Yeah I could change mine some. Not really worth the effort yet.

i still like my list. i'd probably add in rainbows, neon bible, myth takes and 2008's hot chip album, dropping keane, a ghost is born, wrens and pneumonia, i guess. 2009 entries that could make it are from animal collective and the decemberists. i'd lower both hail to the thief and amnesiac.

1. Gimme Fiction - Spoon
2. Room on Fire - The Strokes
3. White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
4. Alligator - The National
5. Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady
6. Funeral For a Friend - The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
7. Libertines- Libertines
8. Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings of Leon
9. The End is Near - The New Year
10. Salesman and Racists - Ike Reilly Assasination
11. The Dirty South - The Drive By Truckers
12. The College Dropout - Kanye West
13. Sha Sha - Ben Kweller
14. A Ghost is Born - Wilco
15. Okemah and the Melody of Riot - Son Volt
16. Conversations with the Unseen - Soweto Kinch
17. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins
18. That Much Farther West - Lucero
19. Okonokos - My Morning Jacket
20. The Van Lear Rose - Lorretta Lynn
21. lp - Ambulance LTD
22. Lifted or the Story is... - Bright Eyes
23. Young Criminal Starvation League - Bobby Bare Jr.
24. Castaways and Cutouts - The Decemberists
25. Yoko - Beulah
26. thickfreakness - The Black Keys
27. Consolers of the Lonely - The Raconteurs
28. Feast of Wife - Calexico
29. Guitar Romantic - The Exploding Hearts
30. Brighter than Creation's Dark - The Drive By Truckers

But I left a TON of stuff out that I could have easily put in.

huh. i guess i missed this.

1. The National - Boxer


the rest TBD

this'd be under consideration if i expanded from 30 (which i'll probably end up doing once 2009 is over).

I would have to add Girls and Boys in America, and a Spoon album, most likely GA GA GA GA GA, and one of The National, most likely Alligator. Malin, Thrills and Old 97s, Josh Rouse and Ryan Adams probably get bumped by the recency effect.

The White Stripes White Blood Cells
Modest Mouse The Moon and Antarctica
Spoon Girls Can Tell
The New Year Newness Ends
Beulah The Coast is Never Clear
Arcade Fire Funeral
British Sea Power The Decline of British Sea Power
Built to Spill You In Reverse
The Notwist Neon Golden
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Low Things We Lost in the Fire
The Constantines Shine a Light
The Shins Chutes too Narrow
Joe Strummer & the Mesaclaros Streetcore
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Lyre of Orpheus...
Luna Romantica
Songs Ohia Magnolia Electric Co.
Unwound Leaves Turn Inside Out
...and You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead Source Tags & Codes
Stephen Malkmus Stephen Malkmus
Mark Lanegan Bubblegum
The National Boxer
Spoon Gimme Fiction
Pinback Summer in Abaddon
Bloc Party Silent Alarm
David Kilgour Frozen Orange
PJ Harvey Stories from the City...
Songs Ohia Didn't it Rain
Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights
The Dandy Warhols 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia


Wow, that was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be.

1. guided by voices "isolation drills"
2. chamber strings "month of sundays"
3. drive by truckers "brighter than creation's dark"
4. the dirtbombs "ultraglide in black"
5. the new pornographers "twin cinema"
6. the waxwings "low to the ground"
7. the hold steady "stay positive"
8. webb brothers "maroon"
9. starlight mints "the dream that stuff was made of"
10. wilco "sky blue sky"
11. doves "lost souls"
12. super furry animals "rings around the world"
13. the shazam "godspeed the shazam"
14. brendan benson "lapalco"
15. ween "white pepper"
16. white stripes "white blood cells"
17. sloan "never hear the end of it"
18. pernice brothers "live a little"
19. burning brides "fall of the plastic empire"
20. lucky bishops "s/t"
21. beulah "the coast is never clear
22. neko case "blacklisted"
23 frank black "show me your tears"
24. the paybacks "knock loud"
25. the bitter little cider apples "still"
26. the flaming lips "yoshimi battles the pinks robots"
27. champale "simple days"
28. the hives "veni vidi vicious"
29. ruby cruiser "twelve short stories"
30. moods for moderns "loud & clear"

Missed this the first time around I think. I'll put some thought into it...

Should make my top 10

That Chamber Strings should've made my list.

01. white stripes - white blood cells
02. brian wilson - smile
03. chumbawamba - a singsong and a scrap
04. the ergs! - dorkrockcorkrod
05. a/v club - s/t
06. clem snide - ghost of fashion
07. of montreal - satanic panic in the attic
08. kung fu monkeys - schools out, surfs up, let's fall in love
09. new pornographers - electric version
10. damone - from the attic
11. hunchback - ugly on the outside
12. sigur ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
13. pidgeon - from gutter with love
14. dear nora - we'll have a time
15. weakerthans - left and leaving
16. neil halstead - sleeping on roads
17. andrew wk - i get wet
18. rjd2 - deadringer
19. doug martsch - now you know
20. tullycraft - surf beat fun OR Disenchanted Hearts Unite
21. kid koala - carpal tunnel syndrome
22. bishop allen - charm school
23. dirt bike annie - show us your demons
24. lesser birds of paradise - string of bees
25. mountain goats - we shall all be healed
26. x-ecutioners - scratchology
27. akron family - love is simple
28. lemuria - get better

edited and updated, with room to spare! i'll admit, some of these i haven't listened to since the last time i made this list. maybe i need to revisit.

someone else put the Webb Brothers Maroon on their list. it might make mine.

Unlike most of you, I actually grew up in the 2000s, and it was pretty fucking boring. A fair whack of good music, but no one really had a lot to say. I don't think you guys realise how conservative everyone my age actually is.

As a kid from Northern Australia (the rough equivalent of the American South) and transplanted to "the city" midway through the decade, I was and continue to be completely baffled by the dominance of transient indie rock, the lack of heroin-fueled masculinity and swagger in rock and roll (most bands these days would get a pint preemptively crushed into their face just for walking into a pub in my snake-hole of a hometown), and every female's complete inability to even attempt to dance to anything not staunchly resembling 4/4 electro (again, all fun and good, but none of it's ending up on any album list). Maybe it's just because it's happening now and I'm yearning for some mythical nostalgic bullshit, but what the fuck.

I liked a lot of shit along the way, but not a whole lot has really stuck, and the stuff that did has been mostly the really popular stuff anyway. And I still want that first Strokes record to go a little harder.

I think with the overwhelming diversity of this decade, I could more easily approach a singles list, 'cause it's pretty much come full circle and we are back in the age of the single.

I can't really do 30, and this list even bores the shit out of me, but:

1. The Drones - Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By...

2. The National - Boxer

3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus

4. The Strokes - Is This It

5. Grinderman - Grinderman

6. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

7. T.I. - King

8. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R

9. Gerling - When Young Terrorists Chase The Sun

10. Sleepy Jackson - Lovers

11. Tindersticks - Waiting for the Moon

I agree with this.

aka the lack of put-on bullshit and idol emulation

We share 4 albums out right and I haven't heard your #s 1, 3, 5, 9 &11.

But when you look to that whole wax nostalgic thing...you get to the heart of why I spent the better half of the 90s listening to Stones records.

Every era someone grows up in SUCKS, especially compared to the last one. Wasn't it Kingfish's dad who said Little Anthony killed rock and roll and everything after Chuck Berry was in jail was essentially BS.

It's like the opposite of Dumpjack's Recency Effect.

Animal Collective's schtick is not "put-on bullshit?" What do you consider a grown-man calling himself "Panda Bear?"

I think every era possess some serious crap, some more than others obviously ('67-'73 is pretty unbelievable in terms of quality) but I think there's always great swaggering rock or otherwise interesting music to be found that will restore your faith again. For me I remember hearing Diamond Dogs for the first time and couldn't believe these guys weren't bigger or at least more well known even within our small musical blogircles.

The difference is pretty clear.

Animal Collective is a theatrical band. A spectacle, to a degree. There's nothing inherently dishonest or pretentious about that, actually. Panda Bear isn't trying to convince you that he's an actual panda bear. Nor is he concerned about putting up any kind of macho, "dangerous" front. Aside from pseudonyms, there really is no front put up with Animal Collective. They write pretty confessional, off-the-cuff (though not really good) lyrics, and they make the kind of music that they want to hear. You might call it "weird for the sake of weird", but it really isn't that weird, especially not now, and it's reflective of a lot of modern trends in indie and pop music from the past 20 or so years. Essentially what the guys heard growing up, what they like now, and what they try to add of their own. Period. I don't think they've ever claimed to be reinventing music.

There's a limit to how much I'll defend them these days. Yes, their lyrics can be pretty bad. For me, their music used to get a lot of mileage out of ambiguity and mystery, and now that that's gone for the most part, I find that I'm less inclined to want to spend time with it. It does feel a little shallow, but I do believe that they're doing their best to make music that's enjoyable and meaningful to them.

What's Pete Dougherty done lately?

Peter is sober and released a fairly low-key album. I kind of miss the music he made when he was teetering around on the brink of disaster, which has fueled a lot of interesting music in the past.

I think all rock'n'roll is a "spectacle, to a degree." Reg-rock included.

Pete - he's released a mind-numbing bore of an album.

Yeah, in the past.

I think that's what Mick was bemoaning. Where have our junkie poets gone?