Best Acts of the Aughts

I've been reading lots of "best of" lists. "The best 500 songs of the '00s" and "The top 200 albums of the 2000s." So I thought I'd wade in.

But I don't have time to list 200 albums, so I thought I'd do something a little different and list who I think are the top 10 acts for the decade that is a few months from drawing to a close. My prerequisites: They released acclaimed works in the decade and are still, at the decade's close, an existing venture, a band or artist that we can suspect has more to offer. I also don't have much interest in building up an obscure band. I think great bands are measured not only by their art but their influence and you can't be too influential if you're completely obscure.

My method was one part scientific (I asked friends what they thought) and another part proudly subjective -- these are artists and bands I think are terrific, but for which I don't necessarily see that many share my enthusiasm. Perhaps it would be better called a favorite list, not a best of list.

Also, this is primarily a "rock list" I don't listen to dance music anymore and I don't listen to hip hop or pop much anymore, either. New country? Never. There's only so much time in the day...

10. Ray LaMontagne
(Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain)

I like singer songwriters, and have gone through periods where I favor acoustic guitar to anything else. But there are few who I feel offer much more than revamped '60s sons and campfire fare.

Ray La Montagne can certainly be accused of some of these things -- he has his moments of sounding positively like an early '70s throwback -- but of all the singer songwriters I've heard, his songs and his performance of those songs are matchless. The voice, the dark, personal and nearly impenetrable lyrics -- all contribute to a sound that is ancient yet fresh at the same time.

And his story is remarkable, too. In 1999, at the age of 25, LaMontagne was working in a shoe factory in Lewiston, Maine when he awoke to his alarm clock playing Steven Stills' "Treetop Flyer." He decided to quit his job, sold a van for an acoustic guitar began shopping a 10-song demo. After playing around at various folk gigs, he was signed to RCA and recorded his debut, Trouble in two weeks with producer Ethan Johns, who also joins LaMontagne on tour as a drummer.

LaMontagne is not a trend setter, but he does what he does better than anyone I've heard this decade.

9. Drive By Truckers
(Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, The Dirty South, A Blessing and a Curse, Brighter than Creation's Dark)

There's nothing progressive about southern rock, but the Drive By Truckers, manages to take the sounds and attitude of Lynard Skynard and Hank Williams and lend it a sonic attack that owes more to Sonic Youth than .38 Special. They can be beautifully quiet but can also whip up a three-guitar howl unlike any other.

For a group that debuted as a decidedly more country-flavored band with the not very well titled Gangstabilly, the 2000s have been a great -- and prolific -- year for the Georgia quintet. One of the band's strengths has long been the fact that it is not a vehicle for a single songwriter. Guitarists Partterson Hood and Mike Cooley split most of the songs and the lead vocals, and the two have let their sidemen like Jason Isbell who left to go solo (and create much less interesting music) and current bassist Shonna Tucker share songwriting and vocal duties.

Because of that team approach, each album they've put out in the last decade is packed with terrific songs. And the songs are not pop fare. There are character sketches of infamous southern icons, everyday losers and drug users. They write about poverty, war and survival.
The Truckers have managed to take southern rock, as both a musical foundation and a theme, and make it sound brand new. It's not a schtick, it's great music.

8. The White Stripes
(De Stijl, White Blood Cells, Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan, Icky Thump)

I have a love/hate relationship with this band.

When I first heard DeStijl in a friend's car in San Francisco, I couldn't believe my ears. Whoever was playing drums was terrible. The playing was so bad, I couldn't duplicate it if I tried. Time went by and the Stripes got bigger and bigger. Soon I found I couldn't resist the early singles "Fell in Love With a Girl" and "Hotel Yorba." The White Stripes started a charge of garage and punk bands at the time, but managed to stay creatively ahead of the pack on subsequent albums.

I still feel sometimes that the White Stripes are a lot more about style than substance and that Jack White is not much more than a museum curator who will soon run out of ways to repackage Zeppelin riffs and three-chord mandolin folk pieces. This is certainly true of his recent side projects, particularly the dreadful Dead Weather. Still, their influence on this decade is indisputable.

And I have to give credit to Jack and Meg. You can take any one of their albums, turn up as loud as your ears can take it and it sounds awesome. What more can you ask of a rock band?

7. The Doves
(Lost Souls, The Last Broadcast, Some Cities, Kingdom of Rust)

I've long been a fan of British indie rock. Though I wasn't an adherent of the Stone Roses and never could figure out Oasis, I loved Blur, Radiohead ad am really impressed with newer bands like The Viels, Reverend and the Makers, The Magic Numbers and, yes, The Arctic Monkeys, too. The best of the pack for me, though (Radiohead excluded) is The Doves.

A Manchester trio that got its start in dance music but moved to indie rock when their studio burned down just before the decade began, the Doves have cranked out four albums in the last 10 years that have blended Radiohead's space rock sound with a much more pop-grounded sensibility in line with their Britpop contemporaries, like Coldplay.

But while Coldplay has gone for arena-filling bombast, the Doves have stuck to great songwriting and sound experimentation -- they mix rushing guitars with ambient keys and can move seamlessly from country-inspired stomps to droning guitar atmospherics -- that, in my opinion, makes them the most compelling English band this side of, well, Radiohead. Each album they've released manages to be better than the last, too as they add layers and sounds and more great songs. Their most recent Kingdom of Rust, released in January of this year, remains my favorite album of '09.

I really feel the Doves are criminally underrated. They've debuted twice at number one in their homeland so perhaps its just a matter of time before they catch on here. I won't hold my breath.

6. Neko Case
(Furnace Room Lullaby, Blacklisted, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Middle Cyclone)

Neko Case started out as something of a Canadian Americana act. (She's not Canadian, but that seems to be where her early career "took off.") She's also been a member of the New Pornographers during the last decade, but where she has really shined is as a solo artist, beginning with Blacklisted and following with two equally superb albums, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, and The Middle Cyclone.

On these records Case approaches American folk music from its darkest themes (death, lust, jealousy and the random cruelty of nature) and adds something all her own. No one else could have pulled off a song from the perspective of a lovesick tornado ("This Tornado Loves You" from Middle Cyclone). Layered with wild lyrics about spirit foxes, dead lovers and teenage fantasy, Case approaches her songs sonically with lots of reverb and plenty of oddball hooks. Her music is spooky and mesmerizing. It's distinctly American.

On a side note, I'm aware as I write this that Case is the only female artist/band leader that occurred to me in compiling this list. That female acts are not as prominent in indie rock in the 2000s is pretty puzzling. It's definitely something that bears more reflection. Perhaps in a future post here.

5. Interpol
(Turn on the Bright Lights, Antics, Our Love to Admire)

I was late to the Interpol appreciation party. I really liked the first record's sound -- the reverbed but funky guitars, the amazing rhythm work, particularly the loping melodic bass playing of Carlos Dengler, but I couldn't take large doses of Paul Banks' flat vocals.

I have since gotten over that problem and have really come to enjoy the band's work. There is something about Interpol's arrangements that are really cinematic in scope. The sound the band produces is rhythmically bouncy, somewhat dance-y, but the guitars can provide an awesome dark wall of sound or chink away in a funk rythm. Songs like "Say Hello to the Angels" and "Obstacle 2" from ...Bright Lights enjoyed all these qualities. And though most feel their first is their best, I think their sound only expanded on the followup, Antics, an album that enjoys more variety of mood and a richer sonic palette than Turn no the Bright Lights.

And although 2007's Our Love to Admire didn't get the critical kudos of Bright Lights, it contains great songs. The single "Heinrich Maneuver" is as good as any they've recorded. Love is a step backwards from Antics, but it's a step backwards from two amazing albums. There's no reason to doubt that Interpol has a lot of good material left in them.

4. Kings of Leon
(Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak, Because of the Times, Only by the Night)

Theirs is the kind of story a fiction writer might have a hard time concocting. Once a group of scraggly brothers and one cousin, who played support for their fundamentalist revival preacher father Ivan, the Fallowills have risen from a band of Nashville nobodies to become the "Biggest Band in the World" in less than 10 years.

Or it least seems like the Kings are the biggest band in the world. They started as a band known best for "Molly's Chambers" off their debut Youth and Young Manhood because of its placement in a clever Volkswagon commercial. But that was in 2003. This year, no rock song has received more airplay than "Use Somebody" followed closely by "Sex on Fire" off the polished Only by the Night.

Aside from the hype and the band's new turn as an arena band to rival U2, the raucous roots rockers who came up on the tails of the garage rock revival spurred by the White Stripes and Strokes developed their own, whip-tight and almost urbane sound that was completely perfected by their third album, Because of the Times, which is by far the band's best. Nurtured by a tour with U2, the band's rhythm section -- Nate and Jared -- has become one of the best in rock, Caleb's voice has become huge and Matt's lead guitar playing is tremendous. Those qualities, paired with the right indie look (packaging is everything -- no one was going to fall in love with these guys when they all sported mullets and mustaches) and the wild back-story has made this band one that may with us as long as a U2 or even the Rolling Stones.

3. Arcade Fire
(Funeral, Neon Bible)

There's something to be said for art that keeps the observer or the audience off balance. From the first moments you hear the Canadian band Arcade Fire, you are not only off balance, you can scarcely believe what you're hearing.

From the opening of "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," the first song on Funeral: an organ swells, a piano begins to pound and strings quickly join in while what sounds like a toy piano twitters in the background and a guitar and bass join the piano in a throbbing rhythm. Next Wim Butler's enters with that voice -- it's in the vein of David Byrne and Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock -- and he's singing about digging a tunnel "From my window to yours," the drums catch up and Arcade Fire in those first moments of the first album announced a rock sound unlike anything you've ever heard -- a blend of Indie rock and Parisian cinema soundtrack.

This is a band that can sometime swell to 10 members who will play everything from traditional rock instruments -- guitars, bass and drums -- to xylophones, harps, french horns and even a hurdy gurdy. It's a big, wild sound but one that doesn't lose the terrific songcraft at the heart of Arcade Fire's work. This ain't no world music band. It's a real honest-to-God indie rock band with a terrific sound and brilliant songs.

I'm hard pressed to name a band that is clearly influenced by Arcade Fire, though Beirut comes to mind. But that is likely more a function of how far ahead of the rest of us these Montrealers are. If you couldn't figure these guys out at first, give them another chance. It's well worth it.

2. Wilco
(Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco the Album)

First a qualifier: I like Wilco but I'm not sure they would have made this list had it not been for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I know, that statement is a lot like saying you don't think the Beach Boys would be all that great without Pet Sounds. But I wonder if this band's work without the accomplishment of YHF (for short) would seem so grand...

YHF is one of the great masterpieces of the last generation in rock, an album that started the decade with an inspired bang. It was a statement album from a band that had already veered pleasingly from the beaten path of its alt country roots with 1999's Summerteeth. YHF blew even those expectations away. It was a brilliant album that drew from the same psych pop stew as Sumerteeth but its songs were reconstructed in provocative arrangements (thanks to Jim O'Rourke) and set a new standard for American indie music.

Since then, Wilco has done a really good job of keeping its fan base guessing. There's few other bands that will keep music fans on the edge of their seats ever time a new album comes out. Wilco has managed to beguile us all, extending the experimentation with A Ghost is Born before settling back on the lovely, quiet Sky Blue Sky.

I have to admit that I remain disappointed by this year's Wilco the Album -- "Wilco the Song) and "Bull Black Nova" are great tunes -- but I'm hoping some subsequent listening will let the record grow on me some more. Still, Wilco has been a compelling band that deserves a lot of credit for not letting itself get too comfortable and for taking terrific risks. I just hope their next is a lot more risky than their last.


1. Radiohead
(Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows)

My friend Bill put it best about Radiohead. Every album they've released has been the best record a band could possibly release at the time. Following their remarkable OK Computer, regarded by many as one of if not the best rock album of a generation, Radiohead faced a tough assignment. How do you follow up a masterpiece?

No problem, Radiohead would do it again with Kid A (and its companion piece, Amnesiac), a mind-blowing blend of electronic gargles and rock blasts set against the theme of techno alienation that set a new tone and a new standard for indie rock. This they followed with two amazing rock albums: Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows could both be placed in a top 20 of the decade.

It's worrisome that the band's front man, Thom Yorke, has been telling interviewers lately that he doesn't think Radiohead could live through recording another full-length album. The band is still together, but is In Rainbows the end of its brilliant line of LPs? Lets hope not. They are, without a doubt, the best rock band of not only the last 10, but the last 20 years.