A Few of Our Favorite Things from '03
John Sewell
Drive By Truckers, Decoration Day
Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Hearts Of Oak
US Maple, Purple On Time
Enon, Hocus Pocus
The Strokes, Room On Fire
The Libertines, Up The Bracket
Oranges Band, All Around
Jan Jelinek/Avec, The Exposures, La Nouvelle Pauvrete
Honorable mentions go to Gillian Welch, Iggy Pop, Buzzcocks, Cex, A.R.E. Weapons, Scene Creamers, Kings Of Leon, Lucinda Williams, Peaches...
I guess the first five really ARE my top five. But wow. Whatta great year! I hope things keep on like this. I dunno, really, music is the only thing in life that's never let me down. It's just the greatest thing ever.
Jodie Manross' Top 5 concerts:
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Bijou Theatre, Oct. 17
The Roots and Robert Randolph on Halloween at Vanderbuilt University in Nashville (the Roots dressed up as Kiss!—very surreal)
Radiohead in Atlanta, Oct. 6
Jurassic Five at Blue Cats, July 15
Tie between: Rusted Root at Blue Cats (and getting to open for them on my birthday was really cool!), Aug. 15; and Ben Vereen performing with KSO Pops at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Feb. 15
Ashley Capps
Outkast, Speakerboxx/The Love Below: I think everyone loves this CD and for good reason.
Bjork, Live Box: Four CDs plus a DVD documenting a decade of live performances and some startlingly strong and creative re-casting of her music.
Prince, One Night Alone: So good it's sick...when I'm listening to this, I'm pretty convinced that Prince has the best band in the world. And he plays a mean guitar.
Radiohead, Hail to the Thief:'Nuff said.
Todd Steed and the Suns of Sphere, Knoxville Tells: A great CD that, to my ears, stands above any "indie rock" release I've heard all year. Great songs and performances. Even better, it's about my favorite town.
Josh Staunton
The Jayhawks Rainy Day Music: Gary Louris is in top songwriting form...a beautiful must-have for any alt-country fan.
Television Marquee Moon: There is no need to explain where this album belongs in the canon of rock music...remastered with great bonus tracks, so trade in your old copy!
The Postal Service Give Up: The surprise of the year. Death Cab for Cutie over bouncy techno beats? Trust me, it works.
Nada Surf Let Go: These guys were responsible for "Popular." You wouldn't even know this was the same band. Let Go is AMAZING.
Outkast Speakerboxx/The Love Below: Just when you think hip-hop is dead, Outkast raise it to a new level. Andre 3000 is nearing genius status.
Jesse Fox Mayshark
Five crunk delights from a year of great Southern hip-hop:
"The Way You Move"/ "Hey Ya!"—OutKast (Best Band in the World, in case you're keeping score)
"Get Low"—Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins (it's the "skeet skeet skeet" that does it)
"She Tried" by Bubba Sparxxx (what you—and Kid Rock—always imagined country-rap would sound like)
"Stand Up"—Ludacris (when he moves you move, just like that)
"Bush"—David Banner (most direct and brutal hip-hop assault on the president, in a year full of them)
Four for the future:
"Jus a Rascal"—Dizzee Rascal (ridiculous, manic, maybe even visionary British hip-hop from the year's freshest voice — and he's only 19)
"South is Only a Home"/ "Up in the North"—The Fiery Furnaces (just a sister and brother from Brooklyn by way of Chicago, with obvious debts to Patti Smith and others—but song for song, I'll take them over the Strokes/Rapture/Yeah Yeah Yeahs/etc.)
"P.I.M.P."—50 Cent (the album's patchy, but the singles are great—the new king of New York)
"Get Busy"—Sean Paul (best song on a 2002 album full of 2003 singles—Jamaican dancehall's latest top 40 ambassador)
Three reasons Jay-Z ruled 2003:
"Beware of the Boys"—Panjabi MC feat. Jay-Z (hardly the first experiment with bhangra hip-hop, but Panjabi's hook plus Jay's anti-war verse made it one of the most audacious things on the radio)
"Crazy in Love"—Beyonce feat. Jay-Z (you wouldn't know from this that they've actually kissed, much less gone all the way—Jay, try sounding interested!—but the best brass(y) horn(y) hook of the year anyway)
"99 Problems"—Jay-Z (he's got 99 problems and a bitch ain't one — are you listening, Beyonce?)
Two non-Eminem-related reasons to love Detroit:
"Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine"—White Stripes (but Jack White does, oh does he ever)
"Meet Me By the Water"—Saturday Looks Good to Me (Fred Thomas does too —a spectral indie-Motown fantasy that dissolves before your ears)
One song about love by two people who knew what it meant:
"Temptation"—June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash (when you hear Johnny sing "Ring-a-ding-ding-dong," you know June is the only woman he would have ever sung it to)
Lee Gardner
Supersilent, 6
Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Matmos, The Civil War
Ryoji, Ikeda Op
Jonathan Frey
Kenny Garrett, Standard of Language: The "other" Kenny G's take-no-prisoners tour de force release of 2003, offering bop on steroids. Otherwise containing mostly originals, Cole Porter's "What is This Thing Called Love?" is transformed from introspective inquiry to the auditory equivalent of Edvard Munch.
Various Artists, World 2003 (Narada): Expropriating a permanent position in the disc changer this year, BBC DJ Charlie Gillett's sequel to World 2002 this time around even includes cuts by American (Calexico) and Canadian (The Be Good Tanyas) artists. A two-CD, round-the-world supersonic tour.
Roy Haynes, Love Letters (Columbia): Surrounded by bandmates easily 30 years his junior, septuagenarian drummer Roy Haynes shows no signs of senescence. Worth the price of the CD alone is the Coltrane original "Afro Blue," guitarist John Scofield's best recorded performance of 2003 and an aural stunner.
Cassandra Wilson, Glamoured (Blue Note): Wilson's signature bluesy throat and growl are brought to a low-key mix of originals and covers, most notably on Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" and Muddy Waters' "Honey Bee." Unmatched late night, scotch-sipping sounds for when the crowds have all gone home....
Chris Mitchell
Andy Summers, Earth and Sky
Wayne Shorter, Alegria
John Taylor, Rosslyn
Brotzmann/VanHove/Bennin, FMP130 (reissue)
Miles Davis, Complete Jack Johnson Sessions
Bonus tracks: "Lunch with Gina" & "Pixeleen," Steely Dan
Matthew Everett
"Ignition (Remix)" by R. Kelly: "Sippin' on Coke and rum/ I'm like, 'So what? I'm drunk/ It's the freakin' weekend, baby/ I'm about to have me some fun.'" Simply unbeatable. And inexplicably, unquantifiably better than the original.
Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day: Suicide, foreclosures, divorce, family feuds, incest, wives left standing at the altar, broken dreams—an album full of heartbreak, and some fine rock and roll made in the face of it.
Jay-Z, The Black Album: Probably not really his last album, like he promises. But if it is, it's a hell of a way to go out. Jay-Z teams up with an all-star lineup of hip-hop producers for an epic of big beats and inventive rhymes. Extra points for self-mythologizing on "December 4th."
"Hey Ya!" by OutKast: Nothing pleased me more this year than to turn on the radio in the car and hear this. Psychedelic acoustic guitars, hand-claps, and the irresistible call-and-response refrain, "What's cooler than being cool?/Ice cold!"
"The Ballad of the Sin Eater" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The centerpiece of Leo's latest album, a long, skittery meditation on doubts and convictions and the fallout of Sept. 11, 2001. It's also an exotic travelogue, following the narrator from Northern England to Ireland, Spain and Rwanda. "You didn't think they could hate you, now did you? Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake—they hate you."
Alexander Stigliano
The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow: Indie pop that counts.
Erydah Badu, Worldwide Underground: Damn. Apparently, and believe me, I was more surprised than anyone, I have soul.
Postal Service, Give Up: Cyborg Serotonin.
Basement Jax, Kish Kash: Genreric; that is, multi-genre and guilt-free *gasp* disco.
Singapore Sling, The Curse of Singapore Sling: Not just because I was too poncy to pick Hail to the Thief, it's top 10 quality.
Mark Arnold
Johnny Cash, The Man Comes Around: WIVK DJs say he got pity votes from CMA and the Grammys! Johnny would forgive them, but I won't.
Todd Steed and the Sons of Phere, Knoxville Tells: Heck, it's a timeless recording.
The Shazam, Tomorrow The World: Never mind The Strokes, Here's The Shazam.
Mary Alice Wood, Daises in My Hand: Twang's newest sweetheart.
Neil Young, On The Beach: So it's a re-release. It's better than most first-round releases from this year.
Todd Steed
Grandaddy Sumday
Death Cab for Cutie, transatlanticism
Garage A Trois, Emphasizer
Scott Miller, Upside Downside
A five way tie for fifth: Nug Jug, The High Score, French Broads, Tim Lee, Stuart Pack
Ekem Amonoo Lartson
Panjabi MC, Beware: This album kills two birds with one stone. At once, it is one of the best hip-hop albums and one of the best world music albums of the year.
The Blue Series Sampler, The Shape Of Jazz To Come: This is prophecy and also a great marriage of America's definitive musical achievements of the past 100 years or so.
Rickie Lee Jones, The Evening Of My Best Day: A bonafide successor to Solomon Burke's Don't Give Up on Me and yet another good example of popular music's twilight outshining popular music's dawn.
Macy Gray, The Trouble With Being Myself: Quirkiness never sounded so accessible and authentic.
Greg Osby, St. Louis Shoes: Simple question—Can Greg Osby do no wrong? Simple answer—Yes! The old masters are re-concocted and garnished just right on this release.
John Wright
Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
Randy Newman, The Randy Newman Songbook vol. 1
Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood
Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, Upside/Downside
Neil Young, On the Beach
Clint Casey
Jesse Malin, The Fine Art of Self-Destruction
Ryan Adams, Rock 'n' Roll
Trey Anastasio, Plasma
The White Stripes, Elephant
The Jayhawks, Rainy Day Music
Paige M. Travis
The Postal Service, Give Up
Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism
Kathleen Edwards, Failer
Over the Rhine, Ohio
Ryan Adams, Love is Hell, pt. 1
Benny Smith
Finally, oh finally, the re-issue onto CD of some of the best records ever made when Neil Young's On The Beach, Hawks and Doves, American Stars & Bars, and Reactor were made available to the public. New releases by Outkast, Lucero, Steve Winwood, Blue Highway, and Patty Loveless also lived in my CD player this year.
A banner year for local releases, arguably unlike any year before. From the success of the national releases by Scott Miller & The Commonwealth and Robinella & The CCstringband, to the amazing Todd Steed project Knoxville Tells, to great stuff from Nug Jug, Tim Lee, The High Score, Jeff Barbra & Sarah Pirkle, French Broads, Stewart Pack & Paul Turpin, and more. Knoxville sure has a lot to be proud of as far as quality local music being made and sold.
The release of the amazing project/book Cumberland Avenue Revisited was icing on the 2003 cake. Kudos to everyone who had anything to do with this really cool book, and especially Jack Rentfro. If you have ever been a fan of a Knoxville band/musician, you need to buy a copy. If you are not a fan, buy this book for several reasons why you should be a fan and follower of the local scene.
January 8, 2004 * Vol. 14, No. 2
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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