It was a painful breakup and it was fueled by painful breakup music. It was perfecting loneliness. It was online friends because I'd alienated all my physical friends. Not discounting said online friends, and if any of you are reading this you were amazing at helping me fight my way through this. It got better. But 2002 was a tough year for me. Not that I should have let that get to me, I was in fact very lucky in all ways except that crucial one way.
Not that it was terrible the whole time. It was a turbulent year with ups and downs, just as the breakup I went through had its on and off points, and I still owe that girl a lot for what she did for me musically. In addition to getting me into some of the crucial emo-esque-whatever bands of the time, she insisted and fought me until I accepted the art of hip hop. So here in 2002 we have the first hip hop album I bought, my favorite hip hop album for the longest time, and even today it stands amongst my favorites.
It came about because I went with her to see Jurassic 5. They were pretty darn cool. Even in 2002 when they were collaborating with Nelly Furtado. Looking at the lineup, there were some cool looking openers and I was curious about this group called Blackalicious. I found my way upon this track they had done called "Chemical Calisthenics."
Blackalicious "Chemical Calisthenics"
This song right here was undeniable proof of the presence of talent in hip hop (yeah yeah, baby steps). Incredible talent. And braininess. Smarts. Cleverness. Uniqueness. Everything I thought I knew about this art form was turned on its head because of this song. A nerdy song about chemistry. With different movements and melodies incorporated. Eventually I picked up the album. Blazing Arrow. I still remember going to a record store somewhere in Boulder (I don't think it's there anymore, it was down 28th by where Barnes & Noble was somewhere I think) and picking it up. And listening to it in my car. And becoming obsessed. This was a hip hop album that was immersive and contained, a statement rather than a selection of songs, but something that flowed throughout, in a way I previously credited to the highest honored rock groups like Fugazi. This was an opus. It sampled Harry Nilsson! And had PASSION! And politics and brains and SO MUCH SOUL. And it introduced me to Saul Williams on the epic hip hop track (!!) called "Release." It not only became my immediate favorite hip hop album (not a challenge at the time since it was my only hip hop album, but it remained my favorite hip hop album for years and push come to shove it might still be) but one of my favorite albums of all time. I just can't get over it. It is everything.
So hip hop was entering my consciousness. The Streets were getting started with Original Pirate Material, full of great beats and an interesting perspective on the genre. The Roots took some interesting turns on Phrenology. And oh boy, Talib Kweli. Quality is the other indisputable classic hip hop album of 2002. The lyricism is dazzling, the way he weaves stories and social commentary through classic beats is phenomenal. To me, this is where it feels that Kanye West as a producer really established himself. Sure, that Jay-Z album sounds great. But the songs he does on this album are just unbeatable. "Get By" and "Gorilla Monsoon Rap" are earworms/bangers/everything. And Kweli just makes them so thoughtful and perfect.
Another of my favorite albums of all time doesn't particularly hold a resonance tying itself to my personal life (and I don't think I got into it until it was a couple years old), but nonetheless has been a personal favorite and something I can always rely on to lift my spirits and get my brain working is High Society by Enon. This album is all over the place, hitting so many sounds, but hitting them all right on the head. It feels smart to me but wholly entertaining. This song says it all: Less pop, more fizz.
Enon "Carbonation"
There was a good beat here though, which segues nicely into the other thing that was slowly developing for me. Dance music. Lots of bands I liked started taking this turn toward the dance floor and over the next 2 years I'd discover my own internal lord of the dance which would kind of change my life eventually. Q and Not U were one of these bands. Different Damage seemed like something entirely different and new for a math rock esque band to tackle and I loved it.
And lots of the greatest hits of Lipgloss (the premier indie dance night of Denver) of 2004-5 (when I would go) came out in '02, it turns out. The famous Junior Senior's D-D-Don't Stop the Beat was out and LCD Soundsystem's early single "Losing My Edge" took name dropping to a new, acceptable level. Ladytron was more electronic than most of what I'd listened to but were very catchy. Interpol...I used to think they were famous and crappy but I probably just had them mixed up with someone else. At Lipgloss I enjoyed them. And Hot Hot Heat! "Bandages" was definitely my jam to dance to.
The first new Elvis Costello album that came out when I was closely following him (i.e. getting all the deluxe reissues of all of his back catalog) was When I Was Cruel. Such a great breakup album, full of bold experiments in song structure. Such a perfect album for me to become obsessed with. It combined my budding love of his cynical lyrics and my interest in the abstract and the weird. I just loved that such a respectable artist, a good quarter century into his career, was doing such exciting and weird things while keeping with the spirit of his whole career.
One of my best memories of 2002 was April 20, 2002. The school put on a show to get us kids doing other stuff besides getting stoned because I went to CU Boulder and that was pretty much the thing to do on 4/20. I was not interested in any of that though, and it turned out to just be a great excuse to bring The Lawrence Arms to town! I had just gotten a video camera and my dorm was approximately a block away, so my friend Greg and I decided to go ask Brendan (of said Lawrence Arms) if it would be cool if I video taped their set. He said that would be fine. And I was going to get up to the front to get a good angle with my camera when he brought us back stage to talk to the band and then had us posted on the side of the stage for the duration of the show. It was hard not to dance around and scream along to all of of the words. Anyway, great time. It was right after Apathy & Exhaustion came out, which was kind of a pinnacle achievement for the band. They had just moved over to Fat Wreck Chords and I was worried the sound would be influenced by the label (I'd previously made fun of the fact that all Fat bands sounded just like NOFX, and similarly favorite band Alkaline Trio took a bit of a nosedive when they moved labels), but it was really just an extension of the sound they'd developed on "the splits" that I've mentioned in previous posts here. In fact, as much as they change from album to album, the smallest change they ever made between two albums was this one, the one time they moved record labels. As far as the songs themselves go, Brendan's got increasingly philosophical in their crass self deprecation, and Chris' just got more personal and closer and closer to my own heart. This was emphasized by the song "Brick Wall Views," which I took as my AIM screen name as I drifted away from my ex girlfriend and needed someone to understand. I felt like this song understood me. Which made it even more amazing on April 20 at that show, because Brendan dedicated that very song to "these guys over here, to Greg and Brandon."
The Lawrence Arms "Brick Wall Views"
Of all the shows I saw with Greg in these days, one local band seemed to open up every damn time. Laymen Terms. To where we learned the songs and became pretty big fans. Still not the best of that crop, but they had a few good jams that took me back when I heard them.
Brian Moss of The Wunder Years had a new band called The Ghost, and they released their debut album This Is A Hospital to much acclaim among me and a couple friends. It took the sound of The Wunder Years and put more heave behind it, oozing with passion and stuff.
What really defined me in these days, or maybe this was more 2003 and 2004 but the album came out in 2002, was Perfecting Loneliness by Jets to Brazil. This came out after all my friends talked about Orange Rhyming Dictionary being so great and Four Cornered Night being disappointing. It didn't seem like anyone was talking about Perfecting Loneliness. But what a title! I found the vinyl in some sort of clearance rack, I hadn't heard of a third Jets to Brazil album so I picked it up. And I put it on with much frequency. For the longest time I only had it on vinyl and I still listened to it more than most other music I had access to. Living in a small house by myself, putting this on lonely Friday nights when I had nothing to do but stay inside, this made it feel okay. "Thank God for no phone calls."
Jets to Brazil "Further North"
Other Things About Things:
- Early Iron & Wine was something special and intimate.
- For some reason even though I skipped an album by Reel Big Fish and was totally over them by now, I got Cheer Up! and it was the right thing to do at the time. Even though I did not want to cheer up, the album hit home in a surprisingly strong way. And the closing track "Drunk Again" has gone on to be one of my favorite self pity songs of all due to lyrics like "If I had a dollar bill for every time I've been wrong, I'd be a self-made millionaire and you'd still be gone..."
- Speaking of ska that still ska'd my world, MU330's Ultra Panic cemented the band as something beyond my 90s ska phase. The personal, thoughtful lyrics on "Speed Bump" and "Hey Now" still resonate.
- Similarly, Slow Gherkin's Run Screaming made them a ska band to grow on. "Baby Snakes" spoke to me pretty intimately.
- Desaparecidos were the only way I could handle Conor Oberst at the time. Overtly political and too loud to notice the whiny vocals? Yes please!
- I just recently got Title TK by The Breeders. Nice record!
- Stephin Merritt's Eban & Charley soundtrack was lovely enough, but it includes one of my (many I guess) favorite Merritt compositions, "This Little Ukulele." One of those simple songs that seemed like it should have been put together before 2002 A.D. but we finally got it and it's an instant classic.
- Dntel with Ben Gibbard = the beginnings of a certain Postal Service...oh boy!
- Jim O'Rourke did a lot of good for the music world in 2002. He brought Sonic Youth to sound a little bit more like Wilco on Murray Street, and he made Wilco sound a little bit like Sonic Youth on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Both of these albums are bonafide indie classics.
- I went and saw Cursive this past month on their Ugly Organ tour. That album was from 2003 and I'll talk about it plenty in the next entry I'm sure. But on the way to the show, on shuffle for 2002, I was fortunate enough to have their split with Eastern Youth come on. One of their best uses of cello, the song "Excerpts from Various Notes Strewn Around the Bedroom of April Connolly Feb 24, 1997" came on and I remembered it being one of my favorite Cursive tunes. They played that one at the show and I was one of the few people rocking out to it, which was weird because it's one of their best but I guess that split is less well known than their full length albums.
- Some real indie stuff was getting started in 2002, bands that would hit their peak in popularity in the era of 2005-2007, when I was at my peak in listening to bands like that. Mirah, Deerhoof, Spoon (the official beginning of their Midas phase which is still going on??), some Neko Case, Decemberists, The Mountain Goats, and more!
- Flaming Lips. Yoshimi. Do you Realize?? Do I need to say anything more?
- Heiruspecs became a favorite hip hop live band that I happened to see a few times. Their next album was better though so I'll try to talk about them when that comes up.
- Beck on Sea Change was a new Beck but it really showcased that he was more than fun beats and fun tricks...
- For more mainstream hip hop, Missy Elliot nailed it on Under Construction.
- Johnny Cash's American Recordings comeback became very real to me (and probably many others) on American IV: The Man Comes Around. The first one I got personally, the one I probably listen to the most, is probably the most vital of the era, and of course it has his cover of "Hurt" which needs no other words.
- I had a recording of the CU Marching Band doing all the songs we did that previous fall. I think I could kind of hear that great trombone player known to readers as Quiet Brandon, but who knows because he was probably pretty quiet.
Alkaline Trio kind of redeem themselves to me! Beulah finishes up. Black Eyes are amazing. Classic Calexico! Deerhoof/Decemberists/Dirty Projectors for a trio of D. The Black Album!! Another great Lawrence Arms classic! I go pretentious with The Mars Volta & Radiohead! Speakerboxx/The Love Below! Another Polysics album to go down in history! Something called The Postal Service. Michigan. The debut EP from TV On The Radio!! Elephant is something classic I think! And another indisputable classic album by Weird Al.
