Madlib even managed to exceed expectations. It may not be Doom at his deepest or 'Lib at his most experimental, but it's a hell of an album. Here's to the next.



11. Autechre - Confield (2001)
The musical equivalent to every frenetic, weird, crazy thought I've had, this is still the most mindblowing album I've ever heard. I've learned this is also the worst place for newcomers to Autechre to start.



12. Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (2003)
This was one of two discs that served as the road soundtrack to the worst summer of my life (so far!). I loved how catchy, visceral, and busy this album sounded, which was just what I needed. I thought Prefuse was cool from his first album, but a couple tracks aside it was just another glitch-hop album to me, so I didn't have high expectations for this album. I was blown away by the tremendous growth in production, from the sinewy synths to the ambient textures (including vocals) to the assortment of other instruments and growing supporting cast. This album introduced me to the music of Diverse, Dabrye, Daedelus, and Tommy Guerrero, but Prefuse is the star of the show here. At the time it seemed like the perfect melding of hip-hop and IDM, my two favorite genres then (and perhaps still). To this day, I still consider One Word Extinguisher Prefuse's magnum opus.



13. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007/2008)
I had a long history with this album before I ever played it, but it's really not that interesting to recap, especially now. Suffice it to say that I'd heard nearly every song on here in its live incarnation long before the album was released and didn't expect much based on what I found to be second rate material compared to the songs they toured before the release of their three previous albums. I think it speaks to the power of an even, cohesive-sounding album that In Rainbows is as good as it is. In the right order, these songs complement each other flawlessly, and although I find the high points to be higher on Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief and the production of those albums to be more "interesting," this is truly a great, often addictive listen.



14. Saul Williams - Saul Williams (2004)
It was really difficult to rank Saul's three albums from this decade. Even his Rick Rubin-produced debut that sat on the shelf for two or three years before seeing a poorly promoted release is great. The margin between Saul Williams and the next album is paper thin, but I give self-titled the edge because the music, nearly all of it self-produced, seems to fit Saul a little better, which makes sense as some of NiggyTardust! is built on scraps from unreleased Nine Inch Nails material. Regardless, listening to him grow as a musical artist from Amethyst Rock Star to Saul Williams is remarkable. Here are fully fleshed-out, seriously heavy compositions sung more often than spoken or rapped, so it feels more organic than the spoken word over rap-rock and drum and bass debut.



15. Saul Williams - The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! (2007/2008)
Saul's rap Ziggy Stardust concept album produced by Trent Reznor hits all the right notes. Even more so than Saul Williams, NiggyTardust! signaled the arrival of a fully matured artist within the realm of music (as opposed to all those other creative arts Saul has mastered or at least dabbled in). Some of it does sound like NIN with another vocalist, but it also sounds global yet completely personal. Obviously the industrial elements from the previous album are pushed even further to the forefront here, but the punk and hip-hop remain intact, and the sonic palate is greatly expanded, including everything from screw to gorgeous, credible ballads. I was down in front for three shows supporting this album, all spectacular.



16. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein (2001)
Dark, scary, depressing, and brilliant, I was a little late to Can Ox's unique brand of cerebral street rap, coming to it after falling in love with the production on El-P's Fantastic Damage. The music on The Cold Vein is just as tense if not more so, but the more accessible and adept yet creative and experimental flows and lyrics anchor the album. One of the other biggest disappointments of the decade in music is the revelation of just how unlikely it is that Vast Aire, Vordul Mega, and El-P will ever regroup for a sequel.



17. OutKast - Stankonia (2000)
Even for me, it's easy to take this album for granted because its singles are so deeply ingrained into popular culture and the disc itself is full of so many songs and interludes, but it's important to remember that this is Outkast still at their creative zenith, making it look so easy trading smooth, rapid-paced rhymes and taking influence from all over, something we haven't truly gotten again from them in the decade since. The title for their planned full reunion album, The Hard 10, has taken on a new meaning.



18. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero (2007)
Trent Reznor's allegorical, politically dystopian, cyberpunk concept album consists of really catchy songs that formulaically devolve into glorious noise. It loses points for some generic hard rock-isms, but Trent delivers the goods for the most part, making this an exciting listen complete with some career highlights like Vessel and In This Twilight. The remix album is great, too, and you can remix every song on Year Zero with the multitracks posted online and in a DVD-ROM accompanying Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, further defining the concept of a DIY laptop musician future come reality.



19. N*E*R*D - In Search Of... (2001/2002)
The neptunes at their peak stretched out and created a fun, catchy album with a couple really beautiful heartfelt, serious songs. I had the European and promo release as a download in 2001, but the album didn't really hit me until later in the year when they posted a stream on their official site of what would be released to the U.S. in 2002. I much prefer this live instrumentation version, but that's a debate that has been ongoing among fans ever since.


20. OutKast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
Listening now I remember why I recommended this double album to everybody back then. While Andre 3000 experimented (and I say succeeded admirably) on his disc with singing, Big Boi delivered on what he does best, zany, funky, but street-credible dirty south rap. Between the two discs there are so many winners, yet this appears to be a Diamond-certified album that is actually underrated, at least among hip-hop heads.



21. Common - Like Water for Chocolate (2000)
This is another close call. I don't love this album as much as I did at the beginning of the decade, but I still find it one of the best rap albums I know, and I really do know every song on here very well. This is the album where Common joined up with The Roots Crew and Jay Dee, officially the Soulquarians, and it sounds like the best of all three worlds. It's also the last album where Com wasn't P.C. Note the homophobia on album highlight Dooinit and references to "bitches" peppered throughout the album. Nonetheless, Like Water For Chocolate probably has Common's most tolerable musical love letters to women, especially the breakout single, and still classic, The Light.



22. Common - Electric Circus (2002)
For my tastes, I prefer Electric Circus these days. I give LWFC the edge lyrically, but the weird, beautiful, seriously bumpin' (when's the last time you heard that? ha) electronic/hip-hop/soul music of EC appeals to me more. Despite what some say, I think Com spits hard on this album, too. I feel one of the most regrettable things in this decade in music was Com's audience convincing him that he was too different on this album, that it sucked, that he dressed weird. They got their wish because he's never been the same since, unfortunately.



23. Mogwai - Rock Action (2001)
A lush, beautiful album, and their last where I can remember the music just by the track titles. It is a tad short, but maybe it's just right. It's a bit of a departure not only in length, but also in content, as You Don't Know Jesus is the only song that rocks long and hard (pause?) like so many highlights on their first two studio albums, but I wouldn't trade Sine Wave or 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong.



24. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (2002)
I love the paranoid effect derived from the obscure vocal samples, sinewy synths, and ambient textures married with insistent drums. The track titles and album artwork only add to the mythos. This freaky, psychedelic album has been imitated but never duplicated.



25. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (2007)
The hip-hop auteur grew in the many years between proper solo albums into a better emcee and even more formidable producer in the traditional sense, here drafting The Mars Volta, Cat Power, and Trent Reznor in addition to the usual help from his Definitive Jux roster. Every song here hits hard on some level emotionally and musically.



26. Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (2005)
Although this wasn't another masterpiece that announced the triumphant return of Trent Reznor, I think this album is underrated. A lot of the quirks on past albums and Year Zero are replaced here by sludgy or jagged guitar riffs and pummeling drums, but it's a great performance.



27. Slum Village - Fantastic, Vol. 2 (2000)
This is a very fun hip-hop album with dope beats and catchy raps. The End.



28. Portishead - Third (2008)
This was my favorite album of 2008. I consider it nearly as good as the first two albums but in a completely different way. With Portishead having spent so much time away from music, no reasonable person could expect them to sound the same as they did before, back when trip-hop was still alive, and I'm glad they didn't try to act like nothing happened, either to their band or the Bristol scene. What they give us instead on Third is their rock album (some may feel more comfortable seeing "kraut" or "psychedelic" prefixed to that, but it's rock nonetheless). The feel is thus different but familiar. Beth Gibbons still sounds fragile, lost, and distraught but resolute, and the music is still heavy and serious, except for the delightful breather on the album, Deep Water, which always reminds me of Steve Martin's The Jerk. The band is in top form, and I am so pleased that more new material is on the way this year.



29. J-Live - All Of The Above (2002)
Perhaps too sincere for some, All Of The Above is nevertheless a tutorial on great hip-hop. J-Live has a sporty flow and clearly has fun kicking nonstop substance and creative concepts over serviceable beats. It's refreshing to hear someone put so much time and effort into his craft.



30. El-P - Fantastic Damage (2002)
This is the second, darker half of the soundtrack to the worst summer of my life and is a natural accompaniment to Prefuse 73's One Word Extinguisher as it, too, is a hybrid of hip-hop boom bap and electronics. This album is harder and uglier, however, in the most beautiful possible way, from the harsh sound of the beats to the subject matter of the songs. Very few albums are this well produced either.



31. Massive Attack - 100th Window (2003)
Nowhere near as good as Mezzanine, nowhere near as bad as many say. The intensity and paranoia here are aided by glitchy, icy electronics. This album is a heavy listen, not meant for dinner parties. My favorites are the songs where 3D sings lead.



32. J Dilla - Donuts (2006)
Despite how easy it plays, this album can be difficult to get a handle on intellectually if you love hip-hop and other music because of the length and treatment of the samples used. Is this technically a megamix? Are these even beats? These were among my first questions when I got into the album. As I listened, new questions arose. Is this Dilla's best album? Is this going to be a new trend in hip-hop? That last question was quickly answered in a resounding yes!, but the rest isn't so clear. I know this reads like the introductory paragraph of the pamphlet handed out at gatherings of the Cult of J Dilla, but just listen to the album. Closely. It has a message it speaks to you, if you listen.



33. Quasimoto - The Further Adventures of Lord Quas (2005)
This album is mad. It's musically all over the place and full of so many ideas it can be hard to keep up. A lot of people don't like the funny voice affected by Madlib as the character Quasimoto, but I love it both musically and conceptually. I think the voice and the Melvin Van Peebles samples fit the music perfectly, too, so much so that I've never wanted to hear the instrumental version of either album.



34. Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)
This is big budget, blockbuster rap in every sense. Jay-Z became a superstar here, but so did Kanye West and Just Blaze. This album has long reached Kid A levels of overdiscussion and overpraise, however.



35. Kanye West - Late Registration (2005)
I've always found this album to be complete and musically masterful. Time has shown this to be the last time Kanye rapped for a whole album with substance and conviction, and although he's grown as a producer and composer since, nothing has sounded this fleshed out (thank Jon Brion).



36. Radiohead - Amnesiac (2001)
With this following so quickly behind Kid A and consisting of songs recorded at the same time, it's a little too easy to dismiss Amnesiac. I don't advise it, as the highlights on this album are just as good as those on Kid A. I do find the "electronica" to be a little overcooked here, to the point of ruining what was their best new song in their live set in years, I Might Be Wrong, a kink they finally worked out on In Rainbows. The piano, strings, and horns that fill many of the songs here help make them some of Radiohead's finest moments.



37. The Roots - Game Theory (2006)
On their Def Jam debut, The Roots trade their feel-good vibes for sad times and tension, crafting a claustrophobic, dark, gritty masterpiece that stands among their best work.



38. The Roots - Phrenology (2002)
This is the third or fourth Roots album I heard and owned, but it's the first one I learned front to back and still some of their most creative work. I'd love to hear the Black Thought solo album, Masterpiece Theatre, that half of this album was versioned from. As diverse and well-produced as the music is, BT's solid command of the mic and songwriting development arguably make him the high point of the album, the group's first without Malik B sharing mic time (although he is the subject of the experimental album highlight Water).



39. D'Angelo - Voodoo (2000)
If Burial isn't ambient r&b, this is. I've always been attracted to the creeping tones of this album and how pretty melodies, simple but often profound lyrics, and even the funk would cut through the murk. This album is so good I can almost forgive D'Angelo for not releasing another one after.



40. Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (2002)
This may have had too many hands in it, but I still find it a highly accomplished work and a rewarding listen. Gab has the same fun but substantive and conceptual lyrical content and dexterous delivery as J-Live but doesn't come across quite as naturally. Still, if you can tolerate a little geekiness and playful corniness in your rap music, this album was the best of its kind in the decade.



41. Hood - Outside Closer (2005)
There really isn't a noticeable dropoff in the quality of the music and lyrics between Cold House and this album. I think that, other than the two singles, the songs here are a little less catchy. If Cold House hinted at any hope for the future, it isn't really found here, as this is a sobering listen, with Closure being perhaps the most emotionally devastating song I've ever heard. This album isn't for everyone, but I find it a very rewarding listen. It's also another album that shows the similarities between jazz and post-rock.



42. Herbert - Bodily Functions (2001)
This album is highly accomplished musically and contains some of the most sophisticated and fully formed songwriting in the electronic music genre. That, in addition to live instrumentation, so much of this album consists of samples actually sourced from the human body is remarkable. Matthew Herbert and his jazz singer wife Dani Siciliano make a wonderful team.



43. Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek) - Train of thought (2000)
I think this is Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek at their individual best, and joining forces they created a classic with serious bars and serious bass. The mournful tone found in many of the songs adds even greater depth and resonance.



44. The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002/2003)
I guess I like this album in the same way other people like The Postal Service, but I find The Notwist's beautiful and quirky brand of "indie electronic" music to have a lot more depth and lasting appeal.



45. The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia (2000)
This is the shoegaze album of the decade as far as I'm concerned. Every song on here is good if not excellent.



46. Talib Kweli - Quality (2002)
Talib Kweli shocked the underground by releasing his first solo album without any assistance from Hi-Tek and with actually measurable swag. I've always loved this album. The songs are fun and meaningful. It's no mystery why Kwe broke through with this album and Get By in particular.



47. Burial - Untrue (2007)
Judging by my list so far, you'd never know dubstep ever happened, and Burial is probably the least dubstep-sounding artist associated with that movement, which is perhaps why I love him and this album so. Every song here is basically a stolen r&b a cappella over top of ambient music with a percussion set consisting of samples of a wood block, an aerosol can, a gun cock, and bullet shells hitting the floor. Burial's music also sounds like there's a room playing drum and bass and another playing r&b and you're in a room in-between. Or maybe it's just really good ambient uk garage. That's the thing with Burial, he's intriguing and hard to classify.



48. Air - Talkie Walkie (2004)
It's an album full of really pretty, catchy songs, some light, some serious. There's probably more variety in mood and instrumentation on this than any other Air album.



49. Squarepusher - Go Plastic (2001)
It's really good Squarepusher, easily some of his best work, a solid album, and fun to listen to. It hurt to exclude Ultravisitor, as that is a more interesting album, but consistency and cohesiveness made the difference.



50. Daft Punk - Discovery (2001)
I listened to this album a lot, and you probably did, too.



Personally, I have a hard time taking seriously album recommendations from people who don't put their money where their mouth is (or their key-tappin' fingers, as the case may be). If you're like me, you should know that I bought every single one of these albums.

All questions, comments, and recommendations are welcome. I only delete advertisements.

Как звучал 2009 год:

!!!
16Volt
5ive
6000000000себя
64revolt
777minus111
7раса
8-Eit
A Place to Bury Strangers
Acid Black Cherry
Aerial
AIDS Wolf
Air Formation
Alice in Videoland
alice nine.
All India Radio
An Cafe
And Also the Trees
Andrew W.K.
Apollo 440
Apparat
Arcade Fire
Archive
Arovane
Art Brut
Astrobrite
Autechre
Autolux
Bastard Noise
Be Your Own Pet
BEAT CRUSADERS
Björk
Black Poets
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
BlackBud
Bloc Party
Blonde Readhead
Blood Axis
Bombay Bicycle Club
Bondage Fairies
Boy Kill Boy
boysetsfire
Brand New
Breaking Benjamin
By the End of Tonight
Cansei de Ser Sexy
cat party
CatPeople
Ceremony
Circle of Death
Clinic
Cocteau Twins
Cold Dreams
Crossfade
Crystal Castles
Current 93
Cut City
Death by Kite
Death of a Party
Death Sentence: PANDA!
Default
D'espairsRay
Devil Sold His Soul
Dir en grey
Dirty Pretty Things
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Drumcorps
Early Day Miners
Echo and the Bunnymen
Edgey
Édith Piaf
Editors
Electric Six
Elefant
Emil Bulls
Enter Shikari
Envy
Evil Cowards
exist†trace
Explosions in the Sky
Film School
Filter
Finch
Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!
First Communion Afterparty
Fjordne
Flёur
Former Ghosts
Friendly Fires
From Autumn to Ashes
From Monument to Masses
Fuck Buttons
Funeral for a Friend
Future of the Left
Gameboy/Gamegirl
Gang Gang Dance
ギルガメッシュ
Glamour for Better
Glamour Of The Kill
Glassjaw
God Is an Astronaut
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Goldfrapp
Hadouken!
HEALTH
Hecate
Helicopter Girl
Hell Is for Heroes
Hella
Help She Can't Swim
Hooverphonic
HORSE the band
Husky Rescue
I Am Kloot
I Fight Dragons
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness
I See Stars
I Will Never Be The Same
iamerror
Ideя Fix
Idiot Pilot
Idlewild
Iggy Pop
Ilya
Interpol
Iszoloscope
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex
Julian Plenti
July For Kings
June of 44
Kaiser Chiefs
Karate High School
Karunesh
Kettel
Killing Joke
Kings of Leon
Kitchens of Distinctions
Kitty Wu
KMFDM
Kola Kid
Ladyscraper
Late of the Pier
Les Savy Fav
Letna
Liars
Lovers and Liars
lynch.
Magazine
Marilyn Manson
Merzbow
Metric
mewithoutYou
Million Dead
Mogwai
Mono
Monolake
Morcheeba
Motherfathers
Mouse on Mars
Moving Mountains
Murmansk
New Young Pony Club
Nick Cave And The Band Seeds
No Age
Noisettes
NON
Nosaj Thing
Oceana
Oceansize
Of the Wand and the Moon
offthesky
Oh, Sleeper
One Hundred Hurricanes
Oomph!
PartyShank
pg.lost
Pigface
Placebo
Plaid
Porcelain in the Backpack
Portishead
PRE
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Protest the Hero
Psychedelic Horseshit
Psychic TV
Radio 4
raison d'être
Richard Hell and the Voidoids
RIP SLYME
Rise Against
Rome
Ruby Coast
Russian Circles
Sabrepulse
Saskrotch
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Screen Vinyl Image
Secret Shine
Servants of the Apocalyptic Goat Rave
she
She Wants Revenge
Shitdisco
Shy Child
Silencer
Singapore Sling
Siouxsie
Six Organs Of Admitance
Sky Eats Airplane
Skywave
Sleater-Kinney
Slowdive
Sluts of Trust
Smile Empty Soul
Sol Invictus
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Song of Zarathustra
Stereophonics
Strike Anywhere
Stuck in the Sound
Sugarplum Fairy
Suicide Commando
Tattoo Hosts Vision On!
Telefon Tel Aviv
Tera Melos
Terrorfakt
The Answering Machine
The Automatic
The Autumns
The Birthday Massacre
The Chameleons
The Checks
The Checks
The Chinese Stars
The Cinematics
The Comsat Angels
The Concretes
The Creatures
The December Drive
The December Sound
The Early November
The Exploding Boy
The Fall of Troy
The Flashbulb
The Floor
The Futureheads
the GazettE
The Ghost and the Grace
The Homosexuals
The Kills
The Legendary Pink Dots
The Mae Shi
The Magic Numbers
The Manhattan Love Suicides
The Morning After Girl
The New Pornographers
The Number Twelve Looks Like You
The Organ
The Others
The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower
The Prodigy
The Psychedelic Furs
The Rapture
The Raveonettes
The Robot Ate Me
The Social
The Sound
The Sound of Animals Fighting
The Sounds
The Stone Roses
The Sugarcubes
The Teenagers
The Temper Trap
The Twilight Sad
The Vandelles
The View
The Violets
The xx
The Young Knives
There Were Wires
There Will Be Fireworks
These Arms Are Snakes
This Will Destroy You
Thrice
Thunderbirds Are Now!
Thursday
Times New Viking
Tokyo Police Club
Toska
Trash Fashion
Travis
Troum
TV on the Radio
United Nations
USK
Valley Of The Gaints
Veil Veil Vanish
Venetian Snares
Verse En Coma
VHS or Beta
We Are Scientists
We Were Promised Jetpacks
White Lies
White Rose Movement
Wire
World's End Girlfriend
Xanopticon
Xinon
Xiu Xiu
Yakuza Heart Attack
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yonderboi
You Say Party! We Say Die!
Yourcodenameis:milo
Yves Montand
Адаптация Пчёл
Вася Васин
Время От Каждого
Дельфин
Дубовый Гаайъ
Кирпичи
Маша и Медведи
Мельница
Мишины Дельфины
Найк Борзов
Оля и Монстр
Торба-на-Круче

01. Les Claypool
Date: 05 Dec 2009
Venue: Fowlers Live
Support: Dr El Suavo
Highlights: Fisticuffs, Cosmic Highway
Notes: I have never been late to a show before this day (at least not for the headlining band anyway), so imagine how pissed off I was that the first time I'm late to a show is for one of my all time favourite musicians.
Having said that, I got there part way through Fisticuffs and soon got over the disappointment and substituted it for complete awe. I'm pretty sure anyone would have thought I was either very high or mentally retarded had they have looked at me.
[last.fm link]

02. Melvins
Date: 27 Jan 2009
Venue: Ding Dong Lounge
Support: Umläut
Highlights: Copache, Atlas Face (with Mike Patton)
Notes: An appearance from Mike Patton during Umläut's set and Melvins playing all of Houdini make this something that I think I would have had to destroy children had I have missed it.
I now feel like a complete moron for not caring when they supported Tool in 2002 and even more of a moron for choosing to see Sepultura in 2003 instead of doing the Ipecac geek show but hindsight is an amazing thing.
If you ever get a chance to do it, see the Melvins or you're a bigger moron than the underage Ash was.
[last.fm link]

03. Mogwai
Date: 05 Mar 2009
Venue: Forum Theatre
Support: Beaches
Highlights: Christmas Steps, We're No Here
Notes: I wasn't a massive fan of Beaches. I wouldn't say they were shit, I just wasn't a fan.
Mogwai were the first band I considered traveling interstate to see when they were touring Mr. Beast and didn't play Adelaide (actually it might have been Isis when they toured for Panopticon, who cares?). Due to financial issues, that never happened so when they announced this tour I had quite a high excitement and expectation level.
Mogwai were amazing and pretty much everything I hoped they would be. A lot of people complained about the long noisy wankfest ending to We're No Here but I loved it so fuck everyone else.
[last.fm link]

04. Serj Tankian & Fantômas
Date: 25 Jan 2009
Venue: Palace Theatre
Highlights: Rosemary's Baby, Space Oddity
Notes: I love Mike Patton so Fantômas were always going to be on this list, especially when Dale Crover was drumming for them (refer to previous Melvins praise). Fantômas were so good that I actually hunted down a cheap Big Day Out ticket so I could see them again at Adelaide BDO (thank you Neil Young for making this possible).
Serj was great fun, for me to say my highlight of that set was a Bowie cover is not so much me saying I think his material is shit but more I really enjoyed the way they did the song (plus Bowie just wins at everything). This show's so high on my list purely due to Fantômas though.
[last.fm link]

05. Soundwave
Date: 28 Feb 2008
Venue: Bonython Park
Bands: Nine Inch Nails, Alice in Chains, The Dillinger Escape Plan & Bloodhound Gang
Highlights: When Good Dogs Do Bad Things, Wish (with TDEP)
Notes: This was my first Soundwave and I'd like to state that I'll be quite pissed off if this doesn't last as long as BDO has. Having said that, the first few BDO lineups were also amazing and we know where they are now so there's still time for Soundwave to go shit.
Moving on, Nine Inch Nails are a band that I've always wanted to see but not enough to bother traveling to see when they decided to skip Adelaide. Having now seen them, I'm a little pissed that I waited until what seems like it will have been their last tour with the huge light show. Plus seeing Greg and Ben from TDEP play Wish with them was amazing.
Anyone avoiding Alice in Chains now because "it's not Layne" is a moron. William DuVall has a great voice and I can't help but respect someone that doesn't try and imitate Layne when singing these songs. Plus a lot of the sound came from Cantrell's backing vocals anyway.
If you know me, you know I crap on about Dillinger to much so I'll just say they were incredible again and leave it at that.
[last.fm link]

06. Cult of Luna
Date: 17 Feb 2009
Venue: Fowlers Live
Support: Eleventh He Reaches London
Highlights: Ghost Trail, Following Betulas
Notes: I quite liked the support band but for some reason I forgot to keep a note of them to catch them next time they're in Adelaide. Things I'm doing after I finish this: That.
I never really rated Cult of Luna too highly as a band based on their albums prior to this. I always knew they were good but kind of viewed them as a diet-Isis. I now know I'm retarded because they are amazing live and I appreciate them so much more now.
[last.fm link]

07. Black Cobra
Date: 03 Oct 2009
Venue: Enigma Bar
Support: Space Bong, Thunderclaw & Blarke Bayer / Black Widow
Notes: I wont pretend I know Black Cobra well enough to be able to say which songs of there's were the highlight of their set. They were a band I decided to see after hearing a couple of songs on Myspace and after having seen that Heathen Skulls were responsible for them being in the country.
I was thoroughly impressed by this band, especially the sound that they get with being a two-piece. I'll definitely see them again if I ever get the opportunity.
[last.fm link]

08. Lightning Bold
Date: 27 Nov 2009
Venue: Fowlers Live
Support: Bronze Chariot & Robotosaurus
Notes: It's pretty much the same story with Lightning Bolt as it was with Black Cobra. I'd listened to Lightning Bolt a little before seeing them but was mainly seeing them based on the fact that it was a Heathen Skulls show. Plus Grey Daturas and Primitive Calculators were meant to be supporting which changed some time before the night.
This is another two-piece that I was extremely impressed by as well. Brian Chippendale is an amazing drummer and anyone who disagrees with me should get new ears.
[last.fm link]

09. Monarch!
Date: 27 Feb 2009
Venue: Enigma Bar
Support: Support: Robotosaurus, Agonhymn & Cunt Scrape
Notes: Facts about this night:
1. This was the last day of work as we were all made redundant.
2. Copious amounts of drinking happened prior to this gig based on work drinks that started at 5pm.
The result of this was Ash being quite drunk and losing track of time. I thought the progression of events would be Robotosaurus, Cunt Scrape, Agonhymn and then Monarch. I planned to get there part way through Cunt Scrape as I really wanted to see Agonhymn. I got there part way through the 3rd band which were Robotosaurus, this is what happens when you get drunk and lose track of time.
Anyway, from what I remember of the night Monarch were amazing. I can't wait to see them again and not be as drunk next time around.
[last.fm link]

10. Megadeth
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Venue: Thebarton Theatre
Support: Double Dragon
Highlights: Sweating Bullets, Head Crusher
Notes: This was meant to be Slayer and Megadeth but Slayer pulled out to Tom Araya getting laryngitis. This meant Megadeth got a full set which I was pleased about because I've seen Slayer and they were outdone by Mastodon so I could care less if I saw them on this tour (although seeing two of the big four on the one night would have been great).
Megadeth were insanely fun and I'm extremely annoyed for having not seen them prior to this tour.
[last.fm link]

ARTISTS:
01 Pearl Jam 2,715
02 Nine Inch Nails 2,700
03 David Bowie 1,458
04 The Smashing Pumpkins 1,414
05 Barenaked Ladies 1,301
06 Porcupine Tree 1,102
07 R.E.M. 974
08 Bob Dylan 877
09 The Beatles 833
10 Tool 736
11 Faith No More 537
12 A Perfect Circle 528
13 Prince 462
14 Coheed and Cambria 398
15 Red Hot Chili Peppers 359
16 Led Zeppelin 337
17 The Doors 318
18 Johnny Cash 277
19 Opeth 248
20 Meshuggah 214
21 Tomahawk 194
22 Mr. Bungle 169
23 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 147
24 Slipknot 93
25 Incubus 82
25 Killswitch Engage 82
27 Alice in Chains 76
27 John Frusciante 76
29 Alison Krauss & Union Station 55
30 Alanis Morissette 44
31 Yoko Kanno 34
32 Mogwai 30
32 Puscifer 30
34 Jimi Hendrix 23
35 Metallica 19
35 Van Halen 19
37 Hirasawa Susumu 16
38 Paramore 13
38 System of a Down 13
38 The Beach Boys 13
41 Bif Naked 12
41 Stereophonics 12
43 Joe Satriani 10
44 Steve Vai 7
45 Sonata Arctica 6
46 Pink Floyd 5
46 Steven Wilson 5
48 Fantômas 3
49 Lenny Kravitz 2

ALBUMS:
1 Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral 723
2 Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile 418
3 The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness 361
4 Pearl Jam – No Code 359
5 David Bowie – Hunky Dory 352
6 Porcupine Tree – In Absentia 337
7 Barenaked Ladies – Maroon 321
8 Pearl Jam – Riot Act 315
9 Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero 297
10 A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step 286
11 Pearl Jam – Binaural 284
12 Pearl Jam – Yield 273
13 Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth 271
14 Faith No More – Angel Dust 265
15 Pearl Jam – Lost Dogs 264
16 David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars 260
16 David Bowie – Aladdin Sane 260
18 Tool – Lateralus 255
19 Pearl Jam – Vitalogy 250
20 Porcupine Tree – The Incident 249
21 Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam 244
22 Prince – Purple Rain 233
23 Nine Inch Nails – The Slip 221
24 Pearl Jam – Backspacer 218
25 Tool – Ænima 205
26 Faith No More – King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime 196
27 Tomahawk – Tomahawk 194
28 R.E.M. – Document 192
29 The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream 191
30 R.E.M. – Automatic for the People 184
31 Barenaked Ladies – Born on a Pirate Ship 180
32 Pearl Jam – Ten 175
33 The Doors – Strange Days 172
34 Johnny Cash – Walking the Line: The Legendary Sun Recordings 169
35 Pearl Jam – Vs. 166
36 Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home 165
36 David Bowie – Low 165
36 Barenaked Ladies – Stunt 165
39 The Beatles – The White Album 158
40 Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked Ladies Are Men 157
41 Nine Inch Nails – And All That Could Have Been 154
42 A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms 147
42 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Safe as Milk 147
44 Prince – The Hits/The B-Sides 142
45 Mr. Bungle – California 140
46 Porcupine Tree – Stupid Dream 136
46 David Bowie – Diamond Dogs 136
48 Barenaked Ladies – Gordon 135
49 Porcupine Tree – Deadwing 133
49 Meshuggah – obZen 133
51 The Smashing Pumpkins – Adore 126
51 The Beatles – Rubber Soul 126
53 Barenaked Ladies – Everything to Everyone 124
54 The Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist 123
54 Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet 123
56 The Doors – The Doors 122
57 Bob Dylan – Infidels 120
58 Bob Dylan – Blonde On Blonde 113
59 R.E.M. – Monster 106
60 Tool – 10,000 Days 104
61 The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour 99
62 Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness 97
63 The Beatles – Abbey Road 96
63 Tool – Undertow 96
65 Barenaked Ladies – Maybe You Should Drive 95
66 Nine Inch Nails – Broken 94
67 Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine 93
67 Coheed and Cambria – No World For Tomorrow 93
67 A Perfect Circle – eMOTIVe 93
70 The Smashing Pumpkins – American Gothic 92
71 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium 91
72 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication 89
72 Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks 89
74 The Carter Family – At San Quentin 88
74 Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 88
76 The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music 86
77 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik 84
78 The Smashing Pumpkins – Gish 83
79 The Beatles – Revolver 82
80 Meshuggah – Catch Thirtythree 81
81 David Bowie – Space Oddity 77
82 Tool – Opiate 76
82 Opeth – Damnation 76
82 Faith No More – The Real Thing 76
85 R.E.M. – Murmur 73
86 Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I-IV 72
86 Bob Dylan – Hard Rain 72
88 Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (disc 1: Left) 69
89 The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 68
90 Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked Ladies Are Me 65
91 Pearl Jam – Live At The Gorge [2006.07.23] 63
92 Porcupine Tree – Insignificance 62
92 R.E.M. – Green 62
92 Nine Inch Nails – And All That Could Have Been (disc 1: Live) 62
95 R.E.M. – Out of Time 60
96 The Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot 59
97 Coheed and Cambria – The Second Stage Turbine Blade 58
98 R.E.M. – Up 56
99 Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (disc 2: Right) 55
99 R.E.M. – Lifes Rich Pageant 55
101 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II 54
102 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III 52
102 R.E.M. – Reckoning 52
102 Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (disc 2) 52
105 Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy 51
106 David Bowie – Reality 49
107 R.E.M. – Fables Of The Reconstruction 48
108 Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti 45
108 Pearl Jam – Ten (Legacy Edition) 45
110 Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill 44
110 The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album) [Disc 1] 44
112 The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness: Dawn To Dusk 43
112 Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited 43
112 The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina/The Machines of God 43
112 Porcupine Tree – Signify 43
116 Alice in Chains – Jar of Flies 42
117 Slipknot – Slipknot 40
118 David Bowie – "Heroes" 39
118 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin 39
118 Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan 39
118 Prince – Diamonds and Pearls 39
122 Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage 37
123 Nine Inch Nails – Lost Highway [Explicit] 36
123 David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World 36
123 David Bowie – 1.Outside 36
123 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV 36
123 Nine Inch Nails – Further Down the Spiral 36
123 Bob Dylan – Desire 36
129 Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Uplift Mofo Party Plan 35
129 Opeth – Still Life 35
131 Alice in Chains – Dirt 34
131 Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness 34
131 The Beatles – Let It Be 34
131 The Beatles – Help! 34
131 Slipknot – Iowa 34
131 Yoko Kanno – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T 1 34
137 Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind 33
137 R.E.M. – Accelerate 33
139 Opeth – Watershed 32
140 Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling 30
140 The Beatles – Please Please Me 30
140 Puscifer – V is for Vagina 30
140 Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy 30
140 John Frusciante – To Record Only Water For Ten Days 30
145 Mr. Bungle – Mr. Bungle 29
146 The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness: Twilight To Starlight 28
146 John Frusciante – DC EP 28
146 The Beatles – Beatles for Sale 28
146 Nine Inch Nails – Things Falling Apart 28
146 R.E.M. – New Adventures in Hi-Fi 28
151 Pearl Jam – Lost Dogs (disc 2) 27
151 Alison Krauss & Union Station – So Long So Wrong 27
151 Alison Krauss & Union Station – So Long, So Wrong 27
151 Barenaked Ladies – Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits: 1991-2001 27
151 Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding 27
156 David Bowie – Heathen 24
156 Opeth – Deliverance 24
156 The Doors – L.A. Woman 24
156 Bob Dylan – The basement tapes 24
160 The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina I: The Machines of God 23
160 Red Hot Chili Peppers – One Hot Minute 23
162 Prince – 1999 22
162 Opeth – My Arms, Your Hearse 22
162 Coheed & Cambria – Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness 22
165 Barenaked Ladies – Rock Spectacle 21
165 Opeth – Blackwater Park 21
165 Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E. 21
168 Johnny Cash – At San Quentin 20
168 Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin' 20
168 Bob Dylan – Nashville Skyline 20
168 Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream 20
172 Pearl Jam – Live At The Gorge [2006.07.22] 19
172 Porcupine Tree – Nil Recurring 19
172 Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way 19
172 Slipknot – All Hope Is Gone 19
176 The Beatles – With the Beatles 18
176 John Frusciante – Shadows Collide With People 18
176 Killswitch Engage – Alive or Just Breathing 18
176 R.E.M. – Reveal 18
176 Incubus – Morning View 18
176 Prince – Batman 18
182 Killswitch Engage – As Daylight Dies 17
182 Incubus – Light Grenades 17
182 Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland 17
182 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin [Disc 2] 17
186 Incubus – A Crow Left of the Murder... 16
186 Opeth – Orchid 16
188 Led Zeppelin – Presence 15
188 David Bowie – Let's Dance 15
188 Smashing Pumpkins – Adore 15
191 Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness: Twilight To Starlight 14
191 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium: Jupiter [Disc 1] 14
191 Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot 14
194 Opeth – Ghost Reveries 13
194 The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds 13
194 Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan 13
194 System of a Down – System of a Down 13
194 Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow 13
194 The Beatles – The Beatles (White Album) [Disc 2] 13
200 Bif Naked – I Bificus 12
200 Paramore – RIOT! 12
200 Stereophonics – Word Gets Around 12
200 Bob Dylan – "Love and Theft" 12
200 Susumu Hirasawa – Paprika Soundtrack 12
200 Bob Dylan – MTV Unplugged 12
206 Barenaked Ladies – Rock Spectacle (Live) 11
206 Led Zeppelin – Mothership [Disc 1] 11
206 Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist 11
206 Pearl Jam – Live At The Gorge [2005.09.01] (Disc 3) 11
210 The Smashing Pumpkins – Rarities & B-Sides 10
210 Joe Satriani – Surfing With the Alien 10
210 Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache 10
210 Nine Inch Nails – Quake 10
210 Van Halen – Van Halen II 10
210 Incubus – Fungus Amongus 10
210 Smashing Pumpkins – Gish 10
210 Coheed & Cambria – The Second Stage Turbine Blade [Bonus Tracks] 10
218 Bob Dylan; Hamid Hamilton Camp; The True Brethren – John Wesley Harding 9
218 Opeth – Morningrise 9
218 The Smashing Pumpkins – Teargarden by Kaleidyscope 9
218 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin [Disc 3] 9
218 David Bowie – Earthling 9
218 Van Halen – 1984 9
224 Prince – Dirty Mind 8
224 Metallica – Master of Puppets 8
224 Coheed & Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 8
224 Coheed & Cambria – Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness 8
224 Metallica – Ride The Lightning 8
229 The Smashing Pumpkins – That's The Way [My Love Is] 7
229 Steve Vai – Alien Love Secrets 7
231 Nine Inch Nails – NINJA 2009 Tour Sampler 6
231 Sonata Arctica – Reckoning Night 6
231 Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced? 6
231 R.E.M. – Around the Sun 6
235 Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here 5
235 Steven Wilson – Insurgentes 5
237 Susumu Hirasawa – Planet Roll Call 4
237 Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness: Dawn To Dusk 4
237 Smashing Pumpkins – That's The Way [My Love Is] 4
237 Smashing Pumpkins – American Gothic 4
241 Fantômas – Delìrium Còrdia 3
241 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mother's Milk 3
241 Nine Inch Nails – Fixed 3
241 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin [Disc 1] 3
241 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin [Disc 4] 3
246 Metallica – ...And Justice For All 2
246 Led Zeppelin – Mothership 2
246 Pearl Jam – Live At The Gorge [2005.09.01] 2
246 Lenny Kravitz – Baptism 2
246 The Beatles – A Hard Day's Night 2
251 Metallica – Black Album 1
251 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Single 1
251 The Beatles – 1967-1970 1
251 Paramore – Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (International Version) 1
251 Alison Krauss – So Long So Wrong 1
251 Coheed & Cambria – Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow 1
251 R.E.M. – In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 1

Hi

Voting is currently taking place to include four new artists in the British Rock Artists League for its fourth season. The British Rock Artists League is a competition between the country's greatest rock artists to see who is the best. It is decided entirely by voters, and works in a round robin format. Plus there is an alternative cup that runs alongside it.

Click here to vote for the four new artists! Looking forward to having you participate!

Artists already in Season 4

The Beatles Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin The Who The Clash Queen Radiohead The Rolling Stones Blur Muse David Bowie Black Sabbath The Cure Oasis Joy Division Iron Maiden Sex Pistols Placebo Coldplay The Verve Franz Ferdinand Arctic Monkeys Deep Purple The Smiths Dire Straits Kaiser Chiefs Motörhead Manic Street Preachers The Stone Roses Bloc Party The Kinks Kasabian The Libertines Porcupine Tree Pulp Travis Editors Genesis Yes Snow Patrol The Police Cream The Jam Stereophonics Klaxons The Kooks Judas Priest Mogwai Jethro Tull Feeder Belle and Sebastian Keane King Crimson T.Rex Biffy Clyro The Sisters of Mercy Oceansize Anathema Marillion My Dying Bride Buzzcocks Suede The Jesus and Mary Chain Elbow Primal Scream The Fratellis Ash Rainbow The Futureheads Bauhaus Slowdive Lostprophets Camel Napalm Death Paradise Lost Carcass

Artists relegated from the league at the end of Season 3

Venom Diamond Head DragonForce Bullet For My Valentine


Artists that have been voted for already

65daysofstatic Al Stewart Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias Alestorm Amplifier Amusement Parks on Fire Architects Art Brut Babyshambles Bal-Sagoth Barclay James Harvest Big Linda Black Grape Blackfield Bôa Bolt Thrower British Sea Power Bush Catatonia Cathedral Chikinki Chumbawamba Cock Sparrer Crass Crippled Black Phoenix Depeche Mode Discharge Doves Echo & The Bunnymen Electric Light Orchestra Electric Wizard Emerson, Lake & Palmer Eric Clapton Evile Fall of Efrafa Foals Forefather Funeral for a Friend Gallows Gary Numan George Harrison Glasvegas Godflesh Gomez Gorillaz Happy Mondays Hawkwind I Am Kloot Ian Brown Idlewild iLiKETRAiNS James Jesu Johnny Foreigner Kitty Hudson KT Tunstall Kula Shaker Late of the Pier Los Campesinos! Lush Madness Magazine Manatees Mansun Maxïmo Park Mothlite Mumford & Sons Nazareth Oi Polloi One Night Only Patrick Wolf Paul Weller Penetration Peter Doherty PJ Harvey Portishead Public Image Ltd. Pure Reason Revolution Queen Adreena Razorlight Reuben Richard Ashcroft Ride Saxon Seth Lakeman Sham 69 Shed Seven Siouxsie and the Banshees Skunk Anansie Skyclad Sons and Daughters Spacemen 3 Spiritualized Status Quo Super Furry Animals Supergrass Supertramp Sweet Syd Barrett Television Personalities Tesseract The Adicts The Adverts The Automatic The Beautiful South The Charlatans The Cooper Temple Clause The Cribs The Damned The Darkness The Draytones The Enemy The Exploited The Eyes Of A Traitor The Home Guard The Horrors The Kills The La's The Little Flames The Mission The Raincoats The Rakes The Rascals The Rifles The Specials The Stranglers The Toy Dolls The Vibrators The View The Wombats The xx The Yardbirds TheTrees Turin Brakes Upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start Uriah Heep White Lies Whitesnake Wire X-Ray Spex Nine Black Alps Wild Beasts

Top Twenty:
I really enjoyed this year musically. A lot of great stuff came out of the crevices, to see the light of day. Obviously this indicates my favorite picks, not everything I listened to over the year. Your tastes may differ from mine as well, so keep this in mind. And a new section has been created, to sort of let you know what I would have enjoyed in 2008 had I known about it (or given it a proper listen). Enjoy yourself wonderful people and notes have been added regarding volume levels, etc. Please take note of them, since some of this is very loud.

In no particular order:

1. Hecker– Acid in the Style of David Tudor*
2. Dominque Leone – Abstract Expression
3. Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms
4. SND – Atavism**
5. Dan Deacon – Bromst
6. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
7. Tortoise– Beacons of Ancestorship
8. DAT Politics – Mad Kit
9. Japandroids– Post-Nothing
10. Shit and Shine - '229 2299 - Girls Against Shit'***
11. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
12. Cheer Accident – Fear Draws Misfortune
13. The Field – Yesterday and Today
14. Thomas Koner – La Barca
15. Jay Reatard – Watch Me Fall
16. Leyland Kirby – Sadly, the Future is No Longer What it was
17. Oneida– Rated O
18. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
19. DJ Sprinkles – Midtown 120 Blues
20. EmptySet- Emptyset

*Listen to on speakers only, due to panning and 3D Sound, abstract doesn’t even begin to describe it.
**Headphones (strongly) recommended
***Really, almost unbelievably loud. Watch the volume levels.
Songs of the Year:
Yeah, sure, why not have this section. Sometimes an album may be boring, but one or two of the songs is decent enough to mention. Often they don’t even release a full blown album, but rather one or two songs via blogs, myspace, etc.

Das Racist – Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
Derek Rogers– Cosmic Overlap
Andy Stott – Night Jewel
Broadcast and The Focus Group – Royal Chant
Bibio– Jealous of Roses
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Hot Boyz
Deerhunter– Circulation
Real EstateReal Estate – Fake Blues (EP)
Lighting Bolt – Nation of Boar
The Juan McLean – Happy House


New Section: Amendments to 2008 (or: Things I should’ve put on last year’s list or at least mentioned)

Mogwai: Hawk is howling
Dan Friel: Ghost Town
Maryanne Amacher: Sound Characters 2

And now we're at the final stretch, so expect plenty of nominees and a few out-of-leftfield surprises... Aww, who am I fooling??! If y'all know me, you'll know exactly what's coming, so let's just cut to the chase...

20. xx by The xx
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Debut Album Of The Year
Best Alternative Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Xx is nervy and self-contained, the product of a new band thinking a lot harder about topics-- sex, composition, volume-- than we are accustomed to new bands thinking. It is so fully formed and thoughtful that it feels like three or four lesser, noisier records should have preceded it." Link
Guardian: "The Xx's debut seems to have arrived out of nowhere ... the album will win many friends for its beautifully haunting, understated charms." Link
What I Said: "The kind of dream-pop/indie rock debut that merits repeat listens even after those post-night out sessions with close friends, it's the first album I've come across that has done well to stay homegrown rather than spun into something recognizably hip for fad-listeners."

19. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Rock Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "While the album's 10 songs are arranged and executed with virtuoso pop-rock precision, they chronicle nothing but angst, confusion, disappointment, and despair. It's truly universal-- everybody live, love, and die." Link
NME: "It’s often said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Conversely, Phoenix are what architects should dance to ... Emotionally neutral but texturally rich – they’re the sound of Richard Rogers’ Utopian future." Link
What I Said: "More tolerable in its perky pop riffs than Passion Pit, whilst certainly being more adept at harnessing the electronic signatures that permeate throughout, Phoenix guilessly straddle the line between sophisticated indie and dancey rock to offer up a swoonsomely sonic treat."

18. jj n° 2 by JJ
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Debut Album Of The Year
Best Alternative Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "They're as naive as they are cynical-- or is it the other stupid way around?-- and they manage to be pretty, touching, funny, and motivating, in different ways, in all the right places, for nine songs lasting 28 minutes." Link
PopMatters: "At low volumes, and heard all the way through, jj n° 2 is like putting a seashell to your ear and hearing the waves crash off in the distance. Pick up that same seashell ten years later, and the water will still be there." Link
What I Said: "Little is known, except their releasing this debut album from the Sincerely Yours label; mind you, with harmonies and buoyant melodies this lovely perhaps a visual identity isn't necessarily needed."

17. Complete Me by Frankmusik
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Male Solo Album Of The Year
Best Pop Album Of The Year

Guardian: "In thrall to the cheesiest end of 1980s electropop, Complete Me matches gleaming textures to catchy choruses and grandiose, bleeding-heart ballads to svelte disco stompers." Link
NME: "From its opening few bars, Frankmusik's debut is annoying. Like, 'how can I turn this off, smash the stereo and contact a hitman simultaneously?' annoying. It's just nothing." Link
What I Said: "Vincent Frank adds further fuel to the fire surrounding his hype with a really quite fabulous power-pop record that, unlike many of his presently more popular contemporaries, is blessed with both an unlikely emotional investment in the music as well as a resourceful intelligence."

16. Lovetune for Vacuum by Soap&Skin
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Female Solo Album Of The Year
Best Debut Album Of The Year
Best Alternative Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Plaschg recorded Lovetune For Vacuum, her debut album, while still a teenager, and the record is in many ways a document of what an ugly, awkward, erratic-- and, occasionally, glorious and transcendent-- process growing up can be." Link
NME: "She avoids the trap of presenting us with an exercise in self-loathing; this is a brutal dissection of love and innocence crushed. From among Teutonic swine, a dark and clouded pearl emerges." Link
What I Said: "'Prodigious' is a word often tossed around when writing about breakthrough artists, but the assured hand with which she composes and produces these works promises an interesting future ahead of her."

15. Man Of Aran by British Sea Power

BBC: "n a world where most indie shufflers are so desperate to cling to success that they would never risk surprising their audience, British Sea Power are to be cherished for their originality and daring. The strange and beautiful Man Of Aran demonstrates why." Link
PopMatters: "At the end of the day, the likes of Mogwai and Sigur Rós all do this kind of music better ... Nevertheless, props are due for the effort as I shudder to think where they could have gone with it. At least they tried." Link
What I Said: "The result is at once classical and rock-oriented, admirably almost-entirely instrumental and further proof that some UK acts aren’t all redundant swagger and facile chants."

14. Miike Snow by Miike Snow
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Dance Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Pop's biggest producer-to-artist success stories, such as Kanye West, have become exceptions thanks in part to their outsize personalities. That's where Miike Snow start to fall short ... Miike Snow aren't half as potentially infuriating as a Kanye or a Timbaland, but they aren't half as lovable, either." Link
NME: "Most ‘proper’ bands would hack off their own genitals to get a sniff of the hooks Miike Snow piss away. Then again, for all the deft artistry on display here, it’s a bit bloodless." Link
What I Said: "Awash with plaintive, elegant and sophisticated pop that seems to be running throughout most Scandinavian musicians’ blood these days ... Snow’s eponymous first release only shocks in how wonderfully wrought some of these pop masterpieces are."

13. The Resistance by Muse
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Rock Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Judged on its own terms-- out of control scale, genre-smashing ambition, musical and vocal virtuosity-- The Resistance is a success ... It's an album you can embrace or get the fuck out of its way. There's really no in between." Link
Guardian: "The wholeheartedness with which this album hurls itself into the abyss of cod-symphonic astral pretension is to be commended." Link
What I Said: "The album confounds still with some of the most bonkers grandstanding that rock music has to offer this year ... such an excessive, relentless explosion of an album."

12. Entertainment by Fischerspooner
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Dance Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "So Entertainment might be music for their performances, it might be for others' dance performances, but it's not for the dance floor. Those halves that don't quite fit? They're begging to be pulled apart and put back together by heavier hands." Link
Allmusic: "A mixed bag, then, but with enough classicist synth pop pleasures to satisfy the committed and the curious. It's far from revolutionary and it's certainly not deep, but as often as not, Entertainment at least manages to live up to its title." Link
What I Said: "Messrs Fischer and Spooner have fine-tuned their music into the now-popular electro-pop movement just enough to sound radio friendly for a new listenership, but still retain some awesome electro-squelches and darker-than-most lyrics to keep their dance-head followers pleased."

11. Moon by Clint Mansell
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Male Solo Album Of The Year

NME: "we’ll review anything with even the most tenuous link to David Bowie so here goes: this is a truly beautiful ambient work, achingly sad and really quite eerie." Link
Drowned In Sound: "In searching for a soundtrack composer, Duncan Jones couldn’t have found a more perfect choice than the schizoid, career-hopping Mansell, who appears to have completely rewired his musical DNA ... the music insidiously becomes a deeply rooted part of the overall experience, rather than a piece of art that simply supplements the action." Link
What I Said: "With subtle electronic effects, a quietly devastating string motif and moving piano pieces, Mansell has crafted his finest score yet ... rich with tenderness, melancholy, fear and sheer beauty."

10. Dear John by Loney, Dear
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Male Solo Album Of The Year
Best Country/Folk Album Of The Year

BBC: "Dear John is Loney Dear's moment. It's the sound of an artist starting to fly. It's also an invitation to you to discover what came before, and a chance to envelope yourself and investigate a whole new world of a new favourite artist." Link
PopMatters: "It’s not easy to pinpoint what it is about Dear John that has such a powerful, lasting effect. Its tools are exceedingly familiar, but the results aren’t—don’t think Loney, Dear’s latest direction has been cribbed from anywhere. Let it sink in, and Loney, Dear soon whispers/sings/shouts out." Link
What I Said: "It’s always something to admire when an album’s more uptempo licks seamlessly ebb alongside its more languid moments of introspection and heartbreak without summoning too much attention to itself. In a year already bursting at the seams with wannabe promoters of Jeff Buckley’s legacy, Emil Svanängen’s latest effort is an early standout."

9. Junior by Röyksopp
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Dance Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "While it might be oversimplifying matters to suggest that it splits the difference between the cute, poppy Röyksopp and the darker, techno-friendly Röyksopp, the most satisfying thing about Junior is how convincingly they've bridged that divide." Link
Guardian: "There's a gorgeously indulgent quality to Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland's third album. As if determined to shake off their simplistic yet lingering reputation as purveyors of pleasant musical wallpaper for clothes shops and TV soundbeds, the Norwegian duo have gone for broke this time around." Link
What I Said: "[It] will surely be spun many times leading up to and during the summer months, a flirtily electric affair positing some of the finest joy-pop moments of their career ... Don’t you love it when bands spoil their fans like this?"

8. Fantasies by Metric
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Group Album Of The Year
Best Single/Video Of The Year
Best Rock Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "In the end , Fantasies' other crowd-pleasers are, unsurprisingly, songs with big hooks, bursting choruses, and slick synths ... and despite the fanbase-building qualities of their new-wave past, the more the group embraces an inky, ambient future, the better it could get." Link
Guardian: "The stridency is turned down for Fantasies, and the losses - the punky urgency - are outweighed by the gains. Haines still has much to say about the state of the world, but the slinky, sexy tones are the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down." Link
What I Said: "It would appear that the band are more eager to grab the brass ring of international breakthrough status than ever before, Fantasies being chock full of rock pop ditties that do well to sate appetites of both respectable genrehounds and the more passing listener."

7. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Group Album Of The Year
Best Alternative Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Music obsessives talk a lot about originality-- whether it's important, or why having a new sound should or shouldn't matter ... This album feels like the crucial next step in that conversation. What they've constructed here is a new kind of electronic pop-- one which is machine-generated and revels in technology but is also deeply human, never drawing too much attention to its digital nature." Link
NME: "Listen hard. Focus on each sound, analyse it, pin it down, pull it apart. It’ll just shift under your gaze and run off laughing. Or you could just run with it." Link
What I Said: "Harnessing the thrillingly misshapen chaos that characterised their earlier works with a heavier bent towards electronic music, AC have served up their most commercially appealing album yet, but that doesn't mean that there is a dearth of avant-garde surprises to be had."

6. Seek Magic by Memory Tapes
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Male Solo Album Of The Year
Best Debut Album Of The Year
Best Electronic Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "A record of achingly gorgeous dance-pop that captures both the joy of nostalgia and the melancholic sense that we're grasping for good times increasingly out of reach." Link
Drowned In Sound: "I waited for Seek Magic's release tingling like a tuning fork and hoping he wouldn't pull a The Big Pink on me. He didn't. Seek Magic is probably my favourite album of the year. A slightly overdue thank you, Mr. Hawke." Link
What I Said: "It’s a lovely, ruminative, serene and spiky record that always manage to offer up something new every time that you listen to it and an immensely accomplished debut from a singer/songwriter/producer who defies the blogpop generalising afforded by so many solo-producer albums with assured talent and credibility."

5. Yesterday and Today by The Field
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Male Solo Album Of The Year
Best Dance Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Yesterday And Today calculatingly comprises three songs that extend the known rush of [debut album] From Here We Go Sublime ... and three very different potential future directions for the Field discography." Link
Onion: "Though it’s on par with its predecessor in terms of repetition, Yesterday And Today is also on that level in terms of quality—which should mean no disappointments." Link
What I Said: "Nothing on his sophomore effort quite betters the minimalist sophistication on his debut, but it certainly demonstrates that Willner isn’t afraid to incorporate more live percussive elements in his work ... Expect this to be played at A LOT of chill-out sessions this summer."

4. Begone Dull Care by Junior Boys
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Group Album Of The Year
Best Electronic Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "It is hard not to marvel at how assured the Boys have grown as producers ... when I call Begone Dull Care a "mature" album, know it skirts both the positive and negative connotations of one of the most divisive adjectives in pop's lexicon." Link
Allmusic: "At first, these songs seem to lack distinction from one another, but the duo's painstaking attention to detail and nuance gradually glints through." Link
What I Said: "One of the most beguilingly curious facets to emerge from electro-pop over the past decade is the fact that most of the funkier, sexier sounds to emerge from this genre happen to be coming from the most unlikely of progenitors ... the Boys have single-handedly concocted one of the most charmingly flirty records of recent years... The fact that they look like stand-ins for The Big Bang Theory only makes them evermore charming!"

3. Moderat by Moderat
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Group Album Of The Year
Best Dance Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "The good news is that (for the most part) they pulled it off. Long stretches of Moderat find the three producers locked into a healthy creative symbiosis that accentuates the best parts of their individual styles." Link
ResidentAdvisor: "The music that pops out the other end of the BPitch Control sausage factory is messy, at times grating, but for the most part, a tour de flavor worthy of the English mustard." Link
What I Said: "At once unremittingly grimy and urban, urgent and primal with some unquantifiably fabulous dance-rock thrown in, it’s the most consistently brilliant work of the year so far..."

2. Riceboy Sleeps by Jónsi & Alex
Vessalis Music Award Nominee = Best Group Album Of The Year
Best Alternative Album Of The Year

Pitchfork: "Really, as long as you don't give it your undivided attention, Riceboy Sleeps can keep you company in your cubicle or gridlock traffic, though I realize that's not exactly as riveting as "if there's one ambient album you own this year...!" Link
NME: "Sigur Rós once set a gold standard in pomposity by writing songs in an invented language. In releasing this, Birgisson outdoes himself." Link
What I Said: "For those who prefer their alternative music curios funky and headturning, this will do little to abate the Rós backlash inevitably mounting after their last album; but for those who enjoy beautiful music, it is essential!"

And so, that just leaves for my Album Of The Year and all of the other awards to be announced tomorrow... for those bothered enough to follow my dirge through 2009 over the past week, I applaud you... let's hope 2010 is that much better!

Keep listening and see you tomorrow! xxx