It's getting harder and harder to locate these lists. 2006. Pre-Facebook, pre-MySpace. I think I might have been on Friendster at the time. Yes, kids, technology from less than a decade ago was pretty ancient. In 2020, I'll probably be sending this list directly into your brain. Just try to avoid reading it then.
Anyways, this list would have been strictly an e-mail only kind of thing. I'd send it out to anyone I thought might remotely be interested. Now, I just post the thing online for pretty much everybody to see. But, back in the day, you had to at least know me to be included in the list. I moved to Ireland in 2006 but this list still shows a definite Minnesota bias to it: 2 Minneapolis bands and a host of albums that would have been featured on 89.3. Once again, the write-ups are word-for-word from 2006 so they might seem just a little bit outdated but so it goes:
10. Matisyahu - Youth
Well, maybe it's all just the kitsch of it with Matisyahu being a Hasidic Jew that does dance hall. But it's not like he's doing this as a lark either, he is legitimately Hasidic and happens to like (and sing) dance hall. It's not a great album throughout, but there are some really fantastic songs on it. "King Without a Crown" is one of the best of the year and certainly, we can all agree, the best song about Yahweh to come along in quite some time. Interestingly, this spot came down to Matisyahu or Prince, who seems to have finally given up all of his lousy religious-tinged albums and gotten back to being freaky/funky. In the end, I figured I'd give the tie to Yahweh.
9. Ratatat - Classics
Not nearly as good as their first album but still quality stuff and I'm making up for their first album here since I didn't learn about them until 2 years after they released that album. Their brand of garage rock electronica is really pretty unique and, heck, I just like their sound. They also included a song that samples a cougar, which coincided nicely with my viewing of Talladega Nights. I like that kind of symmetry in my life.
8. Cut Chemist - The Audience is Listening
The best electronic album of the year in my book. Cut Chemist has been doing it for years with Ozomatli and J5 and, normally, I can't stand DJ albums as they just contain inexorable periods of scratching and songs that last 10 minutes or so with no real structure to them, but this album's different and much more along the lines of what a DJ album could be. I don't know how they got around all of the sampling costs as their seems to be a ton of it on here, but it's amazing. The songs all have a different sound to them and they don't all sound like they're straight from Ibiza or anything. It's a pretty diverse album. Plus there's a song that starts with the line "People get ready…the robots are coming". It's about time someone started getting that message out…
7. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block
Shortly after I moved to Ireland, there was a time where the radio here seemed to play nothing but Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn, and John. The latter makes this list, while Shakira, um, does not. Now they certainly need to come up with a more rock n' roll name than "Peter, Bjorn, and John", but they seem to be the next in line of mellow, downbeat Swedish pop along with the likes of Kings of Convenience or the Concretes. "Young Folks", in fact, is a duet with the singer from the Concretes.
6. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
Great meeting of voices here. Isobel Campbell is the sugary sweet, Dusty Springfield-like voice from Belle & Sebastian while Mark Lanegan is the I've-smoked-3-packs-a-day-for-
5. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
No Arcade Fire on the list this year, but Sunset Rubdown makes for an adequate Canadian replacement. Featuring members of Wolf Parade and a few other bands (I swear there's a pack of Canadians who are in, like, 6 different bands), these guys are sort of a mix between Arcade Fire and Queen and Davie Bowie. The songs all have a real dramatic air to them, are long, change structure completely at least once during the song, and feature ridiculously ostentatious names like "The Men are Called Horsemen There". Really evocative music. They sound just as big as Arcade Fire can at times.
4. Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
Let's hear it for Minneapolis. This band really came out of nowhere (even on the local scene), but put together one of the best albums of the year. A mix of indie, some classic rock Kinks-type influence, 50's kind of doo-wop type vocals, and subtle samples among other things. It's a hard album to characterize. "Insistor" is the best song of the year if you ask me.
3. P.O.S. - Audition
Tapes n' Tapes would be the best album to come out of Minneapolis, if it wasn't for P.O.S. Last year, Atmosphere made the #2 spot on my list coming out of Minneapolis Rhymesayers' Collective. This year, P.O.S. checks in as a member of the other Minneapolis rap outfit, Doomtree. P.O.S. listed his two biggest influences as Dr. Dre and Fugazi, essentially earning my respect right out of the gate. This album's a great punk-rap effort showing that the two styles aren't as different as you might think. In particular, the lyrics get away from the typical I'm-a-playa rap lyrics and have more of an old-school rap vibe of "I'm barely making ends meet". There's even a song entitled "Living Slightly Larger" in response to the "Livin' Large" stereotype. And, come on, the very first line of the album is "First of all, f*** Bush, that's all that's the end of it".
2. OutKast - Idlewild
Forget Brangelina or TomKat's kid. The progeny to watch for in the next 20 years will be Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu's kid. He'll have some real talent. Proving the point that most of what's original in today's music comes from the hip-hop world is this completely uncharacterizable album. It's not really hip-hop, not really rock, it has some of both, but it's also got a Broadway musical vibe, some blues, some Vaudeville, even some ragtime. It's really bizarre in a lot ways and it's the album of a band that has the freedom to do what it likes and doesn't really care what people think, but is also talented enough to pull it off. And, really, there is just no one cooler than Andre. I'd read in interview where he just decided that he wanted to learn how to play trumpet so he just hung out with Fishbone for half a year until he learned it. It's on my life list of things to do: Hang out with Fishbone for 6 months and learn the trumpet...
1. Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions
And here we are. Maybe not such a surprise, since the Boss is an all-time favorite of mine. I was really skeptical with this album, though. I mean, come on. A collection of folk songs, gospels, and traditional music with a latter-day bluegrass band?! I held out for a long time buying it, when I applied a Brett Isenberg quote about Joe Strummer: "Springsteen could fart into a microphone and I'd buy it". So, I broke down and got it and instantly knew that it would be the top album of the year for me. The only other person who could've pulled this album off died a few years back: Johnny Cash. As if to prove that point, there's even the requisite song about John Henry. There's an earnestness and an honesty to the way Springsteen sings these songs. In the traditional Irish song, Mrs. McGrath, he sings "Now I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind when I left my two fine legs behind. A cannonball on that fateful day blew my two fine legs away." And you can hear strains of songs like Born in the U.S.A. of veterans coming home and not being able to find jobs or even a society that wants anything to do with them. And he adds a rollicking sort of flavor to folk and bluegrass songs that Cash never had. It's a different take on the songs alright.
Anyways, this list would have been strictly an e-mail only kind of thing. I'd send it out to anyone I thought might remotely be interested. Now, I just post the thing online for pretty much everybody to see. But, back in the day, you had to at least know me to be included in the list. I moved to Ireland in 2006 but this list still shows a definite Minnesota bias to it: 2 Minneapolis bands and a host of albums that would have been featured on 89.3. Once again, the write-ups are word-for-word from 2006 so they might seem just a little bit outdated but so it goes:
10. Matisyahu - Youth
Well, maybe it's all just the kitsch of it with Matisyahu being a Hasidic Jew that does dance hall. But it's not like he's doing this as a lark either, he is legitimately Hasidic and happens to like (and sing) dance hall. It's not a great album throughout, but there are some really fantastic songs on it. "King Without a Crown" is one of the best of the year and certainly, we can all agree, the best song about Yahweh to come along in quite some time. Interestingly, this spot came down to Matisyahu or Prince, who seems to have finally given up all of his lousy religious-tinged albums and gotten back to being freaky/funky. In the end, I figured I'd give the tie to Yahweh.
9. Ratatat - Classics
Not nearly as good as their first album but still quality stuff and I'm making up for their first album here since I didn't learn about them until 2 years after they released that album. Their brand of garage rock electronica is really pretty unique and, heck, I just like their sound. They also included a song that samples a cougar, which coincided nicely with my viewing of Talladega Nights. I like that kind of symmetry in my life.
8. Cut Chemist - The Audience is Listening
The best electronic album of the year in my book. Cut Chemist has been doing it for years with Ozomatli and J5 and, normally, I can't stand DJ albums as they just contain inexorable periods of scratching and songs that last 10 minutes or so with no real structure to them, but this album's different and much more along the lines of what a DJ album could be. I don't know how they got around all of the sampling costs as their seems to be a ton of it on here, but it's amazing. The songs all have a different sound to them and they don't all sound like they're straight from Ibiza or anything. It's a pretty diverse album. Plus there's a song that starts with the line "People get ready…the robots are coming". It's about time someone started getting that message out…
7. Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block
Shortly after I moved to Ireland, there was a time where the radio here seemed to play nothing but Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" and "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn, and John. The latter makes this list, while Shakira, um, does not. Now they certainly need to come up with a more rock n' roll name than "Peter, Bjorn, and John", but they seem to be the next in line of mellow, downbeat Swedish pop along with the likes of Kings of Convenience or the Concretes. "Young Folks", in fact, is a duet with the singer from the Concretes.
6. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
5. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
4. Tapes n' Tapes - The Loon
Let's hear it for Minneapolis. This band really came out of nowhere (even on the local scene), but put together one of the best albums of the year. A mix of indie, some classic rock Kinks-type influence, 50's kind of doo-wop type vocals, and subtle samples among other things. It's a hard album to characterize. "Insistor" is the best song of the year if you ask me.
3. P.O.S. - Audition
Tapes n' Tapes would be the best album to come out of Minneapolis, if it wasn't for P.O.S. Last year, Atmosphere made the #2 spot on my list coming out of Minneapolis Rhymesayers' Collective. This year, P.O.S. checks in as a member of the other Minneapolis rap outfit, Doomtree. P.O.S. listed his two biggest influences as Dr. Dre and Fugazi, essentially earning my respect right out of the gate. This album's a great punk-rap effort showing that the two styles aren't as different as you might think. In particular, the lyrics get away from the typical I'm-a-playa rap lyrics and have more of an old-school rap vibe of "I'm barely making ends meet". There's even a song entitled "Living Slightly Larger" in response to the "Livin' Large" stereotype. And, come on, the very first line of the album is "First of all, f*** Bush, that's all that's the end of it".
2. OutKast - Idlewild
Forget Brangelina or TomKat's kid. The progeny to watch for in the next 20 years will be Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu's kid. He'll have some real talent. Proving the point that most of what's original in today's music comes from the hip-hop world is this completely uncharacterizable album. It's not really hip-hop, not really rock, it has some of both, but it's also got a Broadway musical vibe, some blues, some Vaudeville, even some ragtime. It's really bizarre in a lot ways and it's the album of a band that has the freedom to do what it likes and doesn't really care what people think, but is also talented enough to pull it off. And, really, there is just no one cooler than Andre. I'd read in interview where he just decided that he wanted to learn how to play trumpet so he just hung out with Fishbone for half a year until he learned it. It's on my life list of things to do: Hang out with Fishbone for 6 months and learn the trumpet...
1. Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions
And here we are. Maybe not such a surprise, since the Boss is an all-time favorite of mine. I was really skeptical with this album, though. I mean, come on. A collection of folk songs, gospels, and traditional music with a latter-day bluegrass band?! I held out for a long time buying it, when I applied a Brett Isenberg quote about Joe Strummer: "Springsteen could fart into a microphone and I'd buy it". So, I broke down and got it and instantly knew that it would be the top album of the year for me. The only other person who could've pulled this album off died a few years back: Johnny Cash. As if to prove that point, there's even the requisite song about John Henry. There's an earnestness and an honesty to the way Springsteen sings these songs. In the traditional Irish song, Mrs. McGrath, he sings "Now I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind when I left my two fine legs behind. A cannonball on that fateful day blew my two fine legs away." And you can hear strains of songs like Born in the U.S.A. of veterans coming home and not being able to find jobs or even a society that wants anything to do with them. And he adds a rollicking sort of flavor to folk and bluegrass songs that Cash never had. It's a different take on the songs alright.
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