and I'll throw these out there:





Unfortunately, Jude never really got the attention that "Rick James" garnered the album before.

Just 192k...sorry.

RIYL: Low, slow stuff



best album by this SF "alt-country" band



some great songs on here



Still one of my favorites from him

this was a pretty good year. a number of other good albums I didn't mention and ones mentioned so far

What's this?




Here's something that hasn't been mentioned yet. I gotta say, I still like their first three albums:


Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album

goddamn great year, so many I picked up later as I became bigger fans of the band (i.e. Destroyer)

I don't have much to offer this year, especially with what's already been posted. Here's a couple off the beaten path though; both brutal in their own way:

Nice choices.

That C&S was only equaled by their follow up Witch Season.

Bambi Molesters - Sonic Bullets: 13 From the Hip

Lux Interior called this Croatian band the best surf frock group in the world at the time of this release and it's a pretty hard sentiment to argue against when you take a listen to this, my favorite of their albums. Lots of twang and reverb, but not one of those surf records where you hear one song and the rest just follows suit. There's a variety to both the structure, pacing and instrumentation throughout with a few vocal tracks tossed in that are sung in a variety of languages. For my money, this is one of the top records of this genre ever.

The Handsome Family: Twilight

My second favorite Handsome family record, which still puts it pretty high on my list of records. This is probably the most traditionally structured record they've put out, which isn't a slight on it at all. It's full of their typically moody oddball lyrics tossed over Americana and country sounds. Death and desperation abound while the music just rambles on.

Ike Reilly: Salesmen & Racists

One of those records I learned about here and am very glad I did. A bit of a mishmash of styles on this one, I find this to be by far Ike's best record and the one with the most diverse influences musically. Lyrically, it's alternately gritty and funny with wit and dirtball charm. Probably the record I have listened to most of anything I've heard of first at Obner.

O hell yes.

*edit* Jogged my memory for this:



Willard Grant Conspiracy~ Everything's Fine

Typically noirish and moody overall, Ballad of John Parker and Drunkard's Prayer show Fisher at his best. Also, a good assemblage of players for the ever-changing "band" known as WGC.

One of their better late-period albums. The cleaner production here actually sharpens Pollard's hooks, and songs like "Chasing Heather Crazy" and "Glad Girls" can be called "shoulda been radio hits" with absolutely no trace of irony. Of course, there are the occasional tossed-off throwaway tunes here and there. And in a crisp, clean production like this one, unlike on their lo-fi classics , where they added to the atmosphere, those actually stop the momentum of what could have been a truly great album. As it stands now, it's just a pretty good one with a couple of outstanding singles.

Great record.



YES.




My 2nd favorite album of this year. Sometimes I think this is my favorite Fugazi album.

I reallly like that Fugazi album too. Might be my favorite album of theirs as a whole. Although, some of the other albums have stronger songs on them.

Pelt - Ayahuasca

Great record. I never tire of it. Top 25 of the decade



Not my favorite Farrar solo record, but still very good.



Brill Bldg pop never sounded so good.



Two records before his arrangements began to sound somewhat overwrought and his Judy Garland fascination began. Still, the Rufus record I like most



Still my favorite Dylan record of the 00's

....as well as.....

+1 - guided by voices
+1 - ike reilly
+1 - willard grant conspiracy
+1 - matt ward
+1 - gorky's zygotic mynci
+1 - court & spark
+1 - dbt

Good call. I used to really like this album a lot. It didn't survive a change of computers a couple of years ago and I haven't listen to in a long time.

That Chamber Strings:
I knew that I was forgetting something major. Great record. I revisit it frequently and love it every time.

Absolutely on the Jim White- forgot about when that one came out. I'm the same way, never get tired of it. Also the Farrar, but kind of in the same place- not his best work, but to me, that means still better than tons of shit out there floating around.

Dylan- still swimming against the tide, but don't have much, if any, use for it. Ditto the Wainwright.

I have one Pelt album, Empty Bell Ringing in the Sky, that was released in 2000. Good drone record that I never really listen to anymore, but it almost got my wife to break up with me when we were dating. One time she was taking a nap in my bedroom while I was sitting in the living room playing video games or reading or something while listening to this album, and she woke up and heard it playing and was so creeped out and disturbed by it that she got kind of pissed off at me for listening to it. Like she thought I must be mentally ill to listen to something like that or that I was somehow incapable of realizing how creepy it sounded. I think she was just in a bad mood.

Anyway, that reminds me of a couple of things.

The whole "New Weird America" thing (which eventually gave way to the more mainstream/indie "freak folk" fad) was well underway at this time, and these are two of the best albums of that whole thing:


Jackie-O Motherfucker - Liberation


No-Neck Blues Band - Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Names Will Never Hurt Me

Both kind of droney, improvisation-based records drawing from the folk traditions of early 20th Century Americana. Of the two I prefer Liberation - and JOMF is a much better and more consistent band overall than NNCK - but Sticks and Stones isn't far behind. Both and ramshackle, junkyard-style recordings full of clanging and clattering percussion and ragged, ambling guitars. I love this period of JOMF, along with the previous album Fig. 5 and the soon-to-come Change because they incorporate more propulsive Krautrock and fiery free jazz elements than their later stuff and most of their previous works. NNCK just being kind of a hit or miss proposition in general, this is easily one of their best records.

I loved that NNCK. Man, its been ages since I've listened to either them or JOMF. Probably since college. I'd be curious if I would still have the same fondness for them now as I did back then.

I still listen to JOMF pretty often, and I like the last several records they've put out.

Haven't listened to that NNCK in a really long time, though. The last album of theirs that I listened to was Quvaris, which was actually really good.

I've never heard that Jim White album. Someone up it.

Still my favorite album of the 00s and (IMHO) hard rock's ultimate combination of musicianship and wisdom:




For those that remember the Obner mix Dalen put together in 2008, my submission was from an '01 release.



Ben Allison & Medicine Wheel
"Riding the Nuclear Tiger"
Riding the Nuclear Tiger
Palmetto Records, 2001

I'll put Jim White in the box this afternoon, Loogs.

Has anybody mentioned Beechwood Sparks' Once We Were Trees? I wore that fucker out that year.