Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2004

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2004

1. King of The Rodeo - Kings of Leon

2. Vaccination Scar - The Tragically Hip

3. C'mon C'mon - The Von Bondies

4. #1 Summer Jam - Butch Walker

5. Me and Mia - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

6. But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You - Courtney Love

7. Can't Stand Me Now - The Libertines

8. Mr. Brightside - The Killers

9. Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire

10. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand

11. Tame the Tiger - Marah

12. (I Believe In) Travelling Light - Belle & Sebastian

13. One Evening - Feist

14. Tears All Over Town - A Girl Named Eddy

15. Portions for Foxes - Rilo Kiley

16. Carl Perkin's Cadillac - Drive-By Truckers

17. You Did (Bomp Shobby Dooby Bomb) - Chuck Prophet

18. The Good Times Are Killing Me - Modest Mouse

19. Portland Oregon - Lorretta Lynn

20. The Furnace Sun - Preston School of Industry

21. Let's Make History - The (International) Noise Conspiracy

22. Empty Heart - Sahara Hotnights

23. Blinded By the Lights - The Streets

24. Unmade Bed - Sonic Youth

25. Spiders (Kidsmoke) - Wilco

1. The day I left on the Big Road Trip of '05, saying goodbye to London and Ontario, the album I put on first was Aha Shake Heartbreak because it's a fantastic road album and one of my favourites of the decade. For this, it was either 'Rememo' with the awesome refrain "drippin' beards, cold as hell and the motherfucker's gonna go to jail, this rememo is set for home, it's personal, but they need to know" or 'King of the Rodeo'. 'Me and your cold, drivin' in the snow, let the good times roll, let the good times roll.' It was a good time to roll on.

2. The Tragically Hip have continued to put out consistently good to great albums during this decade, save for Music@Work, which I can honestly say is a dud. In Between Evolution has some dynamite tracks, and choosing them was a difficult choice as I'd rank a few of these up with my all time favourites from the band. I went with 'Vaccination Scar' by a hair over 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night'. Both of these songs absolutely kill live, best found during their 2005 live dvd That Night in Toronto.

3. 'C'mon C'mon' may be best known as the theme song to Denis Leary's FX show Rescue Me. It's a good fit I think for the show with it's "With my teeth locked down I can see the blood/Of a thousand men who have come and gone/Now we grieve cause now is gone/Things were good when we were young..." Pawn Shoppe Heart is a decent album of modern Detroit garage worth checking out. They finally followed it up in 2009.

4. There are a handful of artists/producers I feel the need to check out nearly any project that they're associated with (e.g Jack White). Butch Walker fits this criteria, although I tend to be less than interested in his productions (lots of modern pop) and mainly in his own work with Marvelous 3 and solo albums. They all tend to be delicious pop greatness. The guy has an ear for the Big Hooks. Perfect example is '#1 Summer Jam' from Letters.

5. I was a bit of a late comer to Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Lots of great energy, fantastic songs. This is 'Me and Mia' from Shake the Sheets. Gets dem feet a tappin.

6. Is there a better villain than Courtney Love? She's fake and a fraud (doesn't write songs has other famous men do so, i.e. Cobain and Corgan for Live Through This and Celebrity Skin), a mentally ill drug addict who fucked her way to the middle, just the way we love our villainous females. Evil, vindictive, crazy, corrupting all those around her, a black hole of mediocrity and vicodin. I sometimes wish there was quantifiable proof came out that she was, in fact, the real genius behind Nirvana and the sole songwriter of In Utero just to see what the haters would find to despise about her next. There's no doubt that she's a mentally ill, drug addict but that type has got to be a dime a dozen, I think she's just louder than the rest. I almost wish she could have bagged Julian Casablancas. That would have been sweet. Alas, this is 'But Julian I'm a Little Older Than You' from her thus far only solo album America's Sweetheart. Like the singer, it's short, loud and obnoxious.

7. From their self-titled great and final album (to date) The Libertines' 'Can't Stand Me Now' is fantastic and never fails to put a smile on my face. One of the best songs from 2004.

8. Like 'Hey Ya!' from 2003, it was hard to avoid 'Mr. Brightside' in 2004. From Hot Fuss album, it's pretty damn infectious pop music. I have to say I somewhat admire these guys for their attempts to branch out from the synthy 80s inflected pop that made them friggin' huge and take a chance on the Americana Springsteeny-U2 of Sam's Town in 2006. It hasn't largely been successful, but they're still cranking it out.

9. The Arcade Fire's Funeral is up there as well with my favourites of the 00's. I'd hadn't ranked it that high initially but came around after seeing them live in the fall of 2005. They played nearly the whole album and was hooked after that. It was a spectacular show and the songs really took off live. This is 'Rebellion (Lies)'.

10. Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut album is chock full of danceable, groovy tunes, possibly none more so than their biggest single 'Take Me Out'. Also pretty damn infectious pop music. Unlike The Killers, they're thankfully still churning this style out in 2009.

11. Marah are probably competing with the Drive-By Truckers, the Hip and good ol' Ryan Adams for most appearances over the decade mixes. I don't understand how anyone can not like these guys. This is 'Tame the Tiger' from 20,000 Streets Under the Sky back to form from their Oasis dalliance, but not quite back to the Springsteenian garage yet. This is a gently funky track with lots of handclaps and acoustic guitar. They also released a surprisingly awesome Christmas album in 2004 that I highly recommend.

12. I actually got the leak of Belle & Sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress far before it's street release and '(I Believe In) Travelling Light' was originally on that album. Much to my chagrin, it was scrubbed from the original release and put on the I'm a Cuckoo EP. It was my favourite song on the album, but since it was released in 2004, it's on here. Good tune.

13. Feist's 'One Evening' from her debut album Let It Die. I have an insane love of this downtempo , bossa nova kind of thing. As someone with a bit of an anger problem, this is like a delightful opiate. I miss Esthero or at least the Esthero of Breath From Another. I don't listen to a lot of this music but around this time of year it sounds great.

14. In a similar vein, A Girl Called Eddy's 'Tears All Over Town' from her self-titled debut, sounds more than a bit like Feist, so what I said about her applies here too. I don't think she's released another album since this one, which is too bad. Good AM listening for late in the year.

15. Rilo Kiley's 'Portion for Foxes' from More Adventurous. I can't remember where and when I heard this tune for the first time. I must have read about it somewhere and picked it up. Not a bad record, decent indie pop with the slightest nod towards alt-country at times. Big choruses abound, especially here'. I'm actually surprised this didn't get picked up by the abstinence crowd as an antislut anthem. 'Talking leads to touching and the touching leads to sex and then there is no mystery left....and I'm badnewwwwwwws'. Sex is dirty, cover up.

16. More Drive-By Truckers for y'all. 'Carl Perkin's Cadillac' from The Dirty South. Tells us the story of Sam Philips, famous producer of Sun Records roster of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and of course, Carl Perkins. Great song and hilarious too:

'If Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call 'sir'

Then I guess Mr. Phillips did all of y'all about as good as you deserve

He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks

New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac'

17. I think I played this record about a billion damn times in 2004, so much that I haven't played it in awhile. Would I have cared as much to hear Loretta Lynn in 2004 if Jack White hadn't produced (and played) on Van Lear Rose? Probably not, although I'd still have heard it anyway just wouldn't have picked it up on the first day of release (see Wagoner, Porter: Wagonmaster). Loretta's duet with Jack White on 'Portland Oregon' is great fun, "Next day we knew last night got drunk, but we loved enough for the both of us, in the morning when the night had sobered up, it was much too late for the both of us in Oregon.'

18. "I got a letter this morning, who put the bomp" in the bomp-shooby-dooby-bomp? Who put the "ram" in the rama-lama-ding-dong?

You did...Chuck Prophet. From Age of Miracles

19. 'The Good Times Are Killing Me'. Great closer from Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News. Love some of the lines from this song, particularly the 'Enough hair of the dog to make myself an entire rug'. That's a lot.

20. Preston School of Industry is the new band from Scott 'Spiral Stairs' Kannberg, formerly of Pavement. I was surprised how much I liked Monsoon, the last album ever released under this moniker. Too bad because it was a hell of a lot of fun. This is 'The Furnace Sun'. Nice and loose.

21. Another entry is the Sweden Produces Great Music would be The (International) Noise Conspiracy, for this 60's garage inspired romp 'Let's Make History' from Armed Love. Produced by (and another entry in The I Always Pay Attention To This Person) Rick Rubin, it was his association that first tipped me towards these guys. These commies know how to rock & roll.

22. More great Swedish New Wave from Sahara Hotnights. This is 'Empty Heart' from Kiss & Tell. Delicious, big hooky choruses.

23. Hard to pick a single track from The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free as it really is a "concept" album about the day in the life of this epileptic layabout. All the songs really bleed into each other, but 'Blinded By the Lights' is as close to a standalone there is on the record. Just Mike standing alone in the club waiting for his buzz to kick in, getting impatient and swallowing more booze and drugs. We've all been there, damn no buzz yet, let's double down and push things forward. Uh oh...

24. Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse album made me sit up and pay attention again. It doesn't make much sense, because everyone continually loves them, the critics and steady fans at least. I counted myself among them but started to find them to be not quite essential when it came to hearing new releases, pretty much since Washing Machine. I think I downloaded this for a taste and was pleasantly surprised to find how much I enjoyed it, reminding much more of their older material circa Evol, particularly this track 'Hidden Bed'.

25. See, it songs like this that should be the dividing line between those who like the old Wilco and those who do not care for their shift in sound quality. 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' from A Ghost is Born clocks in at nearly 11 minutes and is a cross between Neu! and Crazy Horse. I've never been a huge fan of the album, but I've always liked this song a lot, probably because I do like Neu! (and Stereolab which this song sounds a bit like as well) and Crazy Horse a lot.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2003

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2003

1. Welcome to the Monkey House>We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols

2. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

3. Mexican Wine - Fountains of Wayne

4. Good Dancers - The Sleepy Jackson

5. Fools on Parade - The Jayhawks

6. Sinkhole - Drive-By Truckers

7. Joe's Head - Kings of Leon

8. That Much Further West - Lucero

9. Mahgeeta - My Morning Jacket

10. English Girls Approximately - Ryan Adams

11. Santa Cruz (You're Not that Far) - The Thrills

12. James - Josh Rouse

13. Little Eyes - Yo La Tengo

14. Reptilia - The Strokes

15. Seven Days a Week - The Sounds

16. The Rest of My Life - Sloan

17. The Laws Have Changed - The New Pornographers

18. Riot Industry - Cobra Verde

19. Memphis - Rancid

20. Modern Kicks - The Exploding Hearts

21. 99 Problems - Jay-Z

22. Man - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

23. Beat Your Heart Out - The Distillers

24. Danger High Voltage - Electric Six

25. Hey Ya! - Outkast

1. I've always liked the short opening salvo on the Dandy Warhol's Welcome to the Monkey House, "...when Michael Jackson dies, we're covering 'Blackbird'", segueing into 'We Used to Be Friends'. This is the last bit of enjoyment I've managed to squeeze out of the this band as well. The re-release of this album and single in 2009, as The Dandy Warhols Are Sound is a bit grubbier in sound. I kind of prefer the first version. Primacy reigns supreme.

2. Signs of a great album? Out of 14 songs, you still have difficulty choosing a favourite. That is the case with The White Stripes' Elephant, where even Meg's contributions rank high. I nearly put the closing 'It's True that We Love One Another' because the second I hear that song it's rattling around in my head all day long. So 'Seven Nation Army' is a good a choice as any. Such a crackerjack opening song.

3. While I'm not a huge fan of Fountains of Wayne, I really love some of their songs (the practically perfect 'Radiation Vibe' for instance). 'Mexican Wine' has such a great first line 'He was killed by a cellular phone explosion'. Any song that references electromagnetic fields AND wine is clearly going to be a favourite of mine.

4. 'Good Dancers' from the Sleepy Jackson's Lovers is great, lilting kind of song. Feels like a perfect late in the year walk in the park.

5. 'Fools on Parade' is a bit more of a rambunctious tune from the normally low to midtempo Jayhawks. It suits them actually. Too bad they didn't crack this vibe more often. Smoke some cigarettes and have some Jack and coke.

6. I can't choose my favourite song on the mix but if push came to shove I guess I'd pick Drive-By Truckers' 'Sinkhole' from one of the best albums of the decade Decoration Day. There is such a serious and menacing tone in this song, as well it should be. Songs of murder and family retribution should be heavy.

7. Speaking of murder, Kings of Leon's 'Joe's Head' has one too, albeit more of a crime of passion. Kind of the natural response when you catch someone laying with your girlfriend. And yes, people can be so cold when they're dead. The music though is kind of lively and is one of my favourite songs to hear in the truck. When you hear Youth & Young Manhood it's hard to believe how damn HUGE this band has gotten over the last year or so. I wonder if all the folks who love 'Use Somebody' dig on songs like this and 'Red Morning Light'? I suspect no.

8. In the fine tradition of CCR's 'Lodi', the title track from Lucero's That Much Further West is about a band's life on the road, loneliness, guilt, heading farther away from loved ones, geographically and spiritually. "And the west is the only sky that's blue, so Tell Katie that I'll see her soon, until then the only thoughts that I have left, are that much further west..."

9. Up there with the Drive-By Truckers in the favourite song/album category of the 00's is 'Mahgeetah'' from My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves. This album is probably my go-to when I'm driving alone, up there with All Time Best irrespective of decade. When I drove from London to Saskatoon alone, I slapped this in as I peeled out of Sudbury around daybreak, from the first lines of the album opener 'Mahgeetah', 'Sittin' here with me and mine, all wrapped up in a bottle of wine, little we can do...we gon' see it thru somehow...' to the last 'One in the Same':

'Don't think poor of me

It wasn't till I woke up...

That I could hold down a joke

Or a job or a dream

But then all three are one in the same'

10. Again with the Ryan Adams...oy vei. 'English Girls Approximately' is from Love is Hell pt. 2, the second of two EPs (Love is Hell, pt 1) and one LP (the personally loathed Rock N Roll, probably the beginning of my antipathy towards this dude). I actually quite like the EPs or more accurately the LP as Lost Highway quickly re-released it as a single entity. Kind of like Heartbreaker, I think he at first called it his Smiths album. I'm not sure why though, I guess because he got the Smiths' producer. This is a great song with vocal contributions from Marianne Faithful.

11. 'Santa Cruz (You're Not that Far)' from the Thrills' So Much For the City is a sunny song replete with rich harmonies, a 70s throwback right down to the album cover.

12. Speaking of 70s, Josh Rouse's 'James' from his 1972 album has that feeling too. I actually haven't heard much of this guy, only a few albums but this is the only one that kind of stuck with me. It's a nice morning kind of album for when you're not cranky or hungover but are feeling fine and relatively okay with the world around you. I recommend it for Thursday mornings.

13. Yo La Tengo's 'Little Eyes' mines the same vein as the above. From their Summer Sun album, just a nice tune, with maybe a tinge of melancholy about a relationship.

14. I have always been of the opinion that Is This It? from the Strokes has been a superior album to their much awaited follow-up Room on Fire. I was put off enough that I adamantly would not listen to it for the longest time, preferring to get my fix from the debut. After much cajoling by some degenerate colleagues I finally gave in and gave it a proper listen. If anything it's less coherent and focused than the debut, which I give as a compliment. The first album had many songs that really were not that varied (Last Night, Someday, The Modern Age etc). But in contrast, Room on Fire is a short, slap of displaced emotions set to a mid-tempo beat. They better ape the sounds of the first two in 2010.

15. Swedish pop, what is it about that country and their talent for delightful new wave pop? The Sounds' 'Seven Days a Week' from Living in America is a perfect example. They do it well and followed up even better in 2006.

16. Action Pact is not a great Sloan album but it does have 'The Rest of My Life' on it. Love or hate Sloan, they've got the 3 min or less powerpop nailed pretty well. 'One thing I know about the rest of my life, I know that I'll be living here in Canada'. Somewhere, I'm sure unless the call of the South beckons, then I'll venture down during the February-March doldrums. Let's face it, it's cold here. A lot.

17. Man, I friggin' love 'The Laws Have Changed' by the New Pornographers. From Electric Version, it's one song I just can't overplay. I don't know why I don't love Neko more when I hear her solo, because I hang on her every word here. Love those redheads, man.

18. Cobra Verde is another band I don't immediately think of playing when I feel like some straight up 70's inflected rock & roll, but when I hear it I get annoyed with myself for not listening more. 'Riot Industry' is straight up dynamite, all rye no cola. We all need more Cobra Verde in our lives to remind us that we forget the good stuff sometimes.

19. Rancid is another consistently good to great band with little lows to complain about. It was nice to have them back in 2009. 'Memphis' from Indestructible is them doing what they do best.

20. The Exploding Hearts managed to release one excellent album, Guitar Romantic, before a car accident killed practically the whole band. Sad, sad, sad. This is up there with the Libertines two albums for a truly excellent contemporary take on 70s punk. 'Modern Kicks' let's us know they had the goods.

21. I nearly forgot about adding Jay-Z's '99 Problems' on here because I only have the single. One of the best songs of the year and reminds how much I miss this genre sometimes. Rick Rubin, come back to hip-hop please. Like immediately and send Neil Diamond to Vegas or something.

22.' One-Two-Three GO! I gotta man who makes me wanna kill!' Karen O belts out 'Man' is less than two minutes. She's gotta man and we're all gonna burn in hell. She's awesome. From Fever to Tell.

23. I think we're supposed to all hate Brody Dalle from The Distillers but I can't remember why. There was a vague Courtney Love vibe or something. Anyway, I played the hell out of their Cobra Fang record. One of those few albums I immediately pressed play when it finished playing the first time. Always a good sign. 'Beat Your Heart Out' is one of many I could have stuck on here.

24. 'Danger! High Voltage!' is just stupid fun. "FIRE IN THE DISCO! FIRE IN THE TACO BELL!" Jack White should have had a hand in more of Electric Six instead of just this song and 'Gay Bar' but then I'm of the opinion that everything he touchs is awesome, so that's just one man's opinion. From Fire

25. I couldn't not have Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' on a list of 2003 songs. I haven't played Speakerboxx/A Love Below in years and it's still infectious.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2002

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2002

1. Float Away (All Of The Streets Are Lonely) - Marah
2. A Day At The Races - Jurassic 5
3. Two Months Off - Underworld
4. Weak Become Heroes - The Streets
5. Sacrifice - The Roots
6. Cause = Time - Broken Social Scene
7. Concrete Sky - Beth Orton
8. 7 Months, 39 Days - Hank Williams III
9. Sweet Lullabye - Stewboss
10. The Golden Age - Beck
11. Hard Candy - Counting Crows
12. Black Letter Days - Frank Black & The Catholics
13. N.Y. - Doves
14. NYC - Interpol
15. Back To The Life - Spoon
16. Oh! - Sleater-Kinney
17. No One Knows - Queens Of The Stone Age
18. Alright Alright - Sahara Hotnights
19. This Town - Hot Hot Heat
20. Death On The Stairs - The Libertines
21. Hurt - Johnny Cash
22. The Darkest One - The Tragically Hip
23. War On War - Wilco
24. Summertime Thing - Chuck Prophet
25. The Replacements - Tommy Womack

1. I spent a week in Ottawa with Marah's Float Away With the Friday Night Gods. The opening track 'Float Away (All Of the Streets Are Lonely)' is the first indication that someone replaced Marah with some weird American version of Oasis, which depending on your personal taste, could have you vomiting blood. As a fan of said English group, it was kind of cool to hear Marah reach for the Big Rock Sound and while it's not quite a massive success, it's still an interesting album. It paired well with walking alone around the market in our nation's capitol at night.

2. In a scene straight out of a movie, I bought Jurassic 5's Power in Numbers after hearing 'A Day At the Races' in a record store. Not a bad album, a tad longish which is a common and valid criticism of modern albums. Just because you have about 75 min to fill a CD does not mean you have to. Anyway, I dug the energy of this track and still pop this in occasionally when I feel the need for a more modern groove. One of a handful of hip-hop albums I bought from this decade.

3. 'Two Months Off' from Underworld's A Hundred Days Off. I literally used to loop this song over and over and over when I crunched my EEG data. The energy is great and builds and builds over 9 min. It keeps one going when you're dealing with the tedium of looking at digitized brain electrical activity.

4. Speaking of hip-hop, I've never once considered The Streets' Original Pirate Material to fit in that genre at all. Musically, it doesn't sound like what we think of when the generic term is applied. I've always just called it UK dance music because it's a much easier classification instead of whatever sub-sub-splinter genre it best represents during that point in time. Lyrically it isn't really important either, but that's not to say it isn't enjoyable. I remember the first time I heard 'Turn the Page' and thought "did he just say he's 45th generation Roman?". It's just kind of an odd thing to state, and why 45? This is 'Weak Become Heroes', the name's European Bob, pleased to meetcha, likewise, a pleasure. We all sing.

5. Now I know I played The Roots' Phrenology a lot in 2002, but I'm nearly certain it wasn't in the car very much, occasionally maybe, but not a staple. But strangely it's one album that brings up that ineffable feeling of place memory and for whatever reason when 'Sacrifice' comes on, I'm in my car on Wonderland Ave. in London, near a mall. No emotional connotation, nothing important happened but as clear as a bell I can see the headlights in front of me as I head east. Also it's in the fall, maybe October or November. It's really weird but oddly comforting.

6. I don't honestly understand why Broken Social Scene became popular enough that someone wrote a goddamn book (This Book Is Broken) about them. I mean come on, they've released three fucking albums. If you want to quickly illustrate why people hate the band, there it is. Plus they're from Toronto. And they're a collective, not a band and there's like 43 of them who are all up on stage at some point. If you live in Toronto, you may in fact be a member of Broken Social Scene. You Forgot It in People is a decent album but holy hell it's just indie rock. This, again, is not life changing. So why am I adding a song of theirs to the mix? Because some of the songs like 'Cause=Time' are pretty catchy. Sometimes a song is just a song and not a badge of affiliation.

7. As I've mentioned artists who have gotten better or worse over time, Beth Orton has remained fairly consistent I think. The only slight change would be moving away from the subtle beats on Trailer Park to more traditional singer-songwriter alt-country or folk leanings but she's still maintaining. She always reminds me of a British Mae Moore. From her third album Daybreaker 'Concrete Sky' is a duet with, who else, good ol' Ryan Adams. Who is clearly a consistent variable thus far on all these mixes.

8. How does one become their own man as an artist and human being when their grandfather was Hank Williams Sr. and father is Bocephus himself, Hank Williams Jr? Well, either go off in a different direction and become a Franciscan monk or just go with family tradition and do country the best you can. He went with the latter and while it's not going to significantly shift Music itself like his father and grandfather, it's still worth a listen. This is '7 Months, 39 Days' from Hank Williams III off Lovesick, Broke, Driftin'.

9. The title track of Stewboss Sweet Lullabye is by the numbers "regular" rock in the alt-country/Petty/Replacements kind of vibe. A lovely mid-tempo song, with nothing particularly remarkable about it but neither is every sunset but we'll still take a look at it when it comes by every night.

10. I like the first four songs on Beck's Sea Change. I included 'The Golden Age' here, and only because of those first songs do I still own this. I believe I've played the record a handful of times since I bought it. I think because Beck always slipped in a couple of slow numbers per album it was all right here and there because you knew he'd eventually pick up the tempo. However, a whole album is just too much for this guy. Also his Scientological leanings started to get on my nerves. I'm not even going to even pretend that I can overlook it. I'd respect him more if he just made up his own belief system called Beckology or Odelayism instead of following someone else's made up religion. Oh well, it's a pretty song.

11. Counting Crows, I did not think I would hang here with you over all these years. And even though you released only Hard Candy and Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings in 10 long years, I'm still with you. Frankly I'm surprised as you are. I like Duritz's lyrics, because he seems like a overly sentimental drunk who really believes what he's saying. Here's 'Hard Candy'.

12. Frank Black & The Catholics kept cranking them out this decade, consistently good to great in my opinion. This is the title track from Black Letter Days.

13. 'N.Y.' from Doves' The Last Broadcast. I have just always liked this song.

14. "The subway is a porno, the pavements they are a mess, I know you've supported me for a long time, somehow, I'm not impressed". I used to wonder if he was singing about the sandwich shop being a porno or the train itself. And were the sidewalks supporting him, structurally speaking, but he's not impressed because they're all cracked and broken? And is this why he's not impressed, because like his poor, depressed ass he's falling down because of the lack of support? And is this why he pleads to the world to turn on the bright lights??? These are the New York cares? 'NYC' by Interpol from Turn On the Bright Lights. Baffling as always.

15. There is nothing baffling about this song. 'Back to the Life' from Spoon's Kill the Moonlight album. Simple, delightful goodness. When I mentioned previously my thoughts about Spoon, I need now to add a brief coda. When I actually sat and listening to Kill the Moonlight I wanted to add practically the whole album to my Great Songs of 2002 list before I widdled it down. When I'm not actively listening to Spoon I always think they're less than I think, however whenever I actually hear it, it's much much more. In that way, Spoon are like sushi.

16. 'Oh!' Yes! Sleater-Kinney's One Beat. They channel the Go-Go's here fairly clearly, only if the Go-Go's really, really emulated X instead of merely playing with them. Love this song.

17. It's kind of impossible to not get into Queens of the Stone Age's 'No One Knows' from Songs for the Deaf, probably for biological and anthropological reasons. It's got an incredibly brain entraining beat courtesy of Dave "I'm Always Joking!" Grohl.

18. Somewhere, I think it was 2005 or thereabouts it was clear that I needed to pay attention to whatever was coming out of Sweden in terms of rock & roll. Diamond Dogs and Backyard Babies had been doing it for awhile but then you had these Swedish broads in Sahara Hotnights step up and crank out some fucking awesome tunes like 'Alright Alright' from Jennie Bomb. Play dis von lout.

19. Although decidedly "retro" in the guise of 80s bands like XTC and Joe Jackson and therefore destined to be derided 'Hot Hot Heat's Make Up the Breakdown is a fun, and fortunately brief 30 minute affair so you're wanting to just flip the tape and play it again. Another album chock full of tunes I could have easily mixed in here. Here's 'This Town'.

20. In contrast, we have here a band also channeling a retro vibration courtesy of The Clash et al., yet the Libertines Up the Bracket gets the critical "Important Album" tag. Why? I don't know, this record is no less fun truthfully, but there's that rock & roll danger that courses through it thus adding a certain validity as well. However, it's still a pop album cut by a band emulating other Important Bands. Clearly Pete Doherty is a Real Rock Star, cut from the same dirty, blood cloth as Keith Richards. But, all snarkiness aside, Up the Bracket is a fantastic AND an Important Album that folks will likely reference as a standout from the 00's where the previous selection will most likely be completely forgotten. Once again, I could have literally picked any of the 14 songs on this album, and went with 'Death on the Stairs'.

21. Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' on American IV: The Man Comes Around is just bleak and depressing, the video even moreso. "I will let you down...I will make you hurt". When he delivers that line, it's like Moses delivering the word from on high. A very disturbing song and powerful cover.

22. "Come in, come in, come in, come in, from thin and wicked prairie winds... come in".. Tough to segue from the last song into this one but the Hip's 'The Darkest One' from In Violet Light is the best choice I think. One of my favourite songs from their latter day era. I love the video which is probably the Canadianist anyone has seen in awhile (Trailer Park Boys, Don Cherry, wintertime, booze, dollar bills, and uh Tragically Hip).

23. It's always seemed kind of weird that this is the decisive Wilco album where one fell on the pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot side of things or the other post,-YHF. Still sounds like Wilco to me, and the same kind of thing they started previously on Summerteeth which continues today. 'War on War' could be on their 2009 album in my opinion. Nice, jaunty pop song.

24. If there is a single more delightful pop song on here, I can't find it. 'Summertime Thing' from Chuck Prophet No Other Love album. Slightly painful to hear in November, as the waves roll in as the song begins, unless of course you live way, way down south. Lazy and happy groove throughout.

25. There is no better song to close out the mix than Tommy Womack's 'The Replacements' from Circus Town. This is another artist I feel the need to proselytize about. He's basically a genius, a storyteller extraordinaire in the guise of a mentally disturbed failure musician. I wish there were about 100 failures like him. He is a true credit to the gene pool.

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2001

Decade End Mix: 25 Songs from 2001

1. What a Drag! - The Kim Band

2. Hey Sailor - The Detroit Cobras

3. Bullet - Frank Black & The Catholics

4. The Other Man - Sloan

5. Everything Hits At Once - Spoon

6. Know Your Onion! - The Shins

7. Lowdown - My Morning Jacket

8. Jacksonville Skyline - Whiskeytown

9. Good Souls - Starsailor

10. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright

11. I Might Be Wrong - Radiohead

12. Dead Leaves & the Dirty Ground - The White Stripes

13. Glad Girls - Guided By Voices

14. Short Skirt/Long Jacket - Cake

15. Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi - Jim White

16. Boo - Macy Gray

17. In the Waiting Line - Zero 7

18. Digital Love - Daft Punk

19. Hip Hop Thighs #17 - Ike Reilly

20. New York, New York - Ryan Adams

21. Life on a Chain - Pete Yorn

22. Affection - Lost Boys

23. It's Raining (4AM) - The Bicycle Thief

24. Weekend Monster - Diamond Dogs

25. Shut Up and Get On the Plane - Drive By Truckers

1. ‘What a Drag!’ from Girology by the Kim Band. This album was recommended to me by a good friend of mine who was not a fan of the same kind of music I was (“I like angry white guy music, man”). I remember playing him The New Pornographer’s Mass Romantic and he was just horrified I liked it and recommended I check out the Kim Band if I wanted to continue to listen to crap. I did and still do. Thanks Ian!

2. The Detroit Cobras ‘Hey Sailor’ from Life, Love & Leaving is just great rock & roll. Either you like this kind of thing or you don’t.

3. I used to be one of those people who was adamant that Frank Black’s solo career, despite being tremendously longer and richer than that of his former (and current, I guess) band, Pixies, was still inferior. As such I used to give his solo albums only a cursory listen and then move on, until I actually listened to the plaintive arguments of some who strongly argued otherwise. Glad I listened finally. ‘Bullet’, one of many awesome songs from Frank Black and the Catholics’s Dog in Sand.

4. Sloan’s ‘The Other Man’ from Pretty Together is like an anthem for the cuckolder. There are probably hundreds of songs written by the cuckolded male bemoaning his cheating wife or girlfriend, but you don’t get many songs written from the other man's perspective. And here he expresses this behaviour honestly and without explanation or justification: ‘I know he’s a standup guy, but that’s none of my concern’. Okay pally, don’t get killed.

5. Spoon fascinates me. They play deceptively simple music that initially seems hardly worthy of their (relative) fame within the indie music community. There are other bands who do this kind of thing yet are not as fawned over by critics and fans. So what gives? I’m still trying to figure it out actually because it is deceptively simple, but there’s something about it that draws you back when one might like to dismiss it. There’s a spare quality they have, kind of an anti-Broken Social Scene, where they leave out more than they put into a song and that somehow makes it more satisfying overall. It’s also decidedly unemotional, in my opinion. They observe and report. ‘Everything Hits At Once’ from Girls Can Tell is a great tune and I count them among the bands that have become progressively more interesting over the past decade. Although I still find them a bit baffling, I will still listen.

6. Who would have ever thought that some annoying vegan actress could help make such an overwhelmingly bland band like The Shins kind of a Big Deal? This certainly doesn’t sound like life-changing music, but if one was to imagine such a thing, how a song or band could Change a Life, I believe the power of the universe would dictate that it should be HUGE, much like a cataclysmic natural event, a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake take your pick. This isn’t huge music, but not without some small charms, kind of like a piece of chocolate. Not great chocolate either, a Hershey’s Kiss maybe because the songs are short. From Oh Inverted World, 'Know Your Onion!'.

7. I just flat out love My Morning Jacket. One of my favourite artists from this decade and right at the top of bands I need to see in a live setting. 'Lowdown' from At Dawn is a lovely tune. It isn’t one of my favourite records from their oeuvre, if only because it’s a significant undertaking to sit and take in during a single sitting. It’s a Big Album and in my mind can at least gracefully enter that sphere of possibility “Life Changing”. ‘Lowdown’ is a wonderful song. “Chancin', glancin', sho nuff mood for romancin'”.

8. Listening to Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia and some of Ryan Adams’ early solo songs, you sometimes think ‘maybe he is as good as he thinks is’. Which isn't possible, but when you hear songs like ‘Jacksonville Skyline’, you can almost believe him.

9. There’s no explanation why I should still be listening to Starsailor’s Love is Here in 2009. Britpop albums usually have an expiration date that’s fairly soon after their release. I can only assume it’s something in the air over there, which spoils very quickly on this continent. (notable exceptions being Gay Dad’s Leisure Noise and the first two Oasis records). I guess the reason I’m still listening is because it really isn’t ‘Britpop’ but more of a straight English band playing kind of a jazzy and introspective pop music a la Van Morrison (disclaimer: I am not suggesting Starsailor are cut from the same cloth as Van Morrison). ‘Good Souls’, one of many great songs on this album.

10. I actually used to consume Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk regularly at work as they really were a few of my cravings. Nothing like a smoke and some milk. Rufus Wainwright has a knack for summing up those things we should probably avoid. From Poses.

11. Against all better judgement I put Radiohead's 'I Might Be Wrong' on here. Maybe because it feels like it should be on Kid A and not Amnesiac. I gave that record more than a few chances over the last near decade. I don't quite despise it, but there's more than a few occasions where I've grabbed the remote and said "why the fuck am I listening to this bullshit" and then . It doesn't happen during 'I Might Be Wrong'.

12. I remember hearing about them but for the longest time I just never got the opportunity to hear them (usenet did not provide in this case). Even when 'Fell in Love with A Girl' got popular and then backlashed enough that people would bitch about the omnipresence of the song, I still didn't know what the deal was about this band. I don't think 'Fell in Love with a Girl' is even an album highlight, it was between 'Hotel Yorba' or 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground', still one of my favourites from this band. Over the decade, I've pretty much decided that whatever Jack White does, I will give it a shot.

13. I think I have three albums by Guided By Voices and I'm not sure why. The only song I ever really want to hear from them is 'Glad Girls' from Isolation Drills. Good luck on emptying your brain after hearing it.

14. 'Short Skirt/Long Jacket' from Cake's Comfort Eagle. I will be honest and say that I am not one who enjoys dancing but this damn song always makes me want to get up and shake dat azz.

15. I heard 'Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi' by Jim White on a mix a few years ago. I checked out his album No Such Place. I highly recommend it for some alternative take on alternative country. Great lyrics with some sly beats courtesy of Morcheeba, which is kind of precedes Steve Earle's experiment with that on Washington Square Serenade by quite a few years.

16. I really thought Macy Gray had some bad luck with her album The Id. It was an excellent funk-soul album that had the horrendous luck to have a release date of 09/11/01. No one was really into this album that opened with 'Relating to a Psychopath', which was a shame. It was the soundtrack in the car for quite a while. This is 'Boo'. Highly recommended.

17. 'In the Waiting Line' from Zero 7's Simple Things is just one of many songs on that album that could be lifted and placed on Air's Moon Safari. It's not even subtle, as this song is basically 'All I Need', but fortunately it's all good if you don't care about those things and just love hearing 'All I Need' pt 2. Nice and chill.

18. 'Digital Love' from Daft Punk's Discovery is the odd man out here. Actually track 17 AND 18 are hard to squeeze in but anyway that's how it goes. I have an overwhelming need to derail a mix about 3/4 through. This is it. It also makes an horrible segue to...

19. Ike Reilly's 'Hip Hop Thighs #17. ' A 'play it really, really loud' kind of song, begging to be drunkenly shouted at about 11:21pm once the inhibitions are lowered to dangerous levels and anything is possible. From Salesmen & Racists, an album I somehow resisted for too long and now grab at it for a pick me up very frequently.

20. Gold is a fairly decent Ryan Adams album. Typically when I get a jones to hear him, it's this or Cold Roses I grab for. I like the idea that he's ballsy enough to cut two double albums over the course of 5 years even though overextends a bit too much and I usually don't make it through from start to finish. I still think it's pretty crazy that Ryan Adams filmed the video for 'New York, New York' in front of the New York skyline four days before Sept. 11. He may in fact be the prophet we've always feared. Kind of like Rasputin but with worse hair.

21. Ah, Pete Yorn if only you could crank out more like 'Life on a Chain' from the perfectly titled 'musicforthemorningafter', which often does hit the mark. It had a couple of great songs on it, but he's someone I wanted to like more than I ever actually did.

22. This might be one of the great songs ever. I'm serious. 'Affection' by Lost Boys, appearing on the Sopranos soundtrack Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series, and previously appeared on the unreleased album Nobody Loves and Leaves Alive. What blew me away was discovering the band is fronted by none other than Silvio Dante aka Little Steven Van Zandt. Apparently while off from the E-Street Band, he put together a garage band. I think we all need to see this album released based on the insane greatness of 'Affection'. Even the scene where it was featured in the show was fantastic. Tony Soprano is relaxing post-coitus with his current paramour Gloria Trillo. 'Affection' is playing on the radio in the background. She sensually dances to the song and before she turns it up and she asks Tony:

'You like this song?'

'It's all right.'

'I... fucking...love this song'

23. Speaking of true love, this song is also pretty much tops. It’s Rainin’ (4AM) by The Bicycle Thief. This was originally a '99 release but I have the '01 version so on the mix it must appear. This is an incredible song. First time I heard this was on a mix appropriately titled 'Slowcore Monger'. I'm not going to explain what that means.

24. Diamond Dogs are a Swedish band who play rock & roll like it never progressed past the early 70s. So you know, it's really, really great. 'Weekend Monster' from As Your Green Turns Brown is typically awesome, one of those play it loud songs that sound even better when you're getting your load on.

25. Of the 'new' bands I've come to love over the '00s, outside of My Morning Jacket, I generally try to recommend the Drive By Truckers to everyone who asks me about what new music I listen to. Of course I take into account whether they're up for a little adventure. It's not quantitatively challenging in terms of actual music, but overall it's not going to be everyone's particular brand lyrically, especially if you're not up for a heavy, heavy Southern vibe, e.g. a nearly 8 min spoken word piece on three Alabama icons on their genius double album Southern Rock Opera. I thought about putting that song smack dab in the middle of the mix, but this had to close out with 'Shut Up and Get on the Plane', 3:39 of goddamn great rock & roll.