SPIN Top 40 Of 2003

WTF, this is a 2002 release -- and not even late 2002, it was popular in the summer.

Just look at the albums on the list! White Stripes, Radiohead, Dizzee Rascal, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Outkast, Missy Elliott, The Strokes, The Rapture, Spiritualized, Bubba Sparxx, Basement Jaxx, Electric Six, Joe Budden, Ms Dynamite... The only thing missing is Sean Paul.

39 The Jealous Sound
36 The Thrills
35 Brand New
34 My Morning Jacket
32 Kings Of Leon
23 Ms Dynamite
19 Atmosphere
15 AFI

AFI is a nu-punk band.

This is my friend Brian's #1 of the year. That said, I hadn't even heard of them until he told me that a few weeks ago.

34 My Morning Jacket

I think I've heard our friends in Lexington talk about them, maybe? Emily, at least.

23 Ms Dynamite

The United Kingdom to thread.

19 Atmosphere

Of those eight that you mention, Atmosphere probably gets the most ILM love. See: Nate Patrin.

15 AFI

Yeah, okay, good point. But I think the kids know them. I was driving past the Riviera (the biggest non-arena venue in Chicago) a month or two ago and got stuck in traffic as this show was letting out. I looked up at the marqee and said WHO THE FUCK?

Really? I've been reading Charles Aaron's writing in SPIN since I was a young teen, and I always thought of him as being a super-white guy. I'm not even sure why - something about his writing makes me think of nerdy white grad students.

I always thought that Sasha Frere-Jones was a woman up until fairly recently.

Ouch.

39 The Jealous Sound "Kill Them With Kindness"
36 The Thrills "So Much For The City"
35 Brand New "Deja Entendu"
31 Spiritualized "Amazing Grace"
22 Pretty Girls Make Graves "The New Romance"
16 Blur "Think Tank"
11 Metallica "St. Anger"
07 Thursday "War All The Time"
Jane's Addiction "Just Because" (which I don't think I've ever heard)
19 T Rumschmiere "Monstertruckdriver"
12 The Donnas "Take It Off" (fine, but just another Donnas track, I thought -- was this actually a hit or something? I must've missed it.)

I like that Rumschmiere album myself, though damned if I could tell you what its "single" sounds like. Most pleasant surprise on both lists, I think, is Joe Budden. But where the hell are Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, David Banner, Ying Yang Twins, the Youngbloodz, Turk and/or any Southern hip-hop at all beyond Outkast and Bubba Sparxx, in what was probably crunk's biggest and best year ever??? How odd.

I have nothing against AFI, who are kind of catchy in a goofy way.

Top 10 Reissues

10 The Moles "On The Street/Rare & Weird"
09 Television "Marquee Moon"
08 Aphex Twin "26 Mixes For Cash"
07 Miles Davis "The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions"
06 The Allman Brothers Band "Live At Fillmore East"
05 New Order "Retro"
04 Neil Young "On The Beach," "American Stars & Bars"
03 Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime" (box set)
02 Bjork "Live Box"
01 Led Zeppelin "How The West Was Won"

Band of the Year: Coldplay

Revival of the Year: Women rock the main stage (Distillers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Donnas)

Trend of the Year: "Mainstreamo"

The Rest Of The Best

Eccentric Geniuses of the Year: Outkast

Video of the Year: Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Best Anti-Corporate Rant of the Year: Conor Oberst disses Clearchannel

Class-Action Suit of the Year: Fans sue Creed for sucking.

Movie of the Year: School of Rock

Live Band of the Year: Metallica

TV Show of the Year: Punk'd

DJ of the Year: You (iPod)

Most Desperate Grab For Relevance (Or: Weirdest Children's Book Promo: Madonna/Britney kiss at the MTV awards.

Surgical Footage of the Year: Jack White's broken finger.

Pet Rock of the Year: Friendster

Credibility Move of the Year: Justin Timberlake

Flops of the Year: Smash Mouth "Get The Picture," Robbie Williams "Escapology" (US sales only), Fischerspooner "#1," Everclear "Slow Motion Daydream," Live "Birds of Prey," Sugar Ray "In The Pursuit of Liesure," Third Eye Blind "Out of the Vein"

Yeah, I'll publish it fairly soon. I'm just a bit lazy about rounding up all the album covers and such.

(And of course I'll be listening to Radio 3 on Friday.)

Ok, maybe they both reference something else, but that's where I first heard the phrase at least.

Nah, it screams "what a big lie" -- and it was, since the Avalanches album sounded way more like run-of-the-mill humorless diva house than *Paul's Boutique," no matter how many records it subtly sampled.

I just bought this issue cuz of the John Mayer/David Cross singles review thing and SPIN is so all over ILX's jock. They even did the Year In Fred Durst Craziness!

And Chuck is OTM re: The Avalanches. I found it incredibly hard to give a shit about any track for more than 10 seconds.

33 Lucinda Williams "World Without Tears"
30 Cat Power "You Are Free"
21 The Mars Volta "Deloused in the Crematorium"
16 Blur "Think Tank"
10 Radiohead "Hail to the Thief"
05 Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Fever To Tell"
01 The White Stripes "Elephant"

Cat's a little laconic for me, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs could have stood to wait until some more early-EP-quality material came along, but I like the others fine. I would love to hear the Spiritualized and the Outkast, but not too concerned about missing all the rest of it.

(As for being "dated," though, I dunno, I tend not to acknowledge that adjective. If music is good, it stays good. If it sucks, ditto.)

In related news: Hey, what ABOUT that "bootleg" fad, huh? Where the hell did THAT go??? (No worries; in seven years it'll be back again, and people will claim like always that it never happened before.)

The Avalanches' appeal to me isn't the "wow lookit all the samples" approach as it is the general "every genre can be pop" feel to it. It's just a great-flowing album where so many disparate pieces just seem to fit perfectly. And "serious" is the last word I would ever, ever consider when thinking about "Frontier Psychiatrist" or "Two Hearts in 3/4 Time".

Dan, "Frontier Psychiatrist" is like the everything-goes-haywire moment where every convention of the album gets ratcheted up to obsessively bombastic levels -- Since I Left You's "House of Blue Leaves" sequence. The rest of it's a lot subtler.

I totally adore "Two Hearts in 3/4 Time."