2000: The Year in Review

2000 was a very good year for music. I saw over 150 different artists live (well, maybe they weren't ALL artists), listened to over 180 new releases (and plenty of reissues and old stuff), and, thanks to spending almost 2 weeks at International Pop Overthrow, met so many cool people, I could fill up this column just listing their names. I'll let one story sum up the IPO experience. One of the denizens of the fest was a young fellow from Japan, whose name was (I'm guessing at the spelling) Kazu. Kazu and his trusty video camera could normally be seen to the right of the stage, every night. His favorite band? Why, Fountains Of Wayne - he had on his FoW T-shirt every other night. And it was great seeing his reaction when he got to meet Chris Collingswood of the Fountains before his set at El Rey. I'm not sure what they said to each other, since Kazu's (spoken) English was limited, but it was obvious that he was overjoyed.

Fast forward a few days down the road. Kazu was in his usual spot near the stage, taping away. I see a man walking towards him from behind. It's none other than Chris Collingswood. He goes up and puts his hands on Kazu's shoulders, and Kazu turned around and was even happier than the night at the El Rey. After all, this was no longer fan meeting hero - now they were friends. (Did I just write that last sentence - I should be sentenced to a year of Paul Harvey and/or Touched By An Angel)

In 2000 I could proudly display my chauvinistic Chicago pride - there are lots of cool bands here. In fact, two of my favorite shows involved local popsters. First, Frisbie supported Tahiti 80 at Schubas. This gig fell on my birthday, and I was able to celebrate with friends and two inspired bands giving peak performances. Second, my favorite IPO show was the penultimate night of the fest, with Big Hello dazzling on a bill that included other heavyweights such as Shane Faubert, Bobby Sutliff, The Masticators, John Faye, Sparklejets UK and Chris Von Sneidern. Awesome stuff. 2000 was big because I finally got off my ass and started writing about music for real. I started with the sadly short-lived Pop Palace (thanks to Michael O'Brien and Chris K. for the opportunity) and then got the chance to write for Fufkin.com. But there were some releases I didn't get around to, so allow me the chance to catch up.

I loved the spectacular debut from The Lackloves As Far As You Know, the new band from Mike Jarvis (ex-Blow Pops) - the pretty mid-60's stylings of the 'Pops live on, but with tougher, almost garagey numbers added to the mix. Even better is the pastoral, dreamlike pop of Badly Drawn Boy. My love for jagged catchiness was sated by Slow Jets - imagine early Wire blended with the college pop of The Embarrassment or Big Dipper. Then there's The Fall - their latest, The Unutterable has a good beat, and you can rant to it. Dan Bryk is allegedly the modern day Randy Newman…he's not there yet, but his debut is great singer-songwriter stuff, alternately funny and poignant.

The Swingin' Neckbreakers are the best garage band since The Lyres, if not The Sonics, and their The Return Of Rock album reigns supreme. Steve Earle is a living legend who never lets us down. And The Sugarplastic resurfaced and showed their layoff hadn't diminished their considerable charms.

So 2000 goes in the books as a helluva year. Stay tuned for 2001.

___________________________________

To reach any other page contained in this month's update on Fufkin.com, read the home page for the appropriate link and click on it. You can also search the site from any page using the search box located at the top of each page. Merely type in the word, phrase, name of the band, recording, name of the Fufkin writer that you are looking for or Whatever in the search box, and then click on "Search". If you would like to e-mail us, go to the About Us page for a list of e-mail addresses.

Go back to the home page by clicking here

____________________________________