You Oughtta Hear This Stuff!

So, you probably know that my music geek friends and I exchange compilation CDs at the end of the year. Its a chance to revisit all the great tunes that have buoyed our spirits in the previous 12 months.

This year also offered the opportunity for the same treatment of the decade now-past. On New Years, Scott Barsky and I thought this would be an interesting challenge and set a single ground rule: one CD or download (80 minutes of music or less).

That's a kicker. I was able to get my list down to 40ish songs pretty quick. With a bit more thought, it was down to 30 songs. And from there, with the exception of 10 songs that clearly would HAVE to be on the compilation, it was a function of making sure all 10 years were represented (and a bit of swapping to get the most songs represented). The results are pretty great, 21 songs, 1:19:58 minutes of music---I am proud to present the decade in review:

You Oughtta Hear This Stuff! The Best of the Aughts as compiled by DJ Joshie Josh

1. Ms. Jackson - Outkast (Stankonia, 2000)
   
2. Cherry Chapstick - Yo La Tengo (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, 2000)
   
3. The Modern Age - The Strokes (Is This It?, 2001)
   
4. Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground - The White Stripes (White Blood Cells, 2001)
   
5. Blazing Arrow - Blackilicious (Blazing Arrow, 2002)
   
6. I Was Born (A Unicorn) - The Unicorns (Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Are Dead, 2003)
   
7. Neighborhoods 1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire (Funeral, 2004)
   
8. I am the Alphabet - Black Moth Super Rainbow (Start a People, 2004)
   
9. Romantic Rights - Death From Above 1979 (You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, 2004)
   
10. Jesus Walks - Kanye West (College Dropout, 2004)
    
11. Let's Kill Ourselves - The Ponys (Laced with Romance, 2004)
    
12. Feel Good, Inc. - Gorillaz (Demon Days, 2005)
    
13. Daft Punk is Playing at My House - LCD Soundsystem (LCD Soundsystem, 2005)
    
14. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (Come on Feel the Illinoise!, 2005)
    
15. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley (St. Elsewhere, 2006)
    
16. Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn & John (Writer's Block, 2006)
    
17. Transparent Things - Fujiya & Miyagi (Transparent Things, 2007)
    
18. The Underdog - Spoon (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, 2007)
    
19. Nothing Ever Happened - Deerhunter (Microcastle, 2008)
    
20. Dancing Choose - TV on the Radio (Dear Science, 2008)
    
21. Armistice - Phoenix (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, 2009)

Hey, I am hardly the only one doing this. Check out nice lists from the Sound Opinions gents too. Looking back, wow, what was going on in 2004 and 2005? Incredible.