2003 Pitchfork 'Best New Albums' - which of these is the best?

i've heard like six of these albums

exploding hearts, obviously

Can't wait to do this thread 10 more times

I think Exploding Hearts will get my vote too, such a great album.

Out Hud, Exploding Hearts, Basement Jaxx or MU.

I've probably listened to Basement Jaxx the most, but Exploding Hearts is the saddest. ;_;

weird that they gave out 50+ BNMs in a single year

2003 was a pretty decent year iirc.

Wonder what the difference is between this list and their top 50 albums of the year.

records i liked then and still do:

four tet
manitoba
dizzee rascal
jay-z
radiohead

i impulse-voted for dizzee and i feel good about it.

Actually I don't wonder that at all xp

there are only four albums here that don't make me want to vomit and/or murder

why must ilx persist in its weird pfork obsession even though it knows it's bullshit

Boy In Da Corner. Might have thought about the TV on the Radio EP, but it's Dizzee.

there are only four albums here that don't make me want to vomit and/or murder

I was wondering when my weekly dose of lex ott revulsion would arrive. RIGHT ON TIME.

wow

the wrens or the shins i guess

why must ilx persist in its weird pfork obsession even though it knows it's bullshit

in this case just because they set up this clear cut 'category' of albums that was easy to reflect on and poll, easier than just like grabbing 50 random reviews from FACT or The Wire in a given year. mostly I was hoping it could be a way for people to be either, "lol, I forgot they loved those guys" or "hey, I forgot about that cool record"

several decent options but today i am feeling lightning bolt

Some good albums here but You Are Free is far and away my favourite. 2nd place would probably be Songs: Ohia.

This feels a lot more stylistically circumscribed than a poll for recent years would be, right? Idk, I don't really track these things I guess.

Ohhh! I miss The Deadly Snakes

man none of these albums i've still got in full. loved the ted leo album most at the time but too many middling falsetto numbers in hindsight. ironically kish kash probably makes my top 3 or 5 - even if i didn't think it was as consistent as the average '03 ilxor, at least it has serious highlights.

interesting that by 03 they had already started shedding some of their rockist tendencies, for some reason i thought that didn't really occur until much later w/ ewing's column sorta being the capstone to their 'redemption'.

tim if you think this is, um, circumscribed you should check out earlier prime corny indie fuxxor era pfork when something like fennesz making this list would be the pop outlier.

why must ilx persist in its weird pfork obsession even though it knows it's bullshit

― lex pretend

Why don't you just stop going on threads with Pitchfork in the title? You seem to have your own weird obsession opening up threads about subjects or bands you hate.

Voting for Ted Leo, love that album. Exploding Hearts would be a close second.

just doublechecked and their top 3 singles that year were "Hey Ya," "Crazy In Love" and "Cry Me A River" with "in da club" and "milkshake" in the top 10. yeah, they definitely were already inching towards ilx mindmeld

that said, best new music-wise, only basement jaxx and jay-z strike me as outside the early schreiber era, and actually i thiiiink the fork liked rooty and blueprint fine

weirdly i think the johannsson is the one i am most likely to actually listen to nowadays, the lightning bolt and the ellen allien are the ones that most prompt the 'it has been too long since i listened to that' response, the rapture and basement jaxx are the most '03' ones for me (that i love at least) and at the same time not likely to deliberately listen to any time soon.

Didn't see Kish Kash on the list, that would be up there too.

The albums I play the most from 2003 these days would be Goldfrapp's Black Cherry and Moloko's Statues, sadly neither are on this list.

No fork hated rooty, one of their worst reviews ever iirc.

Yeah I know it was even more limited earlier than this - 03 was when they started the 'we are the world' column yeah? I think they were dipping their toes in popular music via singles only to begin with.

I still listen to Supersilent and MU a lot

Ted Leo
Why?
Broken Social Scene

i stand corrected!

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/571-rooty/

"I have the same objections to this disc that I had to Kool Keith's Sex Style-- even though the rhymes were tight, and the production spoke for itself, the tastelessness of Keith's lyrics seemed to overshadow the record's finer points. By the same token, a few fatal flaws eclipse all of Rooty's abundant qualities. Basement Jaxx have taken kitsch a few steps too far. They may be in on the joke, but this shit is no laughing matter."

pfork gave the blueprint a rave BUT more accurately ethan gave blueprint a rave and ethan in the context of pfork 2001 was decidedly not the house voice. interestingly i think that review actually prompted the first interaction between ethan and former ilxor/current pforker patrin (nate was full backpacker mode at the time i think, outraged pfork would devote space to this, etc)(i feel like i'm talking about cockburn v hitchens here), back when drake was still wearing short pants and whiney was writing for a dying print mag. different times, different pfork.

I know A LOT of these records bc in 2003 I was pforks target demo and downloaded so many of these thinking I had discovered the portal to coolness. ones I still love: Manitoba, lightning bolt, jaxx, four tet.

pfork gave the blueprint a rave BUT more accurately ethan gave blueprint a rave and ethan in the context of pfork 2001 was decidedly not the house voice. interestingly i think that review actually prompted the first interaction between ethan and former ilxor/current pforker patrin (nate was full backpacker mode at the time i think, outraged pfork would devote space to this, etc)(i feel like i'm talking about cockburn v hitchens here), back when drake was still wearing short pants and whiney was writing for a dying print mag. different times, different pfork.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f5/Algrt.jpg/350px-Algrt.jpg

This is Dizzee, Jaxx or Radiohead

honorable mention to The Ratpure

lot of likable records on this list, lot of risible ones too

albums i have five or more tracks from, admitting i never did cotton to that instrumental clickety clack shit much: Wrens, Ted Leo, Rapture, M83, Radiohead, Basement Jaxx

From the Black Album I've just got "Change Clothes," "99 Problems," "Justify My Thug" and "My 1st Song," a selection that I believe makes me a weirdo

I remember going to the christmas party for my local music paper at the end of 2001 and my (then new) editor asked me what my favourite rap album of the year was and I said Jay-Z (subsequently Iron Flag would overtake it) and he was really sceptical to the point of shock. "Jay-Z? Really?" It seems odd in retrospect given how obvious in its appeal to a rock press audience 'The Blueprint' feels.

Within 3 years he was a massive Jay-Z stan obviously.

The shift in the attitude of the rock press to contemporary rap during the first half of the decade was pretty dramatic, even though of course it hasn't gone as far as it might have.

I know A LOT of these records bc in 2003 I was pforks target demo and downloaded so many of these thinking I had discovered the portal to coolness. ones I still love: Manitoba, lightning bolt, jaxx, four tet.

Ditto. 2003 was probably when I did the most downloading. It was my first at uni. I've heard 22/23 of these I think and I'm still fond of a promise, guitar romantic, vaudeville villain, boy in da corner, who will cut our hair. lemon of pink, chutes too narrow. Going with vaudeville villain.

Vik Vaughn I guess, Black Album maaaaybe idk.

Boy in Da Corner is the only album I revisit regularly, with The Black Album second, I guess. I did like The Wrens thing a lot then.

(btw the point of my anecdote above is that i thought I had very safe MOR hip hop taste, it's funny how resistant so many people were back then even to going that far)

every editor/critic like the one in tim's story now considers the black album to be the best jay-z album

YES. This is actually true in the case of my story!

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Englabörn
Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
The Deadly Snakes - Ode to Joy
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
Jay-Z - The Black Album

xpost the punchline being that in 2003 he was so excited about TBA and I was pretty lukewarm.

deadly snakes probably my top pick

every editor/critic like the one in tim's story now considers the black album to be the best jay-z album

― J0rdan S., Thursday, July 26, 2012 7:14 PM

Last year:

The Black Album [Roc-A-Fella, 2003]
History has vindicated this album. On a meticulously hyped valedictory no one believed would be his actual farewell, the fanfares, ovations, maternal reminiscences, and vamp-till-ready shout-outs were overblown at best. But on an album where the biggest rapper of all time announces that he's the biggest rapper of all time, they're prophetic. Bitch about Kingdom Come and American Gangster if you must, but not The Blueprint 3 or Watch the Throne, and not his label presidency, amassed fortune, or close personal relationship with Warren Buffett. He's got a right to celebrate his autobiography in rhyme because he's on track to become a personage who dwarfs any mere rapper, and not only can he hire the best help dark green can buy, he can make it sing. Tracks four through nine enlist Kanye West, the Neptunes, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Eminem, and Rick Rubin. Each one sounds different, each one means different, and each one kills. I'm also touched when "Justify My Thug" tag-teams Madonna and Run-D.M.C. Hova if you hear me. A

lightning bolt no doubt

"hova if you hear me" doesn't make sense at all

is that from pop matters, Alfred?

xgau

Voted Kish Kash over Viktor Vaughn

but i've only heard like 15 of these records, half of which i haven't listened to since 2003

15 might be overstating it, probably closer to ten

berlinette is cool too iirc

I've heard four of these and Dizzee is the best of them by a good measure

forgot dizzee in my personal list.

inner wire dbag compels me to vote for supersilent

i stand by xgau's original "honorable mention" review

Jay-Z: The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella): Raps like a legend in his own time--namely, Elvis in Vegas ("99 Problems," "My 1st Song").

I like at least a dozen of these to varying degrees -- Radiohead, Prefuse 73, Basement Jaxx, M83, and Broken Social Scene all made my top 10 list in '03.

interesting that by 03 they had already started shedding some of their rockist tendencies

Ryan Pitchfork crawls out of his indie cave

^ILM thread I started in Aug. 03.

really tempted to vote meadowlands tbh

vegas elvis was pretty rad, i don't know why ppl always act like it's a diss

On Stage smokes.

Out Hud, Soft Pink Truth, Ted Leo, Lightning Bolt and Dizzee were all big to huge deals to me at the time - I think they were all acts I was checking out for the first time (in album form at least) and I feel like I really pushed my fandom on my friends or whatever, which I can almost never be bothered to do now

lol take Soft Pink Truth out of that, it's the punk covers one I fuck w/

Ryan Pitchfork crawls out of his indie cave

― Trewster Dare (jaymc), Thursday, July 26, 2012

Not being a member of ILE yet, I'm still amazed that these dicussions actually got aired.

by which I mean "Why this rending of shirts over liking Broken Social Scene and Dangerously in Love?"

this is between You Forgot It in People, Magnolia Electric Co., Sumday, Hail to the Thief, It Still Moves, The Lemon of Pink or Chutes Too Narrow. thinking Songs: Ohia.

vegas elvis was pretty rad, i don't know why ppl always act like it's a diss

otm - his band at that time was fucking smokin

Yeah that songs: ohia album definitely meant spoke most to me back then and I'm sure it holds up, but don't think I'd ever be up for listening to it now, all these years later. I'll toss it a sentimental vote.

'03 was the year scott pl started editing pfork right

it almost seems like ryan's been lurking here for a while trying to figure out how he can please this board.
― Felcher (Felcher), Monday, August 4, 2003 11:13 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink - there was some truth to this right?

eventually i'll decide between Lightning Bolt, Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu

The Wrens, one of the last great guitar band albums (sniff sniff)

sort of amazed how many of these I heard — nicely tracks my period of intense daily pitchfork reading + disposable income

A Promise has some of my fav Xiu Xiu on it ("Apistat Commander"!!!!!!), Greetings from Michigan and Castaways & Cutouts are both very pleasant indie-pop-with-ambitions, Up in Flames seems like a weirdly important/forward-thinking album, Lemon of Pink is a beautifully-crafted sonic artifact (artisanal sounds?) that's hard to get too excited about...

... but as a former semi-regular poster on SUF, I gotta go with Who Will Cut Our Hair

other stuff on this list I f/w: Ted Leo (but I like his later stuff even more!), M83 (ditto), Broken Social Scene (ditto), Prefuse 73 (never need to hear this again tho), The Shins (ditto), Constantines (I go back and forth between Shine A Light & the s/t), Exploding Hearts (RIP rockin' teenage dudes)

Clearlake, very underrated. Or really nonrated.

yeah i liked that unicorns album too *shrugs*

Up in Flames seems like a weirdly important/forward-thinking album

This is totally otm. While I still stick by my kneejerk Exploding Hearts votes, this is right there just a sliver of a nosehair behind it. That album IS important to me and, in retrospect, SUPER influential on how my tastes evolved over the last decade. Fwiw, The Unicorns would probably be third.

The only two of these I'd have any inclination to listen to these days are Ellen Allien and Dizzee Rascal, but I'd rather listen to New Pornographers Electric Version or Fiery Furnaces Gallowsbird's Bark.

The Wrens, one of the last great guitar band albums (sniff sniff)

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, July 26, 2012 8:07 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

?!?!? i don't know where to start

you are free

kind of amazing, i think of this period as being a time when i was "following" indie rock, but i've heard very few of these indie rock records. here are the ones i've heard in full.
-Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People - don't like this band
Cat Power - You Are Free - i know people think this is her best, but i thought it was a major drop off from moon pix
decemberists - castaways - don't really like this band, but my wife does, so i've heard this a bunch. it's ok.
grandaddy - sumday - half of this record is great, the rest is meh
radiohead - hail to the thief - didn't like this one very much
sufjan - see the decemberists
shins - i like this one!
jay-z - good record!

How is the New Pornos record not here?!

Ted Leo (but I like his later stuff even more!)

don't know if i've ever heard anyone say this before

i was a little put off by hearts of oak at the time but it grew plenty on me.

i still fuck with vaudeville villain too.

and... nothing else that i've ever heard here, but maybe if i get sick of 'hypermagic mountain' someday i will listen to 'wonderful rainbow'.

Surprised there's not more excitement for the music here. I think 2003 marked the pinnacle of 2000s indie rock, though I might be biased, because that was around the time when indie-rock felt for me like a significant, definable movement, something that I could follow with the same passion of the alternative rock I listened to when I was a little kid.

A lot of artists on this list are represented by their best albums: The Shins, The Wrens, Menomena, The Unicorns, The Rapture, Dizzee, but I think Cat Power gets my vote. You Are Free is so lean and brutal. It's not an angry album, but there's something hostile about it, and the way those songs pass on these poisonous emotions without priming you for them or helping you reconcile them.

?!?!? i don't know where to start

Ugh. I know I should ignore this, but I'll bite.

I take it you strongly disagree with my assessment that The Wrens Meadowlands is one of the last great guitar records. Please, tell me. What am I overlooking?

don't know if i've ever heard anyone say this before

i'll probably be the lone vote for out hud.

bernard: i liked the one on 'living' about chillin out in europe or whatever but he's sounded pretty burnt out since then, i couldn't get into 'bricks' either. ah well.

tho 'shake the sheets' went from ah er ok what are we doing here to something i played to death, so that's good.

Can't wait to do this thread 10 more times

― camp lo magellan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, July 26, 2012 4:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man, just imagine how exciting it'll be the day you realize you don't have to open/participate in threads that are of no interest to you.

Somgs: Ohia

This is Vaudeville Villain vs Hail to the Thief for me, but that's like two out of the three albums I've heard in thus list. Although I scan as indie bcz I love a lot of Sonic Youth and Fall* albums but I really know fuck all about indie music or Pitchfork

Like Cat Power? Is she worth listening to? I have this vague notion in my head of her having 'intense vocals': is that right?

*The Real New Fall LP is easily my favorite album from this year.

exploding hearts, obviously

― J0rdan S., Thursday, July 26, 2012 2:55 PM (6 hours ago)

I gotta be real and admit that I'm waaaaaaaay overdue on checking out Lightning Bolt; I'll give WR a listen sometime this week.

Exploding Hearts are the band nabisco kept comparing to Material Issue, right? I am thinking about checking them out too.

like the soft pink truth, lightning bolt, deerhoof and jay-z albums, too.

xp take shrooms

deerhoof or manitoba

xp I usually have to buy them actually

The Real New Fall LP is so damn great. They haven't released anything nearly as good since, right? I think I missed the last few

That Out Hud album is super creative and really should be #1

cosign on the real new fall LP. still listen to it pretty regularly. surprised it didn't a pitchfork nod.

Well, 2012 will have lots to choose from. Seems like they've had a new BNM every day of the last few weeks.

angels of light

Surprised there's not more excitement for the music here. I think 2003 marked the pinnacle of 2000s indie rock, though I might be biased, because that was around the time when indie-rock felt for me like a significant, definable movement, something that I could follow with the same passion of the alternative rock I listened to when I was a little kid.

Used to be things ran in 20 year cycles, implying ten years after was the centre of the fallow period before reappraisal slowly started. I think this has sped up slightly, so 2003 is pretty much at the bottom of the cycle right now (not that 2001 did that much better in a poll a while ago). Mostly, people who are in a position to make their voices heard right now were gawky teenagers/college kids when this stuff came out, and are still in the backlash phase against their earlier comforts/selves. Many of them will pay healthy amounts to go to the 20th anniversary of That Band Play That Album The Whole Way Through in ten years' time.

I feel really really really stupid for getting Out Hud confused with Hed PE (sic) sometimes

(re: the Fall--Real New got a 7.6 rating, same as most of their albums in the 00s; the last album of theirs I loved was Imperial Wax Solvent, though Your Future Our Clutter has a lot of fans on ILX; but yeah Real New is better than both)

I've never even heard of Angels of Light :(

This is a pretty terrible list.

It's Radiohead or Ellen Allien for my but I think I'm going to vote w my vagina coz HTTT is my favourite RH album but Berlinette isn't my fave EA.

I guess I listened to Rounds and Up In Flames a lot back then, too but the idea of Up In Flames as forward-thinking rather than a Chapterhouse rip is mystifying to me.

Oh sod it. I have 2 heads, I can vote for the Ellen Allien record I really want without feeling disloyal.

this was the year i became the indiest indie kid in high school so this is all nostalgia, this list was my bible

her majesty the decemberists would've been my answer at 15 so i'll go with that

i was even more of a corny indie fuxx whatever whatever in 2003 than i am now, with that said my faves are The Shins, Exploding Hearts, Sufjan, Her Majesty The Decemberists and like Wrens/MMJ.

also, 2003 was a monster year, imo. Here are a handful of records that either should be on that list, or I'm surprised are not:

Kathleen Edwards, “Failer”
Jose Gonzalez, “Veneer”
The Long Winters, “When I Pretend To Fall”
The New Pornographers, “Electric Version”
The Notwist, “Neon Golden”
The Postal Service, “Give Up”
The Strokes, “Room On Fire”
Sun Kil Moon, “Ghosts of the Great Highway”

I have that Ellen Allien album but can't remember anything about it, not that I'm saying this is the album's fault

It's the the one with Unknown Trashscapes (?) and all the songs about trains on it. Actually it's pretty great but it's hardly Thrills.

2003/4 was p much the year, after 3 years of being in a touring indie band, when I realised I couldn't actually stomach indie anymore. It was the year of really accepting Poptimism and moving away from everything this list represented. Thanks, ILM, for that. It was really freeing.

The Notwist, “Neon Golden”

2002 iirc

berlinette is pretty awesome - it's prob only ellen's third best album behind thrills and orchestra of bubbles but in the context of ellen's discography this is hardly a diss, and also it's so stylistically different to those two that it feels less like an inferior version of ellen than just a different one, and also how fucking gorgeous "sehnsucht" is and what an amazing banger "push" is (PUSH PUSH PUSH KICK UR ASS KICK UR ASS).

i voted ellen - i don't necessarily love berlinette more than boy in da corner or kish kash but of those three it's certainly the most underrated. the fourth album in this dreadful list that's worth anything is you are free - "free" especially is an amazing song, i love how bold cat power sounds on it contra her early work. but while i broadly like and keep up with her, cat power has never had what it takes to make me a real head-over-heels fan, and in some ways i resent her for taking the 90s female singer-songwriter model and sucking all the grandiose ambition and formidable technical chops and lyrical aggression out of it, and replacing it with conventional 00s indie fragile femininity and a...basic approach to the concept of chops. um i do like her though!

overall if this list embodies an aesthetic that you prize or that you followed at any point, You Are The Problem.

Boy In Da Corner over Kish Kash

2003/4 was p much the year, after 3 years of being in a touring indie band, when I realised I couldn't actually stomach indie anymore. It was the year of really accepting Poptimism and moving away from everything this list represented. Thanks, ILM, for that. It was really freeing.

i really credit ILM with flicking this switch in my brain, which is exactly why this board retrospectively happily accepting this aesthetic is a bit weird to me

I don't really pick up an aesthetic from this list tbh? like as much as there's lots of Shins-y flotsam which is either 'not my thing' or actively pernicious depending on how I'm feeling today, there seems to be lots of things which come from somewhere totally different

Push is on Berlinette??!?! I thought it was on Stadtkind so that just pushed (heh) the album up in my estimation.

I don't think this list represents an aesthetic, but the albums I've heard (and many others I know only by reputation - the reputation giving me the distinct impression "this is not for me") does seem to be a jumbled mess of everything that I was just totally ready to leave behind at that point.

It's funny, I was reading a comic book recently that had a two-frame quip about leaving indie behind and adopting a stance of "radical poptimism" with a footnote and a link to Tom/FT and oh how I laughed and laughed and pointed and said "yes, this was a thing! that's me, that's me!" It was a definite tribal moment on ILM. But ILM has had many moments and supports many tribes.

I'm going to listen to Berlinette for the rest of the morning now, so this thread has had some use.

artists in this poll whose music i have heard that i like: Lightning Bolt, Out Hud, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Mt Eerie/Microphones, Soft Pink Truth

artists in this poll whose music i could not identify even if there was a gun pointed at my head: everything else, ok, i could probably identify Radiohead, not really into them after the 1st two albums

the unicorns album is the most fun

Supersilent, Lightning Bolt & Ellen Allien are the only survivors from this list that are still on my iPod.

The Books, The Shins, The Wrens... 2003 was a nadir for unimaginitive bands with even more unimaginitive names.

I still listen to the Four Tet and some of the Radiohead. Played the Manitoba the other day and I like it but it sounds really gauche and hyperactive compared to his subsequent stuff.

Think most of this list is definitely at the bottom of the decade-on trough of despair right now.

The Books might be an unimaginative name but they're defintely not an unimaginative band.

It may be that their name did them a massive disservuice then; I remember listening to a lot of these acts back then and pretty universally thinking 'wtf'; I could well just be confused.

You definitely are confused if you're putting The Books in the same category as the other two

2003/4 was p much the year, after 3 years of being in a touring indie band, when I realised I couldn't actually stomach indie anymore. It was the year of really accepting Poptimism and moving away from everything this list represented. Thanks, ILM, for that. It was really freeing.

i really credit ILM with flicking this switch in my brain, which is exactly why this board retrospectively happily accepting this aesthetic is a bit weird to me

― lex pretend, Friday, July 27, 2012 3:32 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol if lex 'flicked the switch' to pop music in 2003 after years of nothing but tori amos and tom waits or whatever that explains a lot

If anything that Books album is closer stylistically to Four Tet and Jóhann Jóhannsson, the whole thing's on spotify http://open.spotify.com/album/0mcPCd19lQ092tEuXp1eRD

I shall investigate.

lol if lex 'flicked the switch' to pop music in 2003 after years of nothing but tori amos and tom waits or whatever that explains a lot

haha no but ILM was more of a catalyst for the young me w/r/t "it's totally OK to like what you like and to hate what you hate"

weird to think of this list being as old today as a list including "crooked rain," "ready to die" and "Selected Ambient Works II" would have been in 2003

OK, The Books are well away from The Wrens and The Shins.

Still a shitty name though!

crooked rain, ready to die, SAW ii: try to think of a print or online venue where those three would all have been top ten in 2003

the idea that this is 'an aesthetic' which is now embodied by ilm is a very odd one to me

Looking at this list makes me realise I was not paying very much attention to new US alterna-trends in 2003.

tbh repping for "The Black Album" in 2003 is not as remarkable as repping for "Ready To Die" in 1994 would have been

for an indie-centric publication, i mean

was that the point? i didn't think that was the point.

-

weird year (for pitchfork?), lots of artists here performing not quite at the top of their game whilst still doing pretty well? tho i have never heard e.g. that specific sunburned record. exceptions - basement jaxx, dizzee, lightning bolt

i guess anyone who would want to rep for the blood brothers record is the kind of person who has taught themselves to not click on pitchfork threads. that was a good record.

two decemberists albums! oh god.

tbh not sure what your point was - did you mean "imagine a place where anyone would have cared about these albums if they were released in 2003?" or "imagine a place that would still revere these albums in 2003?" or was 2003 a typo, etc

i guess anyone who would want to rep for the blood brothers record is the kind of person who has taught themselves to not click on pitchfork threads. that was a good record.

lol that's what i voted for

A lot of the albums on this list are ones that, from my point of view, preceded better efforts from said acts.

although tbf the only other ones i've heard are the Cat Power from depressingly way way after i thought they were any good and the Ted Leo record where i think the production poorly served a bunch of songs that sound better live (xpost)

heh, all the albums here where I'm au fait w/ its followup, I like the 2003 album more

xp

(Out Hud, Ted Leo, Lightning Bolt, Blood Brothers, Dizzee, Ratpure, Jay-Z)

(and Basement Jaxx)

I dunno. For me, it was more like, that period just had all these pop juggernauts in the form of Sugababes' Third, Sound of the Underground, Britney Spears' Toxic (think that might be early 2004), all this mind-blowing production from Xenomania and Richard X...

...and ye olde indie bastions thought I should be listening to - Cat Power? The Postal Service? Get outta town!

Yeah, I think I was definitely much more into pop at that point than P4K approved indie.

tbf, that Cat Power album stands up.

i don't know, at this point i feel about the same way about going back and giving the sugababes album another listen as i do the microphones one: which is to say, i guess i could, but ...

i actually can't think of a worse cat power record - early, slightly improvised-feeling stuff, moon pix, covers record, muscle shoals band record, is there one i'm forgetting

lol i do not mean muscle shoals

Didn't mean to pick on Cat Power, but I was looking down that list trying to even find an artist I *should* have liked.

You Are Free is where I got off the Catbus

Oh I voted Xiu Xiu of course

where I got off the Catbus

slow_clap.gif

Always meant to give that Giddy Motors album a go, it's kind of new wave of burly pigfuck right?

tired zing, p4k thread, good morning everyone

I should listen to that M83 album sometime, considering how much I like the last two

also Ellen Allien

I like the Blood Brothers record a lot too, but I wore myself out on it when it came out so now when I see it I'm all kinda, "ehhh, not sure I need to hear that now".

Giddy Motors was more no wavey iirc, I think there was sax and little of the blokishness that I think of wrt 'pigfuck'

ailing memory-based disclaimers again apply

oh damn, why had I never heard Berlinette before now

voting for sufjan. don't judge me.

i think this was the year i started reading pfork so i pretty much listened to all of these. most of them are good! none are personal favorites though

voting for sufjan. don't judge me.

too late *judges hardcore*

lol @ p4k giving a "best new music" to a Polysics album that came out three years prior

I'm guessing it came out in the States in 2003.

Used to be things ran in 20 year cycles, implying ten years after was the centre of the fallow period before reappraisal slowly started. I think this has sped up slightly, so 2003 is pretty much at the bottom of the cycle right now

Really loved this whole post/explanation, ecuador.

One thing I'm struck by is how small most of these records are. We've got pre-Illinois Sufjan; pre-prog Decemberists; a half hour Shins album; lots of tiny works by The Books, The Unicorns, Cyann & Ben, ect. This was the year before Arcade Fire hit and anthemized a lot of indie rock, and it really shows

This list is funny to me because it was around this time that I sort of started falling out of the habit of keeping close tabs on new music, so I look at this and go, "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to check that one out!" as in, I've been "meaning to" for a decade. Thanks to Spotify, I am now working through an age-old listening checklist and feeling really hip and current with...really old music. Oops. This Viktor Vaughn album is sounding pretty good I gotta say.

like/love all of these:

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Cat Power - You Are Free
The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn
Four Tet - Rounds
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Singel Frame - Wetheads Come Running
WHY? - Oaklandazulasylum
Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Menomena - I Am the Fun Blame Monster
Jay-Z - The Black Album

voted Cat Power, because I'm still in love with her.

anyway. the Polysics album is clearly the best. but i would venture to say i'm the only one here who's heard it.

lol no, I saw them at SxSW in 2000

And again in 2003 (or 2004)

but yeah Neu is a cool album

There were a lot of writers stanning for Polysics in 2003 iirc. Asian Man records gave them a big push but I don't think it turned into a US tour. Also I apologize for firstiness but "I must be the only one to have heard this record" is a wild claim!

Well I just used the search function and found out that I'm the only one who's posted about them in two and a half years. I realize that its dumb to claim that but out of the fifty or so people posting on this thread, I would say it's not that wild!

Voted Sumday.

I have warm feelings towards 'Polysics Or Die' but am not familiar w/ the one here

yeah "Polysics or Die" is the one that I thought got the big push. Their greatest hits-type albums seem to go over well in America but their actual studio albums not so much. Anyway I think Neu! is the best of them. It's their most over-the-top and psychotic, and also engages in a lot of creative plagiarism

unicorns

I liked then and still like now (this is a surprisingly short list):

Out Hud - S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.
Clearlake - Cedars
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash

Voting for Out Hud which still sounds fresh somehow. At this point I think of it as half GBYE-style post rock which has completely faded from consciousness, half 'indie electronica' which it seems will never go away.

Kornrulez pull up any rolling punk thread and find dozens, there are probably at least 50 a year

Plus the metal &indie threads would have more

Also full disclosure I never really got the fuss about meadowlands which seemed pretty dull to me

^^^ otm

It had a couple decent songs but man, there was a lot of people that were all "OMG AMAZING ALBUM BEST EVER SO WONDERFUL" over that.

I dunno. For me, it was more like, that period just had all these pop juggernauts in the form of Sugababes' Third, Sound of the Underground, Britney Spears' Toxic (think that might be early 2004), all this mind-blowing production from Xenomania and Richard X...

...and ye olde indie bastions thought I should be listening to - Cat Power? The Postal Service? Get outta town!

otm. Rachel Stevens on the horizon as well.

but anyway, Rapture v Basement Jaxx v Broken Social Scene

The perennial Wrens defence was "oh but you have to see them live"

anyway. the Polysics album is clearly the best. but i would venture to say i'm the only one here who's heard it.

haha i d/l it because of the p4k review. i think ive heard all but 6 of these many because of their respective reviews

i still like a lot of these even if i dont really listen to any of them but supersilent and the angels of light records, i guess sometimes englabörn cuz its still on my ipod as well, not really ashamed of how much i was into like non-prophets albums when i was a teenager, everybody has feelings

so much garbage. goin with Deerhoof.

Amazing how little impact most of these albums actually had. Almost like it was a load of nerdy dudes picking their bedroom favourites rather than anything with any actual societal impact or cultural context outside American universities.

I suppose the US and UK in particular drift musically closer and then further away from one another as the years go by (they were MILES apart in 2000 for example) but they felt pretty close together at this stage and that's barely reflected in the list at all.

angels of light album is outstanding.

love these dudes, r.i.p.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mebv10VTyQ

The perennial Wrens defence was "oh but you have to see them live"

Haha I did and they were terrible.

i bought that wrens album, wasn't feeling it at all

Amazing how little impact most of these albums actually had. Almost like it was a load of nerdy dudes picking their bedroom favourites rather than anything with any actual societal impact or cultural context outside American universities.

which albums past 2001 really had an impact? I mean I think the Pitchfork list is kind of indicitive of any "best of" since, I dunno, Daft Punk's <i>Discovery</i>? I'm sure there were a few...what were they?

Amazing how little impact most of these albums actually had. Almost like it was a load of nerdy dudes picking their bedroom favourites rather than anything with any actual societal impact or cultural context outside American universities.

you should continue having opinions

I'd rep for all of the albums on this list. It makes me feel old that I haven't really agreed with any Pitchfork best-of list since 2006 or so.

that Shins album had a huge impact.

You Forgot.... is my favorite from this list, though it really came out in 02.

Kish Kash - one of maybe half a dozen I'd actually listen to. In retrospect it sounds even more like B Jaxx's peak.

ha we now have itt Moka saying every single album here is good and Lex saying every single album save for four is terrible

voted for Ellen Allien, only one i have any use for now. of the ones i loved at the time i'd say You Forgot it in People is best.

and Lex saying every single album save for four is terrible

Not to turn this into another opportunity to bash lex here, but given his kneejerk dismissal of nearly everything "indie" I'd be shocked if he's even heard more than a handful of these all the way through.

Who Will Cut Our Hair... came in a close second behind Vaudville Villain. love that album. "i pretend to die in a plane crash KKPSSSH!"

yeah that unicorns record is really rad, i always forget how much fun it is

xpost - you dont need to listen to record to know if they suck

you dont need to listen to record to know if they suck

just quoting this for posterity, y because it intrsting.

Blood Brothers for sure, Wrens and Exploding Hearts great too.

Like obviously critics or listeners shouldn't be thinking "hmmmm what will British audiences be thinking in nine years?" but altogether this list gives the impression of an insular publication not really facing in the right direction, even the equivalent NME list is probably better.

but altogether this list gives the impression of an insular publication not really facing in the right direction,

pitchfork has always been insular tho

which albums past 2001 really had an impact?

From 2003 alone... 'Elephant' for one. It's not like they needed any more good press but still...

superglad matt dc is itt, takin my advice

super glad that ppl are spending time talking about each other instead of the albums in the poll, it's always super fascinating and worthwhile

Mouthy, check out the final Books album The Way Out, it's totally in yr wheelhouse.

just as fascinating and worthwhile as snarky condescension and haughtiness!

(xpost)

loads of albums in this list from 90s holdovers I had dismissed based no earlier releases

I really don't understand My Morning Jacket, like not even in the slightest

more like my boring racket!

although man I should have been up on Lightning Bolt, wau

MMJ = Neil Young stoner jamz but yeah not very exciting imho. also terrible band name.

huh i only see like 4 or 5 90s holdovers on this list, most of this list is, in my head, part of this weird insular gestation of indie that started around 2001 and kind of filled the gap between the post-pavement 90s sloppy indie rock stuff and the post-Funeral anthemization of indie. like there are no obvious trends on this list, just a lot of bands drifting off in different directions

Shins, Cat Power, MMJ, Grandaddy, Jay-Z (lol), The Microphones, Basement Jaxx... Ted Leo and Xiu Xiu had been in other bands. I dunno, seems like a bunch to me.

kind of weird to call Basement Jaxx "90s holdovers", like they were The Prodigy or Orbital

well I hated their first album, had totally forgotten about them by 2003

ha we now have itt Moka saying every single album here is good and Lex saying every single album save for four is terrible

― price lo matalan (DJ Mencap)

lol I still own 12 of these albums and I wouldn't mind listening to the rest. Am I considered an indie stan over here? Didn't realize Lex was my nemesis.

I'm not trying to talk about ~people~ it was just that you and Lex were the posters who said those things

Lex strikes me as a Unicorns kind of man.

The Real New Fall LP is so damn great. They haven't released anything nearly as good since, right? I think I missed the last few

― Evan R, Friday, July 27, 2012 12:51 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Imperial Wax Solvent is fantastic.

Also, LOL DJP, The Ratpure is an AMAZING band name...

I will stan for MMJ "At Dawn" even if I haven't been able to get into their later records at all

Jon: The Ratpure

most of this list is, in my head, part of this weird insular gestation of indie that started around 2001 and kind of filled the gap between the post-pavement 90s sloppy indie rock stuff and the post-Funeral anthemization of indie

what are the other indie generations

2003 was around the time I started reading Pitchfork but before I started working or got broadband so I haven't heard as many of these as I probably have for the equivalent lists for 2005/06. Some I got around to hearing much later on - I've heard 21 of these in total, own 11, used to have more but sold some on.

wow The Unicorns are Not My Thing

haha

I mean, I know that's semi-rich considering I jumped immediately from that to Black Moth Super Rainbow's Dandelion Gum but still

The Real New Fall LP is so damn great. They haven't released anything nearly as good since, right? I think I missed the last few

― Evan R, Friday, July 27, 2012 12:51 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Imperial Wax Solvent is fantastic.

Also, LOL DJP, The Ratpure is an AMAZING band name...

― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Friday, July 27, 2012 12:40 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Imperial Wax Solvent is great; also, Our Future Your Clutter is one of their best albums imo.

Is that Black Moth Super Rainbow album good? That's up there w lightning Bolt in the list of stuff I need to check out?

I love it; it's fuzzed-out twee Boards of Canada-influenced indie with vocodered vocals and a goofily sunny disposition

my introduction was "Lollipopsichord"; I think if you dig that, you'll dig the whole album

(here's a Spotify link to "Lollipopsichord": http://open.spotify.com/track/03GmiapZrVujkO2BwX945T)

Thank you! I will try to find time to listen to that this weekend!

oh man The Microphones are exactly my type of shit at first glance, which likely means I'm gonna have a Godspeed! reaction and be all "these guys are amazing!" *20 minutes elapse* "wtf just stop already"

hoping that doesn't happen

It's probably going to happen.

that is happening

oh yeah that happened at minute 11 of "The Sun"

stop mumbling and get back to the drumming, you big dork

Wait til Calvin Johnson starts singing

so far my faves of the albums I've been sampling that I didn't know from this list are (unsurprisingly) Ellen Allien and Lightning Bolt

lol btw the drums just kicked back in and The Microphones became interesting again; I'm sensing... a PATTERN

super glad that ppl are spending time talking about each other instead of the albums in the poll, it's always super fascinating and worthwhile

man I can't agree with you here I think it's really tiresome and horrible

was about to play Xiu Xiu but then I saw the album art... maybe not at work

going for Clearlake instead

xp: lol aero

I love The Microphones. Which of these albums have you or haven't heard before DJP?

Also if you're going for Xiu Xiu I'd recommend starting with Fabulous Muscles first. It has some of their best songs ("Crank Heart", "I Luv the Valley OH!", "Clowne Towne").

I really don't understand My Morning Jacket, like not even in the slightest

First album is the best, it's like standing alone on a still night in a huge cornfield in the American midwest while meanwhile five miles up the road a man is sitting at the bar in a roadhouse with a flickering neon sign drinking whiskey in silence.

That sentence could have done with a few more commas.

gonna be easier to list the ones I'd heard before today:

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
The Rapture - Echoes
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Jay-Z - The Black Album

So far I've played/sampled:

The Microphones - Mount Eerie
Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
Clearlake - Cedars
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
Need New Body - UFO
Menomena - I Am the Fun Blame Monster
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

Really liked Lightning Bolt and Ellen Allien, swung back and forth between hating and loving Need New Body and The Microphones, am pretty neutral on Clearlake, unmoved by Menomena, actively detested The Unicorns and My Morning Jacket

actually the Clearlake album is pretty good but it's also not really my thing, so it's sort falling into the "admire but don't really love" pile

I think I feel exactly the same about everything you listed, DJP, except Clearlake which I haven't heard. There are really good songs scattered throughout that Need New Body record, but there's lots of really annoying stuff, too.

Lightning Bolt and Ellen Allien are great ones. Get Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles asap, best thing they've both been involved with.

I get you don't know these 5 but they are a must listen:

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Four Tet - Rounds
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State
The Books - The Lemon of Pink

already have Orchestra of Bubbles which is amazing

I am certain I will at least enjoy Manitoba and Four Tet, I've liked other things they've done but haven't really kept up with either of them

If I like Sufjan I will be shocked and amazed, I've tried listening to him a couple of times and mostly just blocked him from my memory as a Thing

know nothing about The Books

My list nowadays would be slightly different but this was pretty much my top 10 for 2003 at the time.

1. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People (Arts And Crafts Records)
2. Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn (Constellation)
3. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lake State (Asthmatic Kitty)
4. Ellen Allien - Berlinette (Bpitch Control)
5. Matmos - The Civil War (Matador Records)
6. Four Tet - Rounds (Domino)
7. The Books - The Lemon Of Pink (Tomlab)
8. 1 Mile North - Minor Shadows (Ba Da Bing!)
9. Manitoba - Up In Flames (Leaf)
10. B. Fleischmann - Welcome Tourist (Morr Music)

Shakin Stevens >>> Sufjan Stevens

dude makes me want to stab

Exploding Hearts. Hasn't staled at all.

Sufjan Stevens became sort of too twee for my taste since Chicago but I'll always rep for Michigan and Seven Swans. I'd recommend Seven Swans over Michigan but the latter still has some great songs (namely: Wolverine, For the Widows in Paradise, Flint, The Upper Peninsula...)

The first Clearlake album (I think it's called Lido?) is a bit better, you might give that one a go, DJP?

I loved it when it came out, my memory is it had a good mixture of jaunty and maudlin, but I suspect it might be a bit too winsome for me these days.

Broken Social Scene is pretty cool actually, I have no idea what I was expecting but I just assumed I wouldn't like it and that's not turning out to be the case

Clearlake is tentatively going on an "explore further" list, I think I might really get into them in a slightly different headspace or with a different album

You ought to find at least one song you like in the Broken Social Scene record. It swaps members of Do Make Say Think, Metric, Stars and Feist throughout the record so it never follows the same formula or influence but it never feels disruptive.

That album is by far the best Clearlake ever got. xp

Dan didn't you initially dislike Black Moth Super Rainbow? Or am I confusing that w/Blue Sky Black Death?

checking out some stuff i'd never heard before. Prefuse 73 is pretty listenable for that kind of hip-hop instrumental thing, but I was finished with it a third of the way through. Enjoying the Johann Johannson thing far more than I thought I would on background, less overwrought than similar 4AD reference points.

Dan didn't you initially dislike Black Moth Super Rainbow? Or am I confusing that w/Blue Sky Black Death?

I don't remember expressing dislike for BMSR; I may have made fun of their twee tendencies but I always was into that album (actually Austerity Ponies introduced me to them and School of Seven Bells at the same time and I ended up getting into and digging BMSR first, which given my current So7B obsession is a little ridic)

There was a thread where I tried to get LJ to like that album and he was all "nope, not having it *arms crossed*"

do not remember Blue Sky Black Death

Easy: Hail to the Thief, followed by Boy in Da Corner.

oh thank god the second song on the Sufjan album is uptempo, I thought I was going to have to jump out of a window

this is really personal bias as opposed to a comment on the quality of the music but I would have much more tolerance for this type of thing with a female singer

man that constantines record seemed like a big deal at the time but now its just like 'wait, that existed?'

'young lions' is still a jam tho

That Constantines record is real good. "Soon Enough" is their best tune tho

This Exploding Hearts album is just too much of a Generation X tribute - it's not bad, I'm just not in the market for class of 77 mad libs like "I'm getting modern kicks!"

I'm surprised you haven't heard "A promise", DJP, I think you'll love it. I disagree w/moka sorry moka

hmm well, I'm not gonna play it at work due to the album art coming up on Spotify and me being in an open cubicle with zero privacy

was gonna comment on The Books but someone revived the ICP thread and now I am distracted

oh thank god the second song on the Sufjan album is uptempo, I thought I was going to have to jump out of a window

this is really personal bias as opposed to a comment on the quality of the music but I would have much more tolerance for this type of thing with a female singer

― keeping things contextual (DJP)

Upper Peninsula features a female singer.

I'm surprised you haven't heard "A promise", DJP, I think you'll love it. I disagree w/moka sorry moka

― Ówen P.

Disagree on what?

finally realized my problem with the constantines is 100% the singer, dude is like Britt Daniel thinking he's Tom Waits

@ moka I disagree that anybody should start with "Fabulous Muscles"

So I'm listening to MU and decide to check out the original review. Gotta say, I was surprised by the opener

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5561-afro-finger-and-gel/

In her broken Eng-rish, about midway through "Chair Girl", Japan's Mutsumi Kanamori, the wife half of Sheffield-based duo Mu, creeks out the maxim that "DJs awh wock band," while her husband, Baltimorean Maurice Fulton, whips Model 500 basslines around submarine alarms and a dubbed-out salsa beat. It all makes sense for a second, until I re-read the lyrics and realize that she's actually saying: "Deejays are rocked by an electric chair girl."

mostly i was surprised by "Eng-rish," to be clear

from same review

2003 might go down as a year in which some rock records learned how to dance (Electric Six, !!!, The Rapture, Ssion) and some dance records learned to rock (Basement Jaxx, T. Raumschmiere, Fat Truckers).

did it?

fucking electric six sucks so bad

I am not much a fan of Michigan, but "Sister" off of Seven Swans bowls me over every time. That's where I would point anyone trying to 'get' Sufjan.

The Microphones - Mount Eerie
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain

currently listening to that Lightning Bolt album, which I have been "meaning to listen to" forever, and ya it rocks intensely

Blood Brothers good too but I didn't hear it till waaayyy after 2003

yeah, the blood brothers got a fair amount of attention in their moment, but seem forgotten now. i associate them with the GSL/31G records art-glam-hardcore thing, which seemed to evaporate (or shift/fragment?) a few years back.

They split off into two bands, one solid (Past Lives) and one good-then-horrifically-terrible (Jaguar Love).

Piano Island was released on a major, yes?

first Jaguar Love album was amazing fuiud

fucking electric six sucks so bad

I've only heard maybe three Electric Six songs, but I remain open to the idea that they are unheralded geniuses b/c of da croupier and Perpetua.

I've only heard maybe three Electric Six songs, and I've avoided hearing more because I don't want to push my reflexive dislike into hatred and feel the need to troll da croupier about them.

I like the first Jaguar Love record a lot; it's the second that's a problem. so horrible.

revisit "Evaline," that one was the keeper from the album for me

yeah that's the only one I remember kinda "working." I mean it was ballsy of them (him, at that point?) to embrace a pop sensibility so unabashedly, it's just that the result was...not good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRaHDK3CeVs

so good

"The Shame" is def one of the best album closers of the decade

microphones
songs: ohia
viktor vaughan

ted leoooooooooo

okay Dandelion Gum is sounding great. This sounds like something I would like whilst high.

(I mean, I like it sober, I just mean this sounds like something that would enhance that sort of experience)

Voted MU but was strongly tempted by Ellen Allien, pretty scary to think these records are nearly ten years old, they still sound so fresh to me.

I've heard 22 of these at one point in my life, still like quite a few. Will have to think about this, but leaning toward M83.

Incidentally, 2003 is my least favorite year from 2000-present.

A few that didn't cut the muster:

White Stripes- Elephant
Sun Kil Moon- Ghosts of the Great Highway
Drive By Truckers- Decoration Day
Broadcast- Haha Sound
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Fever to Tell
New Pornographers- Electric Version
Outkast- SB/LB

(keeping this along the lines of stuff I figured p4k would have liked)

Labels must not have bought banner ads

there's really no reason to believe advertising has an editorial influence at pitchfork and leveling the accusation even jokingly is way nastier than anything you could justifiably say about pf's taste or writing etc

accusation?

implying that Matador neglected to buy banner ads on Pitchfork is a pretty serious accusation! no wait that wasn't what i was saying

Need New Body so fucking easily.

Jesus it was a joke, I officially retract it and an sorry for the distress it has caused Pitchfork and some dude

Now go have a nice sunday in baltimore!

Hard to choose between Ellen Allen or Out Hud.

Early Out Hud singles might be better than the album.

i like Xiu Xiu a lot, but that album is uneven - i think i have that Need New Body album somewhere and should listen to it

looking back, i would say it was fairly decent year all in all. 'boy in da corner' is my obvious choice, but a few good to great forerunners. without order :

Out Hud - S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.
The Microphones - Mount Eerie
The Soft Pink Truth - Do You Party?
Supersilent - 6
Lightning Bolt - Wonderful Rainbow
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Englabörn
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn
Deerhoof - Apple O
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Sunburned Hand of the Man - Headdress
Polysics - Neu
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Jay-Z - The Black Album
MU - Afro Finger and Gel

^^ especially these

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Glad I was able to give Prefuse 73 its lone vote.

Extinguished outtakes cd is way better, imo.

otm

Jesus it was a joke, I officially retract it and an sorry for the distress it has caused Pitchfork and some dude

Now go have a nice sunday in baltimore!

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, July 29, 2012 2:43 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

it's alright man. my last post was just kidding around.

damn, some dude and he1go can not be beefing. goon on goon violence.

Exploding Heart + BBs had a better showing than I expected

I can't complain too much about the results, glad to see Exploding Hearts put in a good run. Pretty good turnout too!

damn, some dude and he1go can not be beefing. goon on goon violence.

― tauheed & cambria (J0rdan S.), Thursday, August 2, 2012 1:51 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

never that! like i said, i think he misunderstood my botched joke

Jesus it was a joke, I officially retract it and an sorry for the distress it has caused Pitchfork and some dude

Now go have a nice sunday in baltimore!

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, July 29, 2012 2:43 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

it's alright man. my last post was just kidding around.

― now there's a lot of bad bitches in the building (am0n) (some dude), Thursday, August 2, 2012 12:50 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

damn, some dude and he1go can not be beefing. goon on goon violence.

― tauheed & cambria (J0rdan S.), Thursday, August 2, 2012 12:51 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha no beef! and honestly, i guess i operate in a sphere of...um...journalism where my credibility is questioned basically every week by some reader or another and dudes genuinely do believe that everything we do is bought and paid and that we are like seriously evil etc for so saying shit like i said is kinda common gallows humor in the biz, but i should remember that it might seem harsh to someone in another zone.

yeah i mean maybe if i made a similar joke about your editorial content being motivated by ad buys you'd shrug it off because you hear it constantly. but my point was kind of just that it's a shame that that's become such an obvious go-to speculation for people to make anytime they don't agree with a review, even in absence of any evidence or even plausibility.

it's a shame that that's become such an obvious go-to speculation for people to make anytime they don't agree with a review, even in absence of any evidence or even plausibility.

― some random MC rappin' mcdude (some dude), Thursday, August 2, 2012 8:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, honestly you have no idea. sigh.