Best of Music 2001

6. Appleseed Cast
Low Level Owl: Volume II (Deep Elm)
Until recently, the Appleseed Cast seemed intent on being too obtuse to let casual listeners in on its little secrets. Its members were musicians' musicians. But with the release of Low Level Owl: Volume II, the Appleseed Cast has finally opened the door to reveal what a lucky few already knew: This is one of the most talented bands to grace the Kansas City/Lawrence scene. With stellar production from Ed Rose, the group creates a mesmerizing, neopsychedelic wall of sound on Volume II. And, as if to prove how talented its members really are, Appleseed Cast mostly does it with instrumentals. (Only four of the twelve tracks have words.)

7. Adam West
Right On! (People Like You/The Telegraph Company)
Dirty, raucous and bent on having a good time, Adam West makes rock and roll the way Kiss intended. Released in Europe in 2001 and slated for stateside release in February of next year, Right On! takes all the raw energy of the DC-area band's live show and captures the machismo magic of its stripped down, blues-based hardcore songs. Titles such as "C'mon and Bludgeon Me," "Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail" and "Sultry Motherfucker" could make Gene Simmons proud, but the fact that the tunes deliver the intimidation promised by their names would make him even prouder.

8. The Gadjits
Yes I Are (VMS)
Short and sweet at a mere six tracks, Yes I Are might be the briefest album to surface in this entire poll. But the fact that it captures a Kansas City band during its finest half hour should earn it a spot on any year-end list. It took the Gadjits quite a few years to grow from those lovable ska scamps who appeared in Rolling Stone to a band that garage-rockers could embrace. Building on their two-tone heritage, the Gadjits reinvented themselves as a dynamic soul-inflected band capable of displaying great emotional depth with only a few easy chords. And the band members continue to douse their live performances with frenetic energy.

9. Bob Dylan
Love and Theft (Columbia)
Who would've thought the old man could have put out one of his most impressive records in his fifth decade as a recording artist? Apparently not many, which is why 1997's Time out of Mind made so many top-ten lists that year. Even more impressive, though, is that he surpassed that effort in his sixth decade with Love and Theft. Dylan continues to dig into basic human issues such as power, loss and love, doing his dirty work with the same depth and wisdom that he first flashed 43 albums ago.

10. Kirk Rundstrom
Blue China (Catamount)
Raw, meandering and completely void of any of the kitschy country sounds that have been largely associated with his two most popular bands, Scroatbelly and Split Lip Rayfield, Blue China showcases Kirk Rundstrom's musical and emotional depth in a way that's disheartening only because it rings true.

Top Five Songs

1. Cake
"Short Skirt/Long Jacket," from Comfort Eagle (Columbia)
What red-blooded hetero male doesn't want a girl wearing a short skirt and a long jacket? What Cake lacks in depth and originality, it compensates for with wit.

2. Ryan Adams
"New York, New York," from Gold (Lost Highway/Universal)
It's interesting to think of what would've come of this song if the tragedy of September 11 had never happened. After all, it's a song about a girl, with Adams' wryly replacing the femme fatale's name with a city that can eat you up and spit you out just as easily as his muse had done to him. Now, though, it's become an anthem; and in more ways than one, that's sad.

3. Ben Folds
"Rockin' the Suburbs," from Rockin' the Suburbs (Epic)
It's always fun when someone else says what you've been thinking for quite a while, and leave it to Folds to express it better than anyone else: I got shit runnin' through my brain/It's so intense that I can't explain/All alone in my white-boy pain/ Shake your booty while the band complains.

4. Nate Dogg
"I Got Love," from Music and Me (Elektra)
You gotta feel sorry for Nate Dogg, caught up all these years in the shadow of Warren G's "Regulate" and the Death Row Records fallout. But he's still the only man around who can sing about getting play and make it sound like a hymn from a church choir.

5. Sum 41
"Fat Lip," from All Killer, No Filler (Island)
This single might have destined these cheeky youngsters from the Great White North to one-hit-wonder status, but if it comes to that, at least the tune's hair-metal benediction proves that Sum 41 can laugh at itself.

 

---

Robert Bishop

Top Ten Albums