Avalon - Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun - 2000

Instrumental.

Assisted Living - The Mendoza Line - We're All In This Alone - 2000

Anand and I made our way back to the first bar in the area, swimming our way against the stream of fans with appropriate tickets happily walking their way to the stadium. We came to the first bar, which had a sign that said "Home" supporters only. I flashed my Arsenal Jersey under my hoodie to prove that I came to support the good guys.

We actually told the bouncer at the door about what had happened with us and the cop, which actually won us the respect of the bar. The first round was on the house. And fortunately we got to watch an Arsenal victory, with Robin Van Persie converting a penalty to give us the lead.

We drank a lot...I mean, A. LOT. It was the only way to dull the pain of the experience.

The Mendoza Line continue their run of low-self esteem, mumblecore, alt-country/westerburg-esque rock here. You don't listen to this band expecting surprises, just a tasty kind of dissapointment.

As Night Is Falling - The Clientele - Suburban Light - 2000

After catching up with Rance and getting settled in our room, we knew we needed to head over to Islington fast, kick off was a little less than an hour away. We determined there was no way we could get to the stadium in time to scalp tickets, so we were just going to try to watch the game at a bar in the area. We figured it would be not unlike going to the bar next to Yankee's stadium: jam packed full of rowdy and drunk fans.

We grabbed a cab and headed over to the Arsenal bar right outside of the Islington station. The bar has the unfortunate name of The Famous Cock, and is also possess the most disgusting bathroom I encountered in my entire trip, BUT...it's an Arsenal bar. When we arrived the place was mysteriously quiet and subdued.

We were informed by the Polish barmaid that the game was not on TV, but we could try a few of the other bars in the neighborhood and see if they were showing it.

Incidentally, the Polish in London seem to be a lot like the Mexicans in NYC. They work all the jobs nobody else wants. The men drive buses and cabs and do consturction and maintenance jobs, the women tend bar in tight tops.

After poking around in a few bars we soon learned that the game was simply not going to be seen on TV. We ended up in a bar called The White Swan where we grabbed a late lunch and grumbled. It was baffling that a soccer match we could have easily watched 4000 miles away was unviewable when we were less than a mile from where it was actually being played. I had been to London once before and hated it...and my opinion was not improving on this trip.

I have been listening to the Clientele quite a bit recently. They started off as a good band to listen to with a hangover, or when putting the moves on an indie-rock loving lady...but more and more I find their music speaking to my moods. This song from their hit and sorta-miss singles collection is one of the better tunes on the disc. It's mournful and heartfelt tone combine with the crisp, sad music to get the Scottish gloomy vibe that these guys are the masters of.

The Army Corps of Architects - Death Cab for Cutie - Sub Pop Singles Club 7 Inch - 2000

This is one of those rare songs that I can actually remember where I was the first time I heard it. Not because this song is especially memorable (it's not) but because it is the B-side of a much better song...however since that song starts with a "U" (Underwater) I probably won't get to it till like 2012.

When I first moved to the city, one of my favorite cheap ways to hang out with my friends was to go to my friend Rance's place and listen to music. Rance had a good size record (by which I mean vinyl) collection, and his roommate had an even bigger one. My friend Josh, who I had just started hanging out with, was a member of the Subpop single of the month club and had just gotten the latest from a new Pacific Northwest band called Death Cab for Cutie....this probably would have been around January of 2001.

I sometimes miss those times, of just sitting with my friends and listening to music and drinking beer. I miss the ability to be totally captivated by new music, but now I sit back and wonder about those times "How did we just sit around and listen to music and not do anything else?"

The Aristocratic Swells - Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break - 2000

I have never been to California (or the West Coast at all) but a band like Beulah basically represents every reason that I am sure that I would hate it.

Archepelago - Mirah - You Think It's Like This But Really, It's Like This - 2000

...this New Years however was something of a mixed bag. The evening started out well enough. My buddy Corey offered to host at his quite swanky and spacious Bushwick loft. My ladyfriend (who looked quite fetching that night) and I had sushi at our friend Shani's and then headed over for the festivities about 830. We helped with some of the party prep and drank some wine...the evening was going swimmingly.

Soon the guests began arriving and again, things were going well. It was a nice mix of close friends and people I'd never met. Several of my ladyfriend's Russian friends showed and turned up the excitement a bit. There was a fair bit of rowdiness, juvenile horseplay, vodka slamming, and party lesbianism...exactly what you want in a good NYE party.

Midnight came and I kissed my girl and slammed champagne and prepared to ride out the evening watching Russian girls grope each other....but then, about 130 AM, one of the party attendees had to turn into That Guy.

He'd shown up about 1130 and started pounding booze. He saw a room full of attractive girls engaging in mildly risque behavior and probably thought that 2009 was shaping up to be a GREAT year. It took him till about 130 to realize that all of those girls were going home with the guys they showed up with, and he was going home alone...that's when a tantrum of epic proportions broke out. He began going around the room, having determined that smoothness would get him nowhere, and blatantly asking women to service him...usually in this request was made in front of the target's boyfriend. When he was inevitably denied, he would respond with what I'm sure he thought of as a clever witticism "You won't suck? You suck!"

Eventually one of the boyfriends decided to do something about this and chucked a piece of ice at his head...this meant that I now had a six foot two wildly drunk and angry Latino man with a gushing head wound to deal with in a room full of suddenly surly Russians at 2 in the morning on NYE. My visions of how my evening was going to end went from pornographic to sad and annoying rather quickly.

Anytime I attempted to point out that perhaps it was time to go, I was given the response of "Listen, I am HOME...I am HOME, right here!!!" He then went on to trash the bathroom, man handle my girlfriend, and at one point stand in the middle of the room with a broom handle and stamp the ground over and over. Finally at 245, everyone was tired of his nonsense and we decided to simply call the party and show everyone the door.

We threw him in a cab, only for him to refuse to tell the driver where he lived and to hurl strings of insults at him in Spanish. My girlfriend ended up paying the cabbie $20 just to get him out of there. We both went home and crashed, our visions of ringing in the new year appropriately long forgotten and the memory of what had been a really great party forever tarnished.

Needless to say, we aren't speaking to this guy anymore.

Anyway, back to the music...I love the album this Mirah track comes from, but find this particular track a little lackluster. It takes an extra-special bit of songwriting to elevate a song that is merely voice and acoustic guitar. Archipelago isn't bad, but it's hardly strong enough to be anything but NPR/Starbucks compilation bait.

Anything You Want - Spoon - Girls Can Tell - 2000

Ok, so I have a category for perfect songs, and I can hardly think of a better entry for it than this little gem from Spoon. At a spry 2:17 it is unbelievably short, but still seems to pack the same punch as a longer song all the while managing to be both remarkably laid back and heartbreakingly romantic.

In terms of sound, this song prefigures the musical choices that would become more quintessentially Spoon on later albums, primarily in the use of sonic vacuums to suggest the space in which other instruments would later appear. Take the piano riff that serves as the songs primary bass line (There is a bass part, but it's pretty innocuous). The first measure is played at regular volume whereas the second measure is played in hushed and subdued manner...once you are somewhat familiar with the song this space in the second measure is identifiable as the place in which the guitar will appear in the second pass through. Spoon want you to see how their songs are put together, so they show you the place in between the instruments.

Beyond that...the lyrics are...that wonderful mix of nonchalant and lovelorn. Somehow, the line "I'll be in the back room drinking my half of the beer" ends up sounding like the sexiest come on line ever, and the amazing one-breath delivery of "You know you're the one and that that hasn't changed since you were 19 and still in school waiting on the light at the corner by Sound Exchange" becomes a pledge of eternal devotion.

Like I said, perfect song.

Alone Down There - Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica - 2000

Modest Mouse played a free show here in NYC but I made the decision to skip it. It was late at night on a school night for starters. And as I suspected, my friend confirmed that the crowd was full of assholes. Instead I got bombed with my co-workers at a bar called Antarctica...which is appropriately Modest Mouse-esque.

All Things Ordinary - The Anniversary - Designing a Nervous Breakdown - 2000

You know, today was supposed to be a quiet peaceful Monday. Several of my co-workers were out, and after the sweltering weekend we had here in NYC it seemed like a decent way to break in the working week. Sit in the free AC. Pay some bills. Work on this blog...but no, that's just not the way things went down. I've had two reports to put together in a matter of minutes, rather than hours, and that's not even counting the report that was due last week that slipped through the cracks. Sigh.

Anyway, you don't care about that...

The Anniversary was one of those bands I got into in the musically confusing turn of the millenia. At the time they (along with other embarrasing "emo" precursers like The Get Up Kids) seemed like the logical progression of Superchunk. Their hook-filled pop melodies couched in punkish instrumentation seemed an obvious debt to Chapel Hill's favorite sons, but on further inspection, these kids always lacked the spikey attitude of Chunk. Still I keep a couple of songs around for those hooks. I do have a sweet tooth somewhere back there...

All Heart, No Eyes - The Mendoza Line - We're All In This Alone - 2000

If you ever want to do a comprehensive study of low feminine self-esteem I would highly recommend you cull Shannon McArdle's songs from all the Mendoza Line albums. Hopefully, I will actually stick with this long enough to make it to the "I's" just so I can talk about "I'm That" but for the moment I'll make do with this one.

Essientially, any one of her songs work like this: She has a crush on a guy who is willing to use her for sex. She does not feel as if she is cool/pretty/smart/"good" enough for this person. She does not feel as if she deserves his love. She knows that he is using her, but would rather be used than be alone. And all of this is pinned to the Mendoza Line's slightly lazy alt-country twang.

Just brutal, brutal stuff.

All Hands on the Bad One - Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One - 2000

And speaking of railing against traditional gender roles...uh yeah.

Around 2000 the ladies of Sleater-Kinney realized they could actually write a good pop song. They, at this point, became a vastly more interesting band.

Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun - 2000

What the hell do you think happens in Iceland? Do they all walk around in swan dresses, speaking their own version of Esperanto? Do they live in Pycrete hotels and eat pickled herring? Do they soak in hot springs and just smoke a lot of pot and listen to Sigur Ros?

Whatever, they're clearly happier people.