Easy Come Easy Gaughin

Every year around this time I update my list of the most important musical artists of the new millenium. This is based strictly on the aggregate quality of recordings released for the first time during or since 2000, according to an arcane combination of my opinion and input from over a dozen regular music writers whose tastes I respect even if I don’t necessarily agree. This means that my voice is in here, but this is by no means a list I would come up with on my own (you don’t see Kate Bush at the top, do you?)

Occasionally that means an expanded re-release, or previously unreleased recording gets included, spitting artists who have not recorded in years onto the list. I don’t care; it’s limited, and for the most part those recordings are better than most of the crap being sprayed out into the ether. Here goes the updated list, as of December 14, 2008. The number following the artist’s name represents the chart position at this time last year.

1) David Holmes – 5 (Not many people know this guy, my most significant artist of the new century, but he’s released over 60 tracks with very few duds, and this year’s album, The Holy Pictures, was of the consistent high quality he displayed in the first half of the decade. He’s basically a laptop/dance/what we used to call techno sort of guy.)

2) Tom Waits – 1

3) Spoon – 3

4) Super Furry Animals – 6

5) Bob Dylan – 21

6) The White Stripes – 4

7) Lambchop – 9

8) Drive By Truckers – 28

9) Low – 7

10) The Hold Steady – 38

11) Sigur Ros – 27

12) Sufjan Stevens – 13

13) Radiohead – 8

14) Nick Cave – 56

15) Sleater Kenney – 10

16) Bonnie Prince Billy – 39

17) LCD Soundsystem – 11

18) Outkast – 14

19) Dizzee Rascal – 17

20) Basement Jaxx – 15

21) The New Pornographers – 16

22) Of Montreal – 18

23) Iron and Wine – 2

24) TV on the Radio – 79

25) Elbow – 51

26) Four Tet – 32

27) Ghostface Killah – 12

28) Kanye West – 30

29) Wilco – 19

30) Elliott Smith – 20

31) The Clash – 61

32) Animal Collective – 45

33) PJ Harvey – 23

34) Arab Strap – 26

35) Missy Elliott – 31

36) My Morning Jacket – 29

37) Nas – 50

38) The Roots – 66

39) Bruce Springsteen – 33

40) Blur – 34

41) Bjork – 36

42) Ron Sexsmith – 25

43) The Arcade Fire – 40

44) The Decemberists – 37

45) Mogwai – 24

46) Talking Heads – 41

47) Okkervil River – 91

48) Devandra Banhart – 43

49) Oneida – 60

50) MIA – 44

51) Neko Case – 46

52) Dungen – 95

53) The Magnetic Fields – 98

54) Sam Phillips – new (although I have been enjoying her stuff from all the way back when she still called herself Leslie; the new album’s fantastic, like if Marlene Dietrich grew up in the Appalachians.)

55) Destroyer – new (back in after sitting out one year)

56) The Flaming Lips – 52

57) J Dilla – 48

58) The National – 49

59) Yo La Tengo – new

60) Stephen Malkmus – 82

61) Matmos – new

62) The Streets – 22

63) The Go Betweens – 53

64) The Pernice Brothers – 64

65) Broadcast – 55

66) Cat Power – 58

67) Xiu Xiu – 84

68) Bill Frisell – 57

69) Blood Brothers – 42

70) Jay Z – 62

71) Beck – new

72) British Sea Power – new

73) Queens of the Stone Age – 65

74) The Fall – new

75) Damien Jurado – 93

76) The Mendoza Line – 67

77) Smog – 68

78) System of a Down – 69

79) Books – 70

80) Franz Ferdinand – 71

81) Hayden – 73

82) M Ward – 74

83) Les Savy Fav – 47

84) Aimee Mann – new

85) Lucinda Williams – 85

86) David Kilgour – 75

87) Lightning Bolt – 76

88) Los Lobos – 77

89) Candi Staton – 78

90) Built to Spill – 72

91) The Clientele – 80

92) The Constantines – new

93) Ted FOT Leo – 81

94) Murs – new

95) Richard Thompson – 83

96) Belle and Sebastian – new

97) Led Zeppelin – 86

98) Loretta Lynn – 87

99) Fennesz – new

100) Junior Boys – 89

Artists who fell out of favor with the collected wisdom of hipster music critics (by falling out of the top 100) include the following.

Boards of Canada, was formerly 35th!

Wire, was 54

NERD, 59

OOIOO, 63

Vince Gill, 88

Nick Lowe, 90

Solomon Burke, 92

Steve Earle, 94

Richard Hawley, 96

Hood, 97

The Shins, 99

Broken Social Scene, 100

Write! Perform! Record! Release!

This entry was posted on December 19, 2008 at 10:34 am and is filed under Lists, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.