October 15th, 2009 
James Shotwell Can you believe we’re a decade in to the new millenium? Sometimes it’s simply stunning how fast time flies when you take a second to look back. We at UTG decided that before we close the book on this decade, it would only be right to pay our respects to the albums that shaped our lives this past decade [which, for many of us, encapsulates nearly every year we’ve loved music]. However, to up the antey, we’ve invited all our closest friends to take part in looking back as well. So, without further ado, here is PART ONE of the lists we gathered between ourselves and our friends. Feel free to share your lists as well!
James Shotwell, Owner of Under The Gun Review
1.The Ataris – So Long Astoria [2003]
-In my mind, no other record has ever captured growing up in the
Midwest like this album Kris Roe and crew had a spark of genius when
they completed this gem. I actually bought the record on a whim over
“Love” by The Juliana Theory. To this day, that is the best purchase
decision I have ever made. I can’t count the number of notebooks and
social networking sites that have had some form a reference to this
record scribbled on it. It simply capsulizes the last decade of my
life perfectly. Also, their cover of “Boys of Summer” is simply
intoxicating and you can fight all you want, but you’ll never be able
to turn down that hook.
2. The Wonder Years – Won’t Be Pathetic Forever [2008]
– No other band or release can encapsulate being in your twenties in
the 2000’s and loving music as well as these guys. The line “chin up
and we’ll drown a little slower” might as well be carved into the
chests of all my friends.
3. Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends [2002]
-8 years and I still know every single word [as do all my friends].
4. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning [2005]
– If “The First Day of My Life” doesn’t make you smile, or “Road To
Joy” doesn’t inspire you to embrace who you are, then I think you may
honestly be without a soul.
5. Blink 182 – Self Titled
-Some may hate, but you can’t deny the awesome songwriting.
6. Matchbook Romance – Stories & Alibis [2003]
-The perfect break up album. Seriously, I can’t think of one
depressed period in my life that had to do with a girl in any way,
shape, or form that this album didn’t help me deal with. “Cuz I’m
ridiculous like that.”
7. Dashboard Confessional – The Places That You’ve Come To Fear The Most [2001]
– I never wanted to write music until I heard this record. Also, many
mark me hearing this record for the first time as the day I said
“goodbye” to hopes of ever being masculine.
8. Fall Out Boy – Take This To Your Grave [2003]
– I’m a male from the Midwest raised on pop culture. I was born to
listen to this album.
9. Eminem – The Eminem Show [2002]
-To me, this is the peak of Em’s intelligence. The wordplay is off the
charts and the beats all hold their own while working cohesively in
the context of the record.
10. Saves The Day – Stay What You Are [2001]
– I will never forget hearing “As Your Ghost Takes Flight” for the
first time and thinking it was the darkest song I’d ever
heard….which I then tried repeatedly to reproduce on my own.
11. Justin Timberlake – Future Sex, Love Sounds [2006]
– There is no denying him the pop crown, he is the new king. Every
song on here is platinum, heck, 3x platinum!
12. Ben Folds – Rockin The Suburbs [2001]
– I remember hearing the title track and being sold on the record, but
it wasn’t until I heard “The Luckiest” that I knew the true staying
power of this album.
13. Blink 182 – Take off Your Pants and Jacket [2001]
– The follow up to my favorite album of all time and, at the time, the
perfect soundtrack to teenage rebellion.
14. Bright Eyes – Lifted [2002]
– The album that made me think I too could be a famous musician with a
average [or below] vocal style. However, it took me years to realize
the impeccable songwriting and genius that this record holds. Even the
single [“Lover I Don’t Have To Love”] hasn’t aged.
15. Brave Saint Saturn – The Light of Things Hoped For [2003]
– The best side project of all time released one of the greatest
concept records I’ll ever hear. The sheer scale of this album is
breathtaking, yet handled as if it were a grain of sand. If you missed
this album, you missed 2003.
16. AFI – Sing The Sorrow [2003]
– “The Leaving Song Pt. 2,” need I say more? Every time this album
begins, I have to hear it until the end. There’s just something about
the flow of the album that no one can deny.
17. Say Anything – …Is A Real Boy [2004]
– Max Bemis, though a very special individual, makes everyone feel
like he feels just like them. It’s insane how well he can touch
everyone with a single line.
18. The Used – The Used [2002]
– I hated “Box of Sharp Objects,” but there was something so alluring
to “The Taste of Ink,” that I bought the album [or should I say my Mom
did for me] on a whim. Too bad the follow-ups never packed this much
ferocity. Even on the slow songs, you know there’s some deep, deep,
emotion being put out. Rarely will you ever hear a record as raw as
this that is as honest as this one manages to be.
19. Calibretto 13 – Enter The Danger Brigade
– This album introduced me to the world of folk punk and I never looked back.
20. La Dispute – Somewhere at The Bottom of the River Between Vega and
Altair [2008]
– They may be hometown heroes, but few records have gotten me through
as much as this one has. Sometimes it plays like the soundtrack to my
life and on others it’s the perfect soundtrack to a late night drive
with your friends.
21. Spoken – A Moment of Imperfect Clarity [2003]
– Simply one of the best rock albums I’ve ever heard
22. Jay-Z – The Black Album [2003]
– Never a dull moment and paced to the brim with the best wordplay to
come out of hip hop in a longtime.
23. Five Iron Frenzy – The End is Here [2004]
– Ska died for me the day this album came out. Reese Roper is the best
vocalist of all time.
24. The Forecast – In The Shadows of Two Gunmen [2006]
– I’ve spent more Summer nights listening to this album than I can
begin to tell you about. Makeouts, break ups, arguing, talking,
dreaming, and more have all had this as background music. I’ve gone
through a lot with this record.
25. The Gaslight Anthem – The 59′ Sound
– Something about the feeling this record leaves you with, it’s intoxicating.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
This album is perfection in music form. Listening to the mix of chaos and dissonance always leaves me wondering what is going through these musicians’ heads when they’re writing. More beautifully layered music rarely exists in comparison to Reality vs. Optimist. The world will soon see what they’re missing out on.
2. Chiodos – Bone Palace Ballet: Grand Coda (2008)
3. The Postal Service – Give Up (2003)
4. Emery – In Shallow Seas We Sail (2009)
5. Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism (2003)
6. Paramore – All We Know Is Falling (2005)
7. Death Cab For Cutie – Plans (2005)
8. The Strokes – Is This It (2001)
9. Chiodos – All’s Well That Ends Well (2005)
9. Armor For Sleep – What To Do When You Are Dead (2005)
10. As Tall As Lions – You Can’t Take It With You (2009)
11. Emery – The Weak’s End (2004)
12. Vedera – The Weight of An Empty Room (2005)
13. The Tastydactyls – Waking The Giants (2008)
14. They Were Stars – Own Your Atoms (2009)
15. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)
16. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)
17. Let’s Get It – Digital Spaces EP (2009)
18. The Used – The Used (2002)
19. Anberlin – Never Take Friendship Personal (2005)
20. Forever The Sickest Kids – Underdog Alma Mater (2008)
21. Taking Back Sunday – Where You Want To Be (2004)
22. Funeral For A Friend – Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation (2004)
23. Paramore – Riot (2007)
24. Maroon 5 – Songs About Jane (2002)
25. Panic! At The Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (2005)
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MC Lars
25.
2003 – Dizzee Rascal “Boy in da Corner”
24.
2005 – Sage Francis “A Healthy Distrust”
23.
2004 – Insane Clown Posse “Hell’s Pit”
22.
2003 – “Weird Al” Yankovic “Straight Outta Lynwood”
21.
2009 – K’Naan “Troubadour”
20.
2006 – E-40 “My Ghetto Report Card”
19.
2003 – Twiztid “The Green Book”
18.
2004 – Nirvana “With the Lights Out”
17.
2003 – King Missile III “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life”
16.
2004 – Bowling for Soup “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve”
15.
2001 – Aesop Rock “Labor Days”
14.
2009 – FaceOmeter “To Infintives Split”
13.
2002 – El-P “Fantastic Damage”
12.
2003 – Wesley Willis “Greatest Hits Volume 3”
11.
2000 – Grand Buffet “Sparkle Classic”
10.
2009 – 3Oh!3 “Want”
I’ll always be impressed by how the dudes who opened for us at Bamboozle Left in 2008 with nothing but beats on a CD player and a guy in a Winnie the Pooh costume went on to kick butt in the pop charts. Their awkward white-boy crunk emo electro fusion struck a nerve with the pop music world. This is post-punk laptop rap on crack and I give them props for writing and producing the right tracks and finding the right people to make them goofy badass international stars.
9.
2001 – Wheatus “Wheatus”
“Teenage Dirtbag” was one of my first girlfriend and my theme songs. We’d put it on mixtapes for eachother and sing along to it in my car. Our story kind of followed this song’s story – I didn’t think she’d like me, we met randomly when it turned out she was just as quirky as me, and our first date was to the Monterey Jazz Festival.
In 2007, I went on tour with Wheatus in the UK and ended up befriending their lead singer Brendan. We worked on a bunch of songs together, including “True Player for Real”, that made my last solo record and featured “Weird Al” on accordion. It’s funny how circular life can be.
8.
2002 – Atmosphere “God Loves Ugly”
The summer after my freshman year in college, I worked at a camp near Lake Tahoe for Stanford alumni and their families. I found this CD at a small independent record store in South Lake Tahoe. It was playing on the stereo in the shop.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s some underground Minneapolis hip-hop,” the snowboarding dude working at the store told me. “Check it out.”
I loved the lo-fi production, the honestly, and the lyrics I could relate to. It was hip-hop I understood, “F$&* You Lucy” was a great way for me to deal with breaking up with my first girlfriend a few months before that summer, and I loved how real and effortlessly produced the songs seemed.
I saw Atmosphere with MURS at a warehouse show in San Jose when I got back to college. They set up a janky PA and Slug was on fire that night. He was climbing on the monitors, spitting lyrics and putting on a dynamite show to a small group of Bay Area misfits who were early on the Rhymesayers train.
“You like underground hip-hop?” a cute girl asked me when we were waiting to get in.
“Yeah, I’m actually an MC” I told her. That was the first time I’d ever admitted that to anyone I didn’t know. Slug made me a player.
7.
2003 – Brand New “Deja Entendu”
Hadn’t heard of them until my second manager, Tom Gates, hit me up after he’d heard “Radio Pet Fencing”. He sent me a copy of their CD after I saw them live at the Great American Music Hall with him that November when he was in San Francisco.
They made a lot of money from well-produced emo songs. Kids LOVE this band, and I’ll always associate this CD with how having the right songs on MTV and the right machine behind you lining up can turn four mopey Long Island teenagers into icons for a well promoted movement. High five.
6.
2004- Eyedea & Abilities “E&A”
“Now” is such a mind blowing song. I met Eyedea in 2002 when he was touring on his “Oliver Heart” record, at a small club in Gilroy where fifteen people came to hear him rap.
“Does anyone live in this shitty town?” he said.
He toured his ass off and made great records. “Hi Lars,” he wrote on the CD I bought that night. “This statement is a lie.” Deeeep….
5.
2005 – Weerd Science “Friends and Nervous Breakdowns”
As I finished up my final quarter at Stanford in the summer of 2005, I listened to the Weerd Science record. The day after I turned in my last paper, I went camping in Yosemite with my Aunt and Uncle. I listened to this album the whole ride over there. I will always associate it with finishing college.
“I have a degree” I kept reminding myself as I drove through the mountains. “I’m done! Now I can make awesome hip-hop like this all day and night.”
4.
2006 – Zion I & the Grouch “Heroes in the City of Dope”
A girl I was dating from the UK spent the holidays in Carmel with me in the winter of 2006. We hung out and went to see the Zion I & the Grouch show at the Catalyst. It was fantastic. I met the whole crew at SXSW this year, because they’re friends with K.Flay. Everything these guys do is fantastic, they’re working on the next CD right now.
3.
2007 – Tegan & Sara “The Con”
I remember driving with my parents to Long Island and listening to this album in the car, crying silently in the back seat. We spent the weekend in the Hamptons with family friends while I was beginning to date a girl from the Northwest who was working in upstate New York that summer while I was writing songs with Wheatus in Northport.
I knew that while I was falling in love with this tattooed Northwestern college girl, it wasn’t going to last because we were much much too different. I explain what went wrong in my rap on “Single and Famous.” The Tegan & Sara record is about how relationships never last, and that basically every passionate romance becomes co-opted by reality along the way.
I was a mess that summer, because I was head over heels for this girl. I put a lot of faith in something that was ultimately doomed, eventually moving in with her against all of my friends and family’s better advice. Financial stress made it so she couldn’t afford to live in California anymore, and when she didn’t get into grad school and her dog hurt its foot, we knew our relationship couldn’t last through all of the insanity and chaos.
When I went to the UK with the Aquabats this spring, I never knew when she drove me to the airport that morning that it would be the last time I’d ever see her. “Letting go,” was the subject of the break-up email she sent after my concert in Glasgow. I cried all the way to London in the van with the Aquabats, burying my head in my arms so no one would suspect anything. How can you be a crybaby in front of the Aquabats? Over a girl? Please. I came back to my apartment and all of her stuff was gone. I had to take her giant dresser to the dump with my Dad.
This album still makes me sad today. Maybe in another universe we could have worked out, if her dog hadn’t hurt himself and she had gotten into grad school and had been able to get a better job in San Francisco. But I wasn’t about to move to Seattle for someone who got mad at me every time I had to be up late working on music or didn’t want to constantly hear about her family drama. Recently, my wonderful ex-girlfriend ended up putting a bunch of art I drew for her and shirts I gave her on eBay as a response to the “Single and Famous” video. She even auctioned off a journal my Mom bought her for Christmas in 2007, misspelled as a journal from “MC Lar’s Mom.” A class act till the end.
I met Tegan at Comic-Con last year.
2.
2008 – Hollywood Undead “Swan Songs”
Yes, they’re a gimmick, but you can’t go wrong with great choruses courtesy of Linkn Park’s producer mixed with hard-hitting rap beats. This album is pure fun – every song is catchy, even if the outro on “Young” has the exact same melody as Atom & His Package’s “Metrics” song. These guys know a hook when they hear one.
1.
2000 – Eminem “The Marshall Mathers LP”
Like everyone, I thought he spelt his name M&M when he first came out. I first read abut him in an article in Rolling Stone, months before his major label debut dropped, where they talked about how he was going to change hip-hop forever. He did.
I will always associate this album with a girl I had a crush on, who I told right before she graduated and I was still a Junior in high school how much I liked. Then my first girlfriend I met dancing to “The Real Slim Shady” at the first school dance of my senior year. I loved the vitriol and the melodies and the rhymes and the flows. “Kim” still gives me chills today. What an amazing album.
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Mark Bubb, Atticus
Top 25 most important albums to Mark Bubb this past decade. (AKA – The musical styling of a small town boy, industry employee, and future music mogul…..and all around sweet dude.)
25 Dead to Fall – Everything I touch Falls to Pieces
STAY TUNED AS ADDITIONAL LISTS WILL BE POSTED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!
STAY TUNED AS ADDITIONAL LISTS WILL BE POSTED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!
STAY TUNED AS ADDITIONAL LISTS WILL BE POSTED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!
STAY TUNED AS ADDITIONAL LISTS WILL BE POSTED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!
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Thank god Mark included Full Collapse right there at the end – I was getting pissed. I mean, seriously.
[…] post is from here. Visit the link to read more.I never wanted to write music until I heard this record. Also, many […]
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