1995-2000 Rebuttal

Ok, it’s not really a rebuttal because I can’t find anything to rebut. I wanted to add this to the comment list but it’s way too long. My initial thought was that I agree, but I had to find out just how much I agreed. And upon searching for myself, I found that Ryan is absolutely right. Right enough for me to be able to come up with 100 more to further his point. It was an amazing time for music that helped shape the lives of most all my friends in one way or another. So, here are 100 more reasons to help make the point. In fact, I started this trying to come up with an additional 50 and it easily became 100. So Ryan, I’m not trying to out do you, but this is what happens when you get me in list making mode.

1995
Alice In Chains – Alice In Chains
Chavez - Gone Glimmering
Crimpshrine – Duct Tape Soup
Deftones – Adrenaline
Fugazi – Red Medicine
Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes
Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut
June of 44 – Engine Takes to the Water
Jawbreaker – Dear You
Morphine – Yes
Oblivion – Shoot Me A Waco
Red House Painters – Ocean Beach
Roky Erickson – All That May Do My Rhyme
Sea and Cake – Sea and Cake
TAD – Infrared Riding Hood
88 Fingers Louie – Behind Bars

1996
Archers of Loaf – All The Nation’s Airports
Avail – 4AM Friday
Beastie Boys – The In Sound From Way Out
The Crownhate Ruin – Until the Eagle Grins
Guided By Voices - Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Jawbox – Jawbox
June of 44 - Tropics & Meridians
Karate - Karate
Modest Mouse – This Is A Long Drive…
Nirvana – From The Muddy Banks of the Wishka
Propagandhi – Less Talk, More Rock
Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire
Soundgarden – Down on the Upside
Tool – Aenima
Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Trans Am – Trans Am
2 Pac – All Eyez On Me

1997
Blur – Blur
Deftones – Around the Fur
Franklin – GoKidGo
Grandaddy – Under The Western Freeway
Hot Water Music – Forever & Counting
Houseboy – Ya Right!
Joan of Arc – A Portable Model Of
June of 44 – Anatomy of Sharks
Karate – In Place of Real Insight
Modest Mouse – The Fruit That Ate Itself
Mogwai - Young Team
Shipping News – Save Everything
Ween – The Mollusk

1998
Alkaline Trio – Goddamnit!
Avail – Over The James
Bone Thugs – E. 1999 Eternal
Califone – Califone LP
Coalesce – Functioning On Impatience
Engine Down – Under the Pretense of Present Tense
Fifteen – Extra Medium Kickball Star
Four Hundred Years – Transmit Failure
Houseboy - 1465 Tamarack Street Press Room
Hum - Downward Is Heavenward
Jets to Brazil – Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Sleepytime Trio – Memory Minus
Tortoise – TNT

1999
American Analog Set – The Golden Band
Billy Mahonie – The Big Dig
Broken Hearts Are Blue – The Truth About Love
Buried Alive – Death of Your Perfect World
Casket Lottery – Choose Bronze
Castor – Tracking Sounds Alone
Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
Inlantic – Inlantic
June of 44 - Anahata
June of 44 – Fish 6
Mercury Program – Mercury Program
Method Man & Redman – Blackout!
Mice Parade – Ramda
Mogwai – Come On Die Young
My Morning Jacket – The Tennessee Fire
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
Pavement – Brighten The Corners
Small Brown Bike – Our Own Wars
Trans Am – Futureworld

2000
Alkaline Trio – Alkaline Trio
Alkaline Trio – Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
The Anniversary – Designing For A Nervous Breakdown
At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command
Cursive – Domestica
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Deftones – White Pony
Don Caballero – American Don
Elliott – False Cathedrals
Engine Down – To Bury Within The Sound
Grandaddy – The Software Slump
Hey Mercedes – Hey Mercedes Ep
Karate – Unsolved
Ludacris – Back For The First Time
Mercury Program – From The Vapor of Gasoline
The Microphones – It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water
Modest Mouse – Building Something Out of Nothing
Outkast – Stankonia
Q And Not U – No Kill No Beep Beep
Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide
Ween – White Pepper

If there was any doubt in my mind, it is gone now. I think I speak for all of us when I pose the challenge for someone to come up with a better 5 year span of music. For real, if you can do it, we want to see it!

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Is 1995-2000 the Best 5 Year Period of Music in History?

I proposed this question to a friend a couple weeks ago, and he proposed I write about it on the blog. I don't think there's any question that a strong argument can be made. The amount of great albums that were released is staggering. Countless great bands got their start during this half-decade, and several great ones released the entirety of their output (or close to it). Thing is, this question is doomed to suffer the same fate as almost every argument I've ever gotten into with my friends concerning music. No matter how good of a case I present, it's all going to be for naught because it's all subjective anyway (although I don't think I'd get much of an argument from those guys on this one). Everyone is going to have different tastes and opinions when it comes to any kind of media based on their own backgrounds and experiences. Case in point: Why is it that hearing the Jonas Brothers makes me want to torture animals, but every time I hear Ace of Base I just wanna dance? You'd be better off spending your time figuring out why McDonald's doesn't serve hotdogs. Nonetheless, I've decided to offer 50 reasons why I think the years 1995-2000 are in actuality the 5 greatest years music has ever seen. I do this fully realizing that some will see the light, and many will run from it. But that's ok. Music has seen several other runs that have produced ridiculous amounts of great music that have influenced future generations of more great music. I have tremendous respect for what the catalogue of the more distant past has to offer, so you're encouraged to leave your own thoughts behind, whether they concern the evidence or the overall proposal. The evidence itself will be presented chronologically (by year only); these are in no way ranked. Also, it does not include EPs or live albums. Just because. Those are all arguments for another day:

1995

Ben Folds Five Ben Folds Five

Foo Fighters Foo Fighters

Less Than Jake Pez Core

Radiohead The Bends

Sunny Day Real Estate Sunny Day Real Estate (The Pink Album)

1996

Beck Odelay

Braid The Age of Octeen

Jeremy Enigk Return of the Frog Queen

Hot Water Music Fuel For the Hate Game

Jawbox Jawbox

Less Than Jake Losing Streak

Texas is the Reason Do You Know Who You Are?

Weezer Pinkerton

The Wrens Secaucus

1997

Ben Folds Five Whatever & Ever Amen

Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape

Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West

The Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death

The Promise Ring Nothing Feels Good

Radiohead Ok Computer

The Sea and Cake Fawn

Elliott Smith Either/Or

1998

Braid Frame & Canvas

Elliott U.S. Songs

Fugazi End Hits

Heroic Doses Heroic Doses

Karate The Bed is in the Ocean

Mock Orange Nines & Sixes

The Notwist Shrink

Outkast Aquemini

Spoon Series of Sneaks

Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels to Be Something On

1999

American Football American Football

Blur 13

Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret

Burning Airlines Mission: Control!

The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I

The Get Up Kids Something to Write Home About

No Knife Fire In The City of Automatons

Pinback Pinback

Sharks Keep Moving Sharks Keep Moving

Sigur Rós Ágætis Byrjun

Wheat Hope and Adams

2000

Coldplay Parachutes

Euphone Hashin' It Out

Faraquet The View From This Tower

The Firebird Band The Setting Sun and It's Satellites

Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica

Radiohead Kid A

Spoon Girls Can Tell

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