Being that my typical night consists of hitting the sack at around 10pm, and that my new radio show is Friday nights from 10pm to midnight, I figured that my second show would center around the theme of sleep. So I pieced together a playlist of bedroom pop, chill wave, dreamy shoegaze and what I’ve dubbed as psychedelic ambiance.

I took over for Stuarto just after 10 with a brief description of my first track, which I don’t believe made it on air. The switch-over was a bit rushed and I don’t believe I hit the “on” button allowing my voice to hit the airwaves. But Blood started and I was off; I gave the rundown after the song and continued on my way.

45 minutes before the show, I was in downtown Mount Vernon, stopping by Ristretto for an Americano. A show about sleep, starting at my bed-time; coffee was a necessity.

Below is the playlist. Click any bold track to listen to the song, and right-click it to download.

“The Ghost in our House” by Erik Blood off Music from the film Center of Gravity

“Happy Holiday” by Anois off Tree House Whispers
“White Fawn” by Pomegranates off One of Us
“To the Lighthouse” by Memoryhouse off The Years EP

“Stars” by Warpaint off Exquisite Corpse
“Velveteen” by Still Corners off Creatures of an Hour
“The Sea” by Exitmusic off From Silence
“Hands in the Sky” by Here We Go Magic off The January EP
“One Hundred” by Cock & Swan off Unrecognize

“Older Brother” by Pepper Rabbit off Beauregard
“All Apologies And Smiles, Yours Truely, Ugly Valentine” by Carissa’s Wierd off They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003
“Okay” by Venice Is Sinking off AZAR

“Secrets” by Silver Swans off Secrets
“Swim” by Oh No Ono off Eggs
“Ghosts in the Machine” by Death And Vanilla off Death And Vanilla
“Breakers” by Gem Club off Breakers

“Tunnels” by Port St. Willow off Even // Wasteland
“Marie Says You’ve Changed” by Papercuts off Fading Parade
“Beach Baby” by Bon Iver off Blood Bank

“So Long” by Fruit Bats off Tripper
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Gabriel Miller Phillips off One For The Crow
“Shed Like An Hour” by Snails off Shed Like An Hour / Daylight Ends 7″ Single
“Reaching Out” by German Error Message off After the Warmth

“The Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records” by Mum off Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is Okay

I am a huge Carissa’s Wierd fan. If you are too, you know exactly what I’m talking about — the die-hard fan gets a little extra out of the music, hears a little bit more, and has a deeper, seemingly one-on-one experience with it. New music, for a band that parted ways several years past, is enough to bring tears to your eyes. “Tucson” b/w “Meredith & Iris” is such material and Hardly Art has made the latter from the single available for stream.

The same can be said for a performance. When Grand Archives (formed after the CW split and fronted by Mat Brooke) played their record release show for their debut LP, the event included an intimate performance by Brooke and Jenn Ghetto of “All Apologies & Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”. That performance did bring a tear to my eye. Carissa’s Wierd played a few reunion shows upon the reissuing of their catalog, and with the forthcoming release of a new single they’ll play Neumos in Seattle on September 24.

“Meredith & Iris” — the first new track we have heard by Seattle band Carissa’s Wierd in over seven years — is near perfect. For the long-time true fan, we’ve been waiting for this moment for nearly a decade. For you, no explanation is needed, no description, no further comment. Listen and enjoy.

Carissa’s Wierd – Meredith & Iris by hardlyartrecords

If you spent any extended period alone in personal confinement during the early days of the century, and you had a predilection toward mopey, soft pop, you may have let the hours wane away dwelling on the heartbreaking bedroom-ish pop of Carissa’s Wierd. If you didn’t, you should have as it is some of the best music created both during and post 90s. Little known, and with even littler quantities of albums produced, many long-time fans cheered quietly when Hardly Art announced a cherished set of reissues.

Since that date, they’ve dropped a best of compilation of sorts titled They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003 pulling some of the better tunes from the band’s repertoire of sound.

And for those who obsessed over highly-sought after records either picked up casually during the band’s original heyday, or snagged quickly in a record store dive after their demise; well, there’s still something for you. All three albums will be available via Hardly Art on vinyl. I’m with you. Hands shaking with excitement, I just preordered the entire batch.

To celebrate the occasion, Hardly Art and Carissa’s Wierd are making available new old tracks for free public consumption. They’ll take you back, these three. For me, they take me back to days in my college dorm, pining over a girl, of walks to the local pub for the inevitable Thursday night jazz group, of the relaxation spurned by driving casually through the Palouse.

Download: “Fluorescent Lights” by Carissa’s Wierd off Ugly But Honest

Download: “The Ghost Of A Dead Hummingbird Flying Around The Room” by Carissa’s Wierd off You Should Be At Home Here

Download: “Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone” by Carissa’s Wierd off Songs About Leaving

“Die” ultimately picked up where Songs About Leaving left off, and it adequately summed up where the band was heading — the inevitable hiatus. Carissa’s Wierd is borderline historic — their members have gone on to great things, from personal projects like S. (Jenn Ghetto) and Sera Cahoone, to full-fledged bands like Band of Horses and Grand Archives. So, there was a second inevitable in here somewhere… the reunion-slash-reissue.

Most of the band’s library of material has been out of print for quite some time, and as a die-hard fan I have done my best to accumulate what they put out. “Die” was on the band’s last release, I Before E, a collection of live tracks and two previously unreleased originals that came out posthumous, so to say. It had all the classic elements of a Carissa’s Wierd tune — dire, urgently emotive vocals by Ghetto, an emphasis on piano and strings, and an overall brooding, depressive nature with the ability to steal your breath away.

We recently noted that the band would be reissuing their full-lengths on Hardly Art. The feat also includes a compilation of their best tunes and a single for “Die” that includes b-side “Sharin’ A Hole” off the band’s super hard to find tour EP Scrap Book. (I found that one new at a record shop in Seattle for a mere $10!)

Head over to Hardly Art and preorder the comp — the first 50 get the “Die” single for free! I grabbed my copy last night. Hopefully it’s not too late…

Download: “Die” by Carissa’s Wierd

Tonight I hit the kitchen to compile the second FensePost podcast, or FenseCast, while cooking up one of my signature dishes: spicy steak enchiladas with homemade sauce. For desert, a delicious slice of gluten free cake courtesy Andi (the girlfriend), whose cake photo you can see in this post. Unlike the first podcast, this one had a range of bands that stemmed into several genres rather than focusing on garage rock and pop. Within I reminisce on one of my favorite bands of all time, occasionally hover around bedroom pop, and pass along one imperative ingredient in my homemade enchilada sauce.

Download: FenseCast Volume #1 Issue #2: Cooking With Fense

Here’s the track list:

1. “All For Me” by Furcast from Together EP
2. “Western Hospitality” by Club 8 from The People’s Record
3. “Elinor With The Golden Hair” by Grand Hallway from Promenade
4. “All Apologies And Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine” by Carissa’s Wierd from You Should Be At Home Here
5. “Falls City” by Venice Is Sinking from Sand & Lines
6. “Modern Drift” by Efterklang from Magic Chairs
7. “Vendela Vida” by Dinosaur Feathers from Fantasy Memorial
8. “Disappear” by Crayon Fields from All The Pleasures Of The World
9. “Night Train” by Brown Recluse from The Soft Skin
10. “The Winter Stories” by World Atlas from Bonaventure EP
11. “Paper Crane” by Fireflies from Autumn Almanac
12. “That’s A… Jellyfish!” by Fishboy from Little D
13. “Giver’s Reply” by Ramona Córdova from The Boy Who Floated Freely
14. “23 Oktober” by Musette from Datum
15. “Afraid Of Hands” by Suturee from Suturee
16. “Third Of Life” by A Weather from Everyday Balloons
17. “One Hundred” by Cock And Swan from Unrecognize

As one of the few individuals to own a copy of Ugly But Honest, You Should Be At Home Here and Songs About Leaving by Carissa’s Wierd (sic), let alone ALL THREE, including their super-duper rare tour album, Scrap Book, it’s only with a hint of sadness that I relay to you the news that Hardly Art will reissue all three of the band’s proper albums. But the probable decline in value of rarities is far below the excitement I have for all the world who has yet to experience what, in my opinion, is one of the most under-appreciated, well-deserved bands ever to have existed.

To culminate the happening, Hardly Art will be releasing a best-of album titled They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996 – 2003, the tracklist of which you can find below. The album is scheduled for a July 13 release.

This excitement is real, people. Seriously. When, during the Grand Archives debut LP release party at Triple Door, Mat Brooke joined S.’s Jenn Ghetto on stage to “cover” their old band by performing “All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”, tears literally began to well up. The band will be, yes, REUNITING briefly this July for a performance on or around the release date in Seattle. For long-time fans and new fans alike, I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping they add a few other dates to the schedule.

Above photo of Mat Brooke at the 2008 KEXP Yule Benefit by joshc.

Here’s the tracklist for They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996 – 2003:

1. Low Budget Slow Motion Soundtrack Song For the Leaving Scene
2. Die
3. The Color That Your Eyes Changed With the Color of Your Hair
4. One Night Stand
5. You Should Be Hated Here
6. Drunk with the Only Saints I Know
7. Phantom Fireworks
8. So You Wanna Be A Superhero
9. Brooke Daniels’ Tiny Broken Fingers
10. Ignorant Piece of Shit
11. Blessed Arms That Hold You Tight, Freezing Cold and Alone
12. Blue Champagne Glass
13. September Come Take This Heart Away
14. All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine
15. Sympathy Bush
16. They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave

The third installment of A Retrospective, this time the focus is on 2002. The year of rebuilding, so to speak. It was the year I discovered Cider Jack (and did so plentifully) at the local Pullman bar Rico’s, and we all would rehearse Bill Brasky skits (from the SNL spots, and made up on the spot) as twenty feet away the university jazz combo performed excellent renditions of Van Morrison’s “Moondance” and various Motown favorites. As we see every year, 2002 saw several real great releases. Here are my favorites.

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15. Tallahassee by The Mountain Goats
Tallahassee is a concept album of sorts, devoted to the fictional married couple always leaning toward divorce. The recurring characters receive tribute throughout the album, which sees The Mountain Goats‘ front-man John Darnielle further defining his pointed vocals and powerful acoustic folk melodies.

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14. Spring Came, Rain Fell by Club 8
A diversion from their prior self-titled record which found the band dropping in more electronics and bordering on dance tracks, Spring Came, Rain Fell split the band’s loyalties between that sound and one much more along the lines of the indie-pop created by Acid House Kings, another of Johan Angergård’s groups. Club 8 does a good job bridging the two sounds in this viable follow-up. The album went out of print but was reissued last year on Labrador Records.

Club 8: Spring Came, Rain Fell [mp3]

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13. Read Music/Speak Spanish by Desaparecidos
After several mopey records from Conor Oberst under the name Bright Eyes, it was good to hear him take on something more societal and political under Desaparecidos. Songs like the “Man & Wife” pair and “Mall Of America” fit well with the times. And backing the highly emotive social commentary which made up much of the subject matter of Read Music/Speak Spanish was loud distorted guitars that seemed more fit for Cursive than Bright Eyes. To this day, Read Music/Speak Spanish is, in my opinion, one of Oberst’s greatest works.

Desaparecidos: The Happiest Place On Earth [mp3]

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12. The Execution Of All Things by Rilo Kiley
Like many, when I hear reference to Rilo Kiley‘s The Execution Of All Things, I immediately think of that one track – the stunning “With Arms Outstretched”. It found a welcome home on the first episode of Weeds: Season 1. On the album, Jenny Lewis strays between storytelling and folk-worthy narratives backed by pleasant folk-pop melodies that wouldn’t seem too out-of-place were they to be released this year. And that’s something that won’t likely change for years to come.

Rilo Kiley: With Arms Outstretched [mp3]

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11. Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See by Okkervil River
Okkervil River always seemed a bit odd. At times barely in tune vocals were borderline awkward yet it has worked so well throughout the band’s library of work. With the power of folk-pop sensibilities behind them, and the powerful ability to write stellar lyrics, Okkervil River created an album with easy showstoppers like “Kansas City” and “Red”. And while the first two songs on Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See are the best, most recognized songs on the album, with repeat listens others effortlessly follow suit.

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10. Songs About Leaving by Carissa’s Wierd
Songs About Leaving didn’t quite live up to its two predecessors as a whole. Instead, select tracks like “September Come Take This Heart Away” and “Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone” did with ease while other fell slightly flat. Here, Carissa’s Wierd shined brightest when they added the full instrumentation (in other words, ripe with strings) that made You Should Be At Home Here great.

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9. Highly Refined Pirates by Minus The Bear
Highly Refined Pirates was a great album circa 2002 and 2003, and even beyond that. But even so, it paled in comparison to seeing Minus The Bear perform these songs live during the same time period. The band had yet to grow into their current fan-base and that being as it was, they created a masterpiece ahead of its time.

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8. Mondays Are Like Tuesdays and Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays by Acid House Kings
I didn’t discover Acid House Kings until the release of their 2005 pop epic Sing Along With The Acid House Kings, but in the brief four years since finding them they’ve become one of my most listened-to bands. Mondays Are Like Tuesdays was an album filled with soft Swedish pop songs like “Sunday Morning” and “Brown And Beige Are My Favorite Colors”. And who could forget “Say Yes If You Love Me”? The band is currently working on their follow up to Sing Along With, claiming they’re working toward creating the perfect pop album. However, in their prior records, they’ve already accomplished that feat several times over, one of them being Mondays Are Like Tuesdays And Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays.

Acid House Kings: Say Yes If You Love Me [mp3]

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7. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco
Wilco, for me, is a band that makes an immense impression and then disappears for one, sometimes two years at a time. Returning to the Wilco of old, I’m struck by the senselessness of that statement, especially as it pertains to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This is an album that should have continuous mainstay capabilities; one that should never really leave. I guess that’s why it’s #7 and not higher. Still, when it does return, it wows at full force.

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6. The Beginning Stages Of… by The Polyphonic Spree
One of my all-time favorite movies is Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. It is beautiful in every way possible, from Joel and Clementine’s odd little quirks to unique use of minimal special effects (watch the commentary). It was with great excitement that I heard The Polyphonic Spree while watching this movie in the theater. Not often do you find a band that could very well be a cult, full with flowing colorful robes and an effervescent leader. Other bands have come close, but in numbers only (I’m From Barcelona, Dark Meat…). These songs all have a joyousness to them, a sunny demeanor. Haha, right? …many are about sun, love, happiness, and light.

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5. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are a band capable of releasing one great album after another, and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is just that. “Fight Test” and “Do You Realize??” had the ability to be album toppers, but that pinnacle spot was reserved for “Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots Pt. 1″. Two words to describe the power of this album? Very strong.

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4. Neon Golden by The Notwist
Meshing electro-pop and a shoegaze-style hypnotism is nothing new; in Neon Golden, however, The Notwist gave it a refreshing makeover. Dark and mysterious, Neon Golden is an album that packs an emotional punch from the opening moments of “One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand” and on throughout. Even in the more upbeat of moments, The Notwist maintain a mesmerizing and entrancing style. Yet unlike a large chunk of music that fits the description, Neon Golden is also catchy and fully contagious.

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3. You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene
Oh man, listening again to “KC Accidental”, it becomes immediately clear why this band is so great. One moment they rock your nuts off with legendary noise and the next it drops into beautiful and romantic lyrical poetry. The songs on You Forgot It In People are at times hardly cohesive, yet there’s an undeniable power behind the tracklist. “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” may remain the showstopper with its peaceful infectious melody, but each song Broken Social Scene writes holds weight.

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2. Kill The Moonlight by Spoon
Kill The Moonlight by Spoon was a bit of a sleeper for me. It wasn’t until shortly after Gimme Fiction that it came to be my favorite album by the famed Austin band. Then again, several artists have fit the description, like Stars. Upon release they don’t necessarily hold the weight you expected, or just didn’t catch on right away. But a year, maybe two down the road, and suddenly … BAM … they strike. And the result is phenomenal.

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1. Castaways & Cutouts by The Decemberists
Before all the theatrics and flare came to dominate and embellish The Decemberists music (which has ultimately allowed them to create and produce a unique and wonderful show), there was just a highly educated, smart folk album called Castaways & Cutouts. Sure, hints of the future dramatic stage presence existed in tracks like “California One / Youth And Beauty Brigade” and “A Cautionary Tale”, and even “The Legionnaire’s Lament” but it was also wholesome and, to an extent, the educated innocent. Their follow-up albums saw the band expanding into (more) bizarre tales of ghosts and lyrics seemingly pulled from book-like plots and expanding the instrumentation and group size in general, all of which has been great. But Castaways & Cutouts was not only an introduction, but an introduction to a band on the rise to fame and glory.

The Decemberists: Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect [mp3]

The second installment of A Retrospective, in which I recap my favorite albums released from 2000 to 2008, this time: 2001. Wrought with turmoil and watching a life fall apart as so many others were having similar experiences but in a different manner; that was 2001 for you. The year I turned 21 (hence the wine bottle photo above). A year that lives in infamy. Young or old, we all seemed to grow up that year. Music, too seemed to progress in ways unthought, even before that fateful day.

Again, the ideal is for this to be a friendly open dialog. Please feel free to chime in with some of your favorites from 2001 as well. Here’s my top 15 albums from that year:

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15. Stephen Malkmus by Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus has long been an influential character in music, a total nod to his Pavement days. This album, his self-titled debut, finally found Malkmus striking out on his own, and he did so with flare and agility. Stephen Malkmus was a perfect introduction to a man on his own without the confines of prior monikers. And yeah, in some ways it may have picked up where our beloved Pavement left off (quite quickly, in fact, as work on this project began almost immediately after the disbandment of Pavement). But whatever; it’s still a brilliant LP.

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14. Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever by Explosions In The Sky
I love the first explosion in “Greet Death”, the opening track to this Explosions In The Sky album; it has the ability to rock the nuts off anyone listening to it. What makes EITS such a great band is that they’re capable of creating such immense sound one moment, and in the next dropping it down to the most minimal. True to the genre, the album appears brief with a track-list numbering six, but it is anything but as no song is fewer than six minutes with most topping seven and a pair over ten. Despite their length EITS manages to maintain attention throughout; and that alone is a worthy feat.

Explosions In The Sky: Yasmin The Light [mp3]

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13. Ancient Melodies Of The Future by Built To Spill
I can remember the first time I heard “In Your Mind”, the third track off Built To Spill‘s Ancient Melodies Of The Future. I cannot remember where, or when this took place; but I can remember the emotions that rocked my mere existence. Many of the songs weren’t nearly as ‘rockin’ as found on some of the older albums, but it allowed Built To Spill to show off a different side, one a bit more delicate and personal.

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12. The Coast Is Never Clear by Beulah
Part of the Elephant 6 collective (the band, not the release), Beulah released The Coast Is Never Clear on September 11 of this year. What a day to release an album; but it was ultimately the antithesis to that cataclysmic day. Songs like “A Good Man Is Easy To Kill” and “Popular Mechanics For Lovers” just seemed so perfect. They had just the right amount of sadness, but were backed by such effortless upbeat psychedelic pop true to the E6 name.

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11. Live At Jittery Joe’s by Jeff Mangum
For anyone lamenting the demise of Neutral Milk Hotel, ex-front-man Jeff Mangum’s Live At Jittery Joe’s was a brief relapse into the obsession. Out of twelve songs, the album features ten from prior studio albums and two others: a cover of Phil Spector’s “I Love How You Love Me” and “I Will Bury You In Time”, a rare NMH track only found previously on bootlegs. Sure, it’s a completest’s album, but that’s what I am.

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10. Owls by Owls
Not to be confused with Minneapolis’s The Owls, Owls were a short-lived art-rock group from Chicago. The band channeled elements of free jazz and post-punk in their lone self-titled album. Birthed out of two groups fronted by Tim Kinsella, 90s group Cap’n Jazz and Joan Of Arc, Owls brief imprint with Owls crops up with artists that mix a similar math-y free jazz and post-punk sounds today.

Owls: Everyone Is My Friend [mp3]

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9. Your Majesty by The Anniversary
The Anniversary‘s follow-up to Designing A Nervous Breakdown, Your Majesty didn’t quite capture its predecessor’s pop strength but was a more than worthy album. It didn’t rock as much and instead delved a little more into sunny yet trippy psychedelic pop. Songs like “The Death Of The King” and “The Siren Sings” were, in effect, mesmerizing. With those massive distorted chords and warbled synth lines, fronted again by harmony male/female vocals – the songs just fit with the time. And yet in revisiting them, they’re just as great as the day I first heard them.

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8. The Photo Album by Death Cab For Cutie
Another treasure from the Death Cab For Cutie vault, and another timeless record from Barsuk. From the subtle opening “Steadier Footing” to the tear-jerker “Styrofoam Plates”, The Photo Album was an album that worked it in every way possible. And if you were lucky enough to snag this baby on vinyl (as I was), it made the experience of listening to this record all the more perfect.

Death Cab For Cutie: A Movie Script Ending [mp3]

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7. The Glow Pt. 2 by Microphones
How to describe and album that set forth a generation, backed by a man that had lived the definition for some time, and a sound that even today seems both timeless and ahead of the times. That’s The Glow Pt. 2 by Microphones for you; again finding Elverum expanding worlds by giving us a glimpse at his. Truly a stand-out, 2001 or otherwise.

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6. Rock It To The Moon by Electrelane
Rock It To The Moon was Electrelane‘s first LP and it technically debuted in 2001 (UK), though it wasn’t released stateside until 2002. It took what so many of us wanted from post-rock groups like EITS and experimented a bit more with sound and melody rather than just loud and soft. Prime example is the second track, “Long Dark”, which opened with a two minute avant-garde piece before dropping in the Pink Panther bass-line and expanding into a swirling synths and punchy percussion, all of which gave the track an experimental cohesion. They had yet to fully integrate vocals, which made their follow-up albums all the better, but Rock It To The Moon was still a more than viable debut.

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5. Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi by Camera Obscura
After banding together in 1996, Camera Obscura didn’t release their debut full-length until November of 2001; that being Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. Soft and lovable indie pop with light hints of orchestration, the album remains a collection of some of their greatest songs, even today after three additional releases. “Happy New Year” and “Eighties Fan” are mainstays in my playlist and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Originally released in 2001 on Andmoresound Records and in 2002 on Elefant Records, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi was reissued by Merge in 2004.

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4. Club 8 by Club 8
To this day, “Love In December”, the opening track of Club 8‘s self-titled LP, remains my favorite song by the Swedish duo. Johan Angergård pops up in virtually every year’s list and it’s easy to see why: his work extends from Club 8 to include the indie-pop collective that is Acid House Kings, as well as the always refreshing group The Legends. In Club 8, Angergård is joined by Karolina Komstedt. Much softer than their earlier stuff, Club 8 is an album that is entirely dreamy in its relaxed nature with Komstedt at the vocal helm. A rarity, Angergård joined Komstedt for backup vocals on the near trip-hop track “Falling From Grace”.

Club 8: Love In December [mp3]

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3. Oh, Inverted World by The Shins
Oh, Inverted World remains The Shins strongest work thus far, though Chutes Too Narrow came pretty damn close. While most will give “New Slang” or “Caring Is Creepy” the nod for best song on the album, I choose “Girl On The Wing”. Elitists might discount this album for its association with the wildly popular Garden State soundtrack, but as a whole the album is a striking collection of great tunes The Shins have yet to truly match in overall strength.

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2. Quiet Is The New Loud by Kings Of Convenience
Kings Of Convenience has, in my opinion, always been considered the epitome of folk-pop. With romantically-tinged guitars and non-stop harmony vocals, Quiet Is The New Loud found Kings Of Convenience creating one hit after another. Perfection comes in many forms, and when it comes to albums, Quiet Is The New Loud can be considered truly perfect.

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1. You Should Be At Home Here by Carissa’s Wierd
I have long been obsessed with Carissa’s Wierd, of which many members have gone on to form successful follow-up groups like Band Of Horses, Sera Cahoone, S, and Grand Archives. You Should Be At Home Here, while not my introduction to the band (that came with Ugly But Honest), has been the favorite thanks to beautifully orchestrated slowcore tracks like “Brooke Daniels’ Tiny Broken Fingers” and “All Apologies & Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”. In fact, at the release of Grand Archives’ self-titled debut last year, Mat Brooke took the stage with S’s Jenn Ghetto (his female counterpart in Carissa’s Wierd) for a duet of “All Apologies” that brought tears to my eyes the moment they started playing it. Having never seen Carissa’s Wierd before their demise, it was a dream come true.

I’ve decided to create an installment in which I do a recap of my favorite albums of the past ten years now that we’re coming up on the turn-of-decade – yes, 2010 is upon us. They key: I do them one at a time. I figure contemplating the weight of albums that have been instituted in my library for the better part (or even just half) of a decade would warrant a skewed opinion when comparing them to those released just this month. And, as these things are all truly opinion-based, well I just couldn’t have that.

(Besides, an appreciator such as myself would have an even larger and more time consuming task ahead of them were they to go through the thousands of albums that have been released, listened to, loved, etc. over the past ten years. No, much easier to split it year by year. And yes, when available for public consumption, I’ll include an mp3 for your enjoyment.)

These are the albums that stick with you – or at least the ones that have stuck with me; they have longevity. They’re ones I’ll listen to for decades to come. We begin with my freshman year of college, 2000. Well, second half of my freshman year, that is. That being said, I would love for this to be a friendly dialog. So please feel free to chime in with some of your favorites as well…

Here we go: my top 15 albums of 2000…

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15. Fevers & Mirrors by Bright Eyes
Odd as it may seem here, Bright Eyes‘ Fevers & Mirrors was a favorite of mine around 2000 and 2001. Songs like “The Calendar Hung Itself” and “When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass” just fit with my persona at the time. I was a sad bastard back then, but I’ve outgrown that phase. Still, every so often I revisit those albums of old and it still astonishes me that I can feel good while listening to them. Fevers & Mirrors is one such album.

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14. Crooked Fingers by Crooked Fingers
Like Fevers & Mirrors, Crooked Fingers‘ self-titled LP had me in its grip for a long time. “A New Drink For An Old Drunk” was a perfect song back then, and in various scenarios today it works just as well. And who could forget “She Spread Her Legs & Flew Away”, or “Juliette”, or even “The Man Who Died Of Nothing At All”? Crooked Fingers was a difficult one for Eric Bachman to top; he didn’t until last year’s Forfeit/Fortune.

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13. The Great Eastern by The Delgados
I don’t think I started listening to The Delgados until sometime around 2004, possibly even 2005. And while my initial love was Hate, eventually the power of The Great Eastern took hold. Sure, specific tracks on Hate may stand out more than some on this record (“All I Need Is Hate”, for example), but as a whole I think The Great Eastern is more consistently good.

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12. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Containing only four songs, only one of which was under 20 minutes (“Antennas To Heaven” came in at just under 19, far from brevity), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven is all about building up to those epic climaxes and throwing out spacey shoegaze-like drones while maintaining that almost classical music approach signature to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. To say this album is breathtaking would be an understatement. I’ll probably kick myself later for not putting it in the top 10.

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11. The Lioness by Songs: Ohia
The Lioness remains one of my all-time favorite releases by Jason Molina, no matter which moniker he may be using at the time of release. The only LP truly capable of exceeding its greatness is Trials & Errors (2004) by Magnolia Electric Co. Molina excels, especially under the guise of Songs: Ohia, at creating minimalistic country-folk tunes that on The Lioness dabbles lightly in a bit fuller sound.

‘The Lioness’ by Songs: Ohia

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10. Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse
Like many albums in this list, Moon & Antarctica remains a favorite of mine from the Modest Mouse catalog. It was around this time I really began expanding my music horizons and Modest Mouse was a band that helped push me down this path. Tunes like “I Came As A Rat”, “Gravity Rides Everything”, and “Dark Center Of The Universe” all carried me toward this true obsession with music, from which I doubt I’ll ever return.

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9. He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms by A Silver Mt. Zion
A Silver Mt. Zion snared me in its trap – looking for some great study music but not willing to seek out the limited classical music of my parents and their parents (and not knowing the immense modern artists who were more than worthy), I ended up landing on A Silver Mt. Zion. And while it wasn’t always instrumental, at the right volume it worked perfectly. Only later did I come to truly fall in love with this album, as well as their brethren, Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

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8. Ugly But Honest by Carissa’s Wierd
I discovered Carissa’s Wierd from a magazine. It was a fairly random encounter, actually, but it led to an obsession like no other. I ultimately downloaded everything I could find from the band. Eventually, I would collect every album of theirs I could find – all in physical form, of course. To this day, the only item that eludes me is a rare 7″ single containing a remix or two; I even snagged a copy of that rare Scrapbook disc. I still find songs like “Drunk With The Only Saints I Know” and “Fluorescent Lights” to be among the most moving and personal songs around.

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7. It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water by Microphones
The great thing about A Retrospective is that it allows me to list all those albums that truly should have made my ‘best of’ list back in 2000. (Had I created one at the time, it is highly unlikely It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water by The Microphones would have made it on the list. It was just a little beyond my temperament at the time.) But these days, I cannot get enough of practically everything Phil Elverum does, this album included. That being said, as soon as I can muster the cash, I’m gonna snag one of those “Books 6 & 7″ copies by Mount Eerie from Easy Street Records. Damn.

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6. Live by Built To Spill
A collection of some of Built To Spill‘s best tracks recorded prior to 2000, from the astonishing Perfect From Now On (1997) to selections from Keep It Like A Secret (1999). It also includes an epic 20-minute rendition of Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer” and one of the best lyrical songs of the 90s: “Car”.

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5. Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons by Blonde Redhead
This is really a no-brainer. Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons has always been an album to look up to since its release in 2000. With songs so different – I mean, just listen to “In Particular” stacked up next to “This Is Not” and jump back to “Hated Because Of Great Qualities” – it’s amazing they go so well together. Then again, that’s something of which Blonde Redhead has always excelled: putting together exceptional tracklists.

‘This Is Not’ by Blonde Redhead

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4. Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant by Belle & Sebastian
I could say that Tigermilk was my first true love when it comes to Belle & Sebastian, but I’d be lying. No, it was actually Fold Your Hands opening track “I Fought In A War” that sold me on this band. Afterwards, songs like “The Model” and “Don’t Leave The Light On Baby” dominated my playlist, even through the release of The Life Pursuit and beyond.

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3. Designing A Nervous Breakdown by The Anniversary
I can name few albums that have not only stuck with me through the years, but that also so heavily influenced my love for pop music. Designing A Nervous Breakdown by The Anniversary is absolutely such an album. The male/female vocals of Adrianne Verhoeven, Josh Berwanger, and Justin Roelofs were perfection back then. And songs like “The D In Detroit” and “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” continue to wow me today.

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2. We Have The Facts & We’re Voting Yes by Death Cab For Cutie
By far, We Have The Facts continues to dominate as my all-time favorite Death Cab For Cutie album. The lackluster way Gibbard sings about driving down the “405″ and the contemplations on friends and girlfriends reminds me of my college days and, later, grad school; it was the perfect accompaniment as I made my way out to Pullman from Portland, driving through the Palouse doing 75 in my Volvo wagon and watching the moon crest orange over hills at 1am. Yeah, even songs like “Scientist Studies” and “The Employment Pages” ring true today. Calm beauty seeps through every single moment of this album.

‘For What Reason’ by Death Cab For Cutie

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1. Kid A by Radiohead
I mean c’mon! How could you not place this as your favorite album of 2000? It was Radiohead‘s follow-up to the amazing OK Computer and was really their first foray into a sound much more experimental than they had previously tampered with. “Idioteque”; the song remains to this day one of my all-time favorites by Radiohead. The tracklist is flawless – a feat they hadn’t achieved before, and wouldn’t again until In Rainbows.