Anything On Your Mind?
I hope you all enjoyed our trip through tags. I had fun going through it “live”, and if people enjoyed it, I’ll give it another go at some point. If nobody says anything, I’ll probably also go through it again. In the meantime, let’s resume our trip backwards through time, which has now reached 2002. I was laid off for the first time in 2002, which was an interesting experience. I had been pretty sure it was coming for a while, although I didn’t really do anything proactively about it. The company I was working for was a dot com, and they went public in October 1999, on the same day as the WWE and Martha Stewart’s company. But, as with so many tech companies that went public around that time, this business never should have been public.
The specific problem the company had is that it was primarily a consulting company. Which is fine, but those business don’t really scale the way that people expect tech companies to scale. And worse than that, the vast majority of the company’s revenue came from one customer, and even worse than that, most of that revenue came from a single contract. Well, that contract wasn’t renewed, the company’s bets on various products didn’t pan out, and the general downturn in tech as the web 1.0 bubble popped dragged the whole enterprise down. Rounds of layoffs ensued, and eventually they hit me.
Before they did, however, my ongoing projects were canceled. It’s not clear why - the division I worked for was actually profitable, and it seemed like just letting us do our thing would have been fine. But no, they stopped our work, but didn’t immediately do anything beyond that. So for a couple months, I would go in to work, ask my boss if there was anything for me to do (“we’re working on figuring that out”), and then I’d hang out with my coworkers for a little while before heading home. I worked on some game design, I worked on side projects, I played games, and then I’d head out. Before I actually had this job of being paid to do nothing, I would have thought it would be great. But it wasn’t long before it really weighed on me, and it was hard to feel great about myself.
Anyway, finally, in the spring the hammer came down. I left my lucite “MVP” award on my desk and headed home. I had a decent severance, and I found a consulting job through a friend that also helped out with finances, and it seemed like things were going to work out just fine. As mentioned in the 2003 post, I ended up getting involved in founding a startup that didn’t working out, but in 2002, that reality hadn’t hit me yet. It still seemed new and exciting. Shame how it ended up.
On the bright side, this is also the year I got married! 24 years on that decision still looks like a great call on my part, and given that it’s the decision still shaping my life, I think I did pretty well this year, overall.
Musically, I do expect 2002 to be a year where I’m reasonably plugged in. Looking at the chart, I have eleven in the collection, although I could have sworn that I had that Xiu Xiu record in here. It’s possible that it never got ripped into the library, which does happen. At any rate, eleven records isn’t a bad showing.
What Do You Listen To From 2002, Josh?
A sampling of albums from 2002 that I want to write about.
Blazing Arrow, Blackalicious
This is another one of those records where I really don’t know if people know about it these days or not. It was a pretty big thing at the time. Everybody who paid attention to any kind of underground hip-hop knew about the album and loved it. But that was 24 years ago, and perhaps the knowledge of this record has drained away. Especially because Blackalicious didn’t have that long of a career as a band. But this album was their peak record, and so I think it’s worth writing about so maybe somebody will discover it.
Blackalicious was two people, Chief Xcel on the production and Gift of Gab on the mic. The latter is usually highlighted as the star attraction, as Gab writes intricate, dense rhymes and has incredible flow. Like, just listen to “Paragraph President” and prepare to have your doors blown off. But what makes this record work so well is that Xcel’s beats are also incredible. It’s in the spirit of classic hip-hop, but the loops he uses are interesting, he shifts around between pop, soul, and jazz on the tracks, there’s a ton of variety but it’s all dialed in. It’s a masterpiece, and if you haven’t heard it before (or it’s been a while), you’re in for a treat.
The Creek Drank the Cradle, Iron & Wine
I don’t always have a ton of patience for “guy with a guitar” music. I think it can end up wallpaper-y a lot of the time. A fair bit of that is because I don’t pay a lot of attention to lyrics. I’m glad they’re there, but I generally don’t really parse the actual words. They’re just word-shaped noises to me. As a result, a fair bit of the appeal of these sorts of acts misses me. Iron & Wine is an exception because Sam Beam’s habit of harmonizing with himself is really appealing. It adds a lot of interest to his songs for me, and I find his music lovely. This is his first record, which was actually assembled by Sub Pop from the two complete albums he sent in for their evaluation. It’s not my favorite record from Beam (that’s The Shepherd’s Dog), but I think it’s nice sometimes to start where an artist started as well.
I Phantom, Mr. Lif
Definitive Jux (née Def Jux), El-P’s label, put out a ton of great underground hip-hop records in its time. Beyond El-P’s solo work, RJD2 started there, The Cold Vein was on it, Aesop Rock, the Perceptionists, Murs, it was an impressive roster. But my favorite release on Def Jux might be this one here. Mr. Lif was one of the earlier artists on the label, and after an assortment of singles and EPs, he finally released his debut LP in 2002. And it’s a banger all the way through. It’s a concept album of sorts, about an everyman struggling through his job, his family life, a post-divorce reinvention that leaves his family behind, and just a gradual escalation. Through it all, Lif is fantastic on the mic and he’s backed up with great beats from a variety of producers. It’s an incredible record, and one I’ve listened to a ton over the years.
Let’s Talk More 2002 Records
Hell yeah, 2002!
Dying To Meet You, Vaz
After Hammerhead fell apart, Paul Erickson and Jeff Mooridian Jr. formed Vaz and kept going in roughly the same vein. While they don’t quite reach the heights of Hammerhead’s mid-90s releases, that’s not really a fair bar, and Vaz’s records are excellent. On this record, there’s more than enough queasy riffs and drum heroics to satisfy any noise rock sicko out there.
Dap Dippin’ With…, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
It doesn’t feel like this is a 2002 release, nor that this is Sharon Jones’s first release. But it is and it is. Sharon Jones feels like she’s always been around. The objection that was leveled at this at the time was that it was just a shameless throwback, that it wasn’t introducing anything new, and it was basically musical grave robbing. My response would be: shut up, nerd! Yeah, obviously this is very much in the vein of classic funk. And you know what? That shit rules. This record rules. Nobody gets mad when somebody rips off Black Sabbath for the eight billionth time!
O.S.T., People Under The Stairs
PUTS worked in the underground hip-hop mines for decades, putting out ten albums along the way with an admirable consistency. Thes One and Double K did everything, creating their classic boom bap beats as well as getting on the mic. That fact, that they did all the production as well as the rhyming, means that every one of their albums feels of a piece with the others. It’s not like rappers who work with a bunch of different producers over their careers and end up with a discography with a ton of variation.
This, their third record, was the first one where they got significant attention thanks to the relative success of “Acid Raindrops”. This record and the next couple did get some buzz, but there was never really a big breakthrough or anything. I do think this is a fine record to start with, and if you like it, you’ve got a lot to explore from them.
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Carrion Suite”, Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird released Useless Creatures as a companion piece to Noble Beast, containing instrumental explorations that are intended to accompany the tunes on the main album. He would do this several more times, with Hand of Glory accompanying Break It Yourself and Outside Problems accompanying Inside Problems. It’s not an essential record by any means, focusing more on kind of abstract songs and loops, but it’s fun if you’re a real Bird fanatic.
“Gut Feeling”, Claw Hammer
This is a cover of the Devo song. You can tell, because it comes from Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are NOT Devo!, Claw Hammer’s full-length cover of Devo’s legendary debut. Claw Hammer’s usual stock-in-trade is blues-inflected punk, and they let some of those tendencies fly on these songs, along with Jon Wahl’s unique croak. It’s a curiosity for sure, but hell, if you love the Devo record, give a whirl. Why not?
“City of Mirrors”, BADBADNOTGOOD
You all know the story, so I’ll just say I’m not qualified to talk about this.
“P.C.”, Pilfers
The Pilfers were a kind of ska supergroup, comprised of members of the Toasters, Bim Skala Bim, and Skinnerbox. This is their second record, and it’s pretty typical ska-punk from the time. Thanks to Coolie Ranx, there’s some real commonality with early Toasters here, so I suppose if there’s a fan of them who doesn’t know about this band, you’re welcome. The rest of you are excused.
“Pounding the Pavement”, The New York Citizens
One of the earlier bands of the third wave of ska, the NY Citizens were clearly drawing pretty directly on the 2-tone bands of the second wave more than anything, especially the English Beat. That means quite a bit more pop and new wave in their sound than the bands that would come later in the third wave. Depending on your preferences, that might be a big positive. All of their material, across singles, comp appearances, and a short album, were gathered together onto a single compilation, The Truth About the NY Citizens, a fine retrospective on one of the pioneers of the third wave.
[N.B. the song starts at 10:26 in the linked video.]
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.