WILLIAMHAUN

Aphex Twin – “Flim”
From the 1997 album Come to Daddy
http://warp.net/records/aphex-twin
Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, is pretty much the godfather of electronic music. I really got into this genre in college and that was when he was at the top of his game. On the “Come to Daddy EP” he had some brain-bashing loud tracks, but also snuck in beautiful melodies like “Flim”.

Pedro the Lion – “Never Leave a Job Half Done”
From the 2000 album Winners Never Quit
http://www.davidbazan.com/
This album was a game changer for David Bazan’s Pedro the Lion. His music got heavier, darker, and the great song stories he was known for writing expanded into larger stories as concept albums.

This album loosely tells the tale of an adulterous politician who murders his wife. Dark stuff for sure, but Bazan ends the album with a beautiful, hopeful line about God’s grace:

count it a blessing that you’re such a failure
your second chance might
never have come

Damien Jurado – “Ohio”
From the 1999 album Rehearsals for Departure
http://damienjurado.com/
Jurado and Bazan go hand in hand. Both singer/songwriters who create beautiful stories, both hail from the Northwest, they played in a band together in high school, and even collaborated on Jurado’s 2000 album “Ghost of David” (guess who the David in the title is).

Rehearsals for Departure is probably his most beloved album, and “Ohio” is definitely the classic Jurado song. It tells the tale of an abducted child preparing to return to her mother after many years. The story is told from the perspective of some unknown friend, lover, or guardian who hates to see her leave but understands her need to be reunited with her mother. It’s incredibly moving.

Jim Guthrie – “Trust”
From the 2000 album A Thousand Songs
http://jimguthrie.org/
I found out about Canadian musician Jim Guthrie via the old music pirating FTP servers of the late 90s. Somebody with a server full of ripped music had an song of his that I downloaded. He was such an obscure indie artist, I had to mail order his other CDs directly from him.

Guthrie put out three more solo albums after A Thousand Songs and went on to join the bands Royal City, Islands, and Human Highway. However, we’ve never enjoyed his other projects as much as his solo work. In college, my wife and I would listen to him all the time and it felt like we were the only people on earth who knew the secret of this genius.

Stereolab – “Fuses”
From the 2000 album Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
http://www.stereolab.co.uk/
While not considered Stereolab’s greatest album, this was the first CD of theirs that I owned. The album was produced by indie rock superstars Jim O’Rourke and John McEntire and took the group in more of a jazz fusion direction. I think it was the electric keyboards that won me over, but the bursts of horns didn’t hurt either.

Like their friends Yo La Tengo, this group is a music making machine. In 18 years they cranked out 11 LPs and countless EPs. They finally called it quits last year but I’ve got more than enough of their tunes to keep me entertained for another 18.

Boards of Canada – “ROYGBIV”
From the 1998 album Music has a Right to Children
http://www.boardsofcanada.com/
Elusive is an understatement when used to describe these two Scottish brothers. They haven’t performed a live show since 2001 (though they’ve released three full albums since 2002) and they never do interviews. Half the time they release music under other monikers making it hard to discover. Why I don’t know – because they are musical geniuses and everything they create is gold. If I was forced under threat of death to make a top three favorite bands list, these guys would be in it.

Music has a Right to Children is considered by many to be one of the greatest electronic albums ever made. While electronic music is normally thought of as being digital, these guys record onto analog tape reels and run them back and forth layering, looping and degrading them to achieve a very nostalgic sound. What they create is a bit like audible Super8 movies.

Radiohead – “Idioteque”
From the 2000 album Kid A
http://www.radiohead.com/
I heard Radiohead’s OK Computer during my senior year of high school. I was attending a conservative Christian boarding school in West Africa and secular music was not allowed. The CD was sent to me by a relative in the US (thanks Aunt Jane!) and I kept it hidden in my dorm room. I remember dubbing dozens of cassette copies of it and handing them out to my friends. I can’t think of any other album that had such an impact on my appreciation and love of music. But that was 1997 – this is a 1998 to 2001 mixtape.

In 2000, the band followed up the album that couldn’t be beat with something just as amazing. Kid A changed the entire landscape of popular music. I’m not exaggerating here. That album was the bridge from the 1990s’ grunge/alternative/post-rock scene and the 2000s electro pop sounds with beeps, bleeps, and samples. You can’t hardly hear a single song on today’s Billboard 100 that doesn’t do something Radiohead made mainstream with Kid A. It was a beautiful turning point.

The track “Idioteque” is a perfect example of the new direction popular culture took in the 2000s. The song is driven by an electronic beat and its entire melody is a four chord progression sampled from an experimental piece of electronic music composed in the 70s. That piece by Paul Lansky is in turn taken from Wagner opera “Tristan and Isolde” composed in the 1850s. Is that not the direction music has gone today? Or even the world? There is nothing new under the sun.

Fiona Apple – “Fast As You Can”
From the 1999 album When the Pawn
http://www.fiona-apple.com/
It seems that both musician Fiona Apple and film director P.T. Anderson’s brilliance peaked in the late 90s when they were dating each other. Their collaboration on several amazing music videos for this album are a perfect example of that (1, 2, 3, 4). I still love both of those artists (though I don’t think they love each other any more) but they haven’t matched the creative genius they achieved when they were acting as each other’s muses.

The Innocence Mission – “Where Does The Time Go?”
From the 1999 album Birds of my Neighborhood
http://www.theinnocencemission.com/
My wife introduced me to this group in college and they seem to have this incredibly timeless sound to them. She calls is “comfort music,” a description no doubt aided by lead singer Karen Peris’ beautiful, dreamy voice.

Bonus: Check out Sufjan Stevens’ cover of their song “Lakes of Canada”

Aimee Mann – “One”
From the 1999 album Magnolia Soundtrack
http://www.aimeemann.com/
Yet another work of genius inspired by P.T. Anderson. Aimee Mann performed most of the songs on the soundtrack for his wonderfully complex film Magnolia. I loved that whole album but haven’t been able to get into any of her follow-ups.

Moby – “Porcelain”
From the 1999 album Play
http://www.moby.com/
Moby’s “Play” album was huge success. To this day it stands as the best-selling electronic dance record of all time. No matter who you are, I can guarantee you’ve heard at least some of this album because it was the first ever album to have all of its tracks licensed for commercial use. It has shown up over and over in countless commercials and films. There’s a reason for that – the album was great from start to finish. Sure we’re sick of hearing those 30 second snippets played over and over in ads but you can’t deny that Play is a new classic.

The Sea and Cake – “Afternoon Speaker”
From the 2000 album Oui
http://www.theseaandcake.com/
My brother-in-law Kenny Jensen is The Sea and Cake’s greatest fan. He has introduced countless people to this jazzy rock band and they are all grateful. I know Kenny will read this and I’m sure I couldn’t do Sam Prekop and this talented crew justice with a short summary. I will say that one of the things that I love about The Sea and Cake is how simple their music sounds on the surface, but how complex the layers are beneath it. Unity in diversity would be one way to describe it.

Sunny Day Real Estate – “How It Feels To Be Something On”
From the 1998 album How It Feels To Be Something On
http://www.sunnydayrealestate.net/
When I hear Sunny Day I instantly think back to Y2K when I was cruising around Seattle in a van with old high school friends with How It Feels… blaring as we looked for ways to party the millennium away. The band broke up and then re-united twice since their first album in 1994 and rumor has it they are working together again on a new album. I’m not sure they could ever match their first three albums simply because of the nostalgia I have for those records now.

Steve Reich – “Music for 18 Musicians: Section I”
From the 2000 record re-issue of Music for 18 Musicians
http://www.stevereich.com/
While this piece was composed and premiered in 1976, it didn’t find its way to a CD release until 2000. My friend Jym Davis opened my ears to Reich with a 10-disc box set he acquired while working at Knoxville’s Disc Exchange. Steve Reich and his contemporary Philip Glass were favorites during my college years and always seemed to be on repeat (that last bit’s a joke that you’ll get once you hear some of their minimalism).

Yo La Tengo – “Our Way To Fall”
From the 2000 album And Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
http://www.yolatengo.com/
I saved the best for last! My wife and I may be these indie rock veterans’ biggest fans. Since 1984 they’ve released fourteen studio albums, twelve EPs, fourteen SPs, four compilation albums, and five film scores & soundtracks.

When dating my wife in college this band was the one we loved together. And there’s no better soundtrack for a couple that is falling love and wants to spend the rest of their lives together than And Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out.

Here are just some of the beautiful lyrics from “Our Way To Fall”

I remember a summer’s day
I remember walking up to you
I remember my face turned red
I remember staring at my feet
I remember before we met
I remember sitting next to you
I remember pretending I wasn’t looking
So try and try even if it lasts an hour
with all our might try and make it ours
cause we’re on our way, we’re on our way to fall in love

It helps that Ira and Georgia, two of the three band members, have been married for well over two decades and write honest songs about their love for each other – through the good and the bad. It also helps that each album is a great balance of slow sentimental tracks, upbeat pop tunes, and insanely loud improvised rock jam sessions. We’ve seen them in concert together three times and they are some of the best times we’ve had together. Not only are the musicians incredibly talented but their songs remind us that we are still on our way to fall in love.

Sneak peek: an upcoming mixtape will consist solely of Yo La Tengo songs – after all with a discography the size of theirs I could probably make 11 more mixtapes.