Modern Rock Favorites 1990 to Present

1990
Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
The Breeders - Pod
Brian Eno & John Cale - Wrong Way Up
Ride - Nowhere
Yo La Tengo - Fakebook
Youssou N'Dour - Set

1991
The La's
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
The Wedding Present - Seamonsters
Uncle Tupelo - Still Feel Gone
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Nirvana - Nevermind
Eleventh Dream Day - Lived To Tell

1992
PJ Harvey - Dry
Television
Luna - Lunapark
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
Catherine Wheel - Ferment

1993
Girls Against Boys - Venus Luxure No 1 Baby
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth
Morphine - Cure for Pain
Catherine Wheel - Chrome
Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Yo La Tengo - Painful

1994
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Portishead - Dummy
Luna - Bewitched
Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl
Red Red Meat - Jimmywine Majestic
Slowdive - Souvlaki
Hector Zazou - Sahara Blue
Cardinal
Massive Attack - Protection
Bark Psychosis - Hex

1995
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Radiohead - The Bends
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Laika - Silver Apples of The Moon
Yo La Tengo - Electr-O-Pura
Palace Music - Viva Last Blues
Richard Buckner - Bloomed
Shack - Waterpistol
Three Mile Pilot - The Chief Assassin to the Sinister [Geffen]
Red Red Meat - Bunny Gets Paid
Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
Ben Harper - Fight for Your Mind
Björk - Post
Tindersticks II
Luna - Penthouse

1996
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Dirty Three - Horse Stories
Girls Against Boys - House of GVSB
Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Beck - Odelay
Cul De Sac - China Gate
Richard Davies - There's Never Been A Crowd Like This
Tricky - Pre-Millenium Tension
Patti Smith - Gone Again
Sleater-Kinney - Call The Doctor

1997
Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On
Laika - Sounds of the Satellites
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Paul K & The Weathermen - Love Is A Gas
David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights
Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mind
Björk - Homogenic
Richard Buckner - Devotion + Doubt
Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Eleventh Dream Day - Eighth
Red Red Meat - There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight
OP8 - Slush (Giant Sand + Calexico + Lisa Germano)
Radiohead - OK Computer

1998
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Richard Davies - Telegraph
Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Silver Jews - American Water
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Califone EP 1 (Flydaddy)
Gastr Del Sol - Camoufleur
Sunny Day Real Estate - How It Feels To Be Something On

1999
Black Heart Procession - 2
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
Cul de Sac - Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
Wilco - Summer Teeth

2000 Top 13 Favorites
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
P.J. Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Black Heart Procession - Three
Wheat - Hope and Adams
The Glands - The Glands
Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Yo La Tengo - And then nothing turned itself inside-out
Grandaddy - Sophtware Slump
Sue Garner & Rick Brown - Still
Giant Sand - Chore of Enchantment
Twilight Singers - Twilight
Califone EP 2 (Road Cone)
Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia

2001 Top 12 Favorites
Califone - Roomsound
Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Steve Wynn - Here Come The Miracles
The Strokes - Is This It?
Bjork - Vespertine
Mercury Rev - All Is Dream
Elbow - Asleep In The Back
Solex - Low Kick and Hard Bop
Sparklehorse - It's A Wonderful Life
Joe Henry - Scar
Dismemberment Plan - Change
Circulatory System

2002 Top 12 Favorites
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Black Heart Procession - Amore del Tropico
Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain
Low - Trust
Radar Brothers - And The Surrounding Mountains
Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Ugly Casanova - Sharpen Your Teeth
Sixteen Horsepower - Folklore
Enon - High Society
The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts

2003 Top 12 Favorites
Woven Hand - Blush Music
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Califone - Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
Manitoba - Up In Flames
Cat Power - You Are Free
Damien Jurado - Where shall you take me?
Over The Rhine - Ohio
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Okkervil River - Down the River of Golden Dreams
British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power
The Libertines - Up The Bracket

2004 Top 12 Favorites
Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard the End
Pinback - Summer in Abaddon
Electrelane - The Power Out
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum
The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Honeydogs - 10,000 Years
Wayne Robbins & the Hellsayers - The Lonesome Sea
Moonbabies - The Orange Billboard
Califone - Heron King Blues

2005 Top 12 Favorites
Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
The National - Alligator
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt
My Morning Jacket - Z
Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow
Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
Voyager One - Dissolver
The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
Richmond Fontaine - The Fitzgerald
Micah P. Hinson And The Gospel Of Progress
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

2006 Top 12 Favorites
Woven Hand - Mosaic
Califone - Roots & Crowns
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Black Heart Procession - The Spell
Howe Gelb - 'Sno Angel Like You
Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
Richard Buckner - Meadow
Nina Nastasia - On Leaving
Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 - ...tick...tick...tick

2007 Top 10 (or so) Favorites

1. Richmond Fontaine - Thirteen Cities (because it's the best, lyrics, music, players, complete package .. and that "$87 and a Guilty Conscience That Gets Worse The Longer I Go" song is one of the best things ever)

2. Magnolia Electric Co - Sojourner (because it came in a pine box with a medallion...and 4 CDs + DVD...and Black Ram is all new material and really good)

3. Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls (because they're so groovy and playful and cute and charming and enchanting and it is so well recorded and mastered and comes with a cool Lecia Dole-Recio poster - one or two more great songs and it would easily be my #1)

4. PJ Harvey - White Chalk (because I'm still not sure about all of it, but some of it is amazing)

5. Caribou - Andorra (because it makes me smile a lot)

6. The National - Boxer (because they are so dark and moody, but so completely grand)

7. Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir or Shearwater - Palo Santo (because I don't care that both are technically 2006 since both say 2007 on my copies, and they are both great)

8. Spoon - Ga ... or Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (because I like, but don't love both albums...but I do love both artists)

9. Blonde Redhead - 23 (because there's still a bit of magic hidden in the fluff, and I like magic)

10. Josh Ritter - Historical Conquests or Blanche - Little Amber Bottles (because both have a couple songs I don't really like, but so does everything else I heard that isn't listed)


The rest of the story ...

Life Without Buildings - Live at the Annandale Hotel (just got it and love it and will probably listen to it over and over until it makes me sick, even though I've heard most of the songs before in their studio versions, but it's all live music from the early 00's by a band that gave up after their debut - Sue Tompkins is charming talking to the audience before each song on this one, guitar work by Robert Johnson is excellent, and it sounds great too, modern classic)

Burial - Untrue (I'll spend a lot of time with this in 2008 cause it reminds me some of that early Tricky trip hop stuff I like so much, but with more of a cool soundtrack feel to it)

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (didn't buy but trust my buddy that it's the greatest and I should hear it, and I do now have an "evaluation" copy so I will at some point before long)

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (didn't buy cause I'm just not young and cool enough anymore, but I do like what they are doing, especially when they mix it up with some of that old Talking Heads sound, and they do put on a great show, and I am glad so many people love it, and I will probably be smiling to it next year a lot, after I do finally break down and buy it)

Radiohead - In Rainbows (just released to the general CD buying public, previously only available as a crappy mp3 download or expensive box set, but still topped most 2007 year end music critic lists, and I still haven't heard it yet)

Wayne Robbins & the Hellsayers - All You Need To Sleep (I wish it had been released this year, but the wait continues)

Palace - Viva Last Blues (best CD I bought used this year of a favorite I already had on LP from a long time ago)

Califone - Roots & Crowns (best LP I bought this year from maybe my favorite modern band that I already had on CD from last year)

Richard Buckner - Bloomed (probably the most listened to CD over the last year, either this or the great Three Mile Pilot The Chief Assassin to the Sinister on Geffen from the same time period) rediscovered after picking up his latest Meadow early in the year, then digging out the debut from 1995 and being amazed all over again how great it is, music, performance, musicians, recording, mastering, one of my favorites of the 90s - but I'm talking about the great sounding original on either DejaDisc or Glitterhouse, not the later loud and compressed Ryko remaster with the bonus tracks)