[RTS] The Noughties: An Overview (pt 5: 2004)

[jon_chaisson]

Ah, 2004. The year I started this LJ.

Also a big year of change, this one.

I was actually ahead in my finances and figured I could afford to rent my friend Bruce's old apartment (which fell through, but gave me the impetus to keep looking). I'd decided to cut down on some of the cd buying after a few years of spending at least $70 a week on cds. And after a good six or seven years of collecting comics, Showcase Comics closed nearly without warning. This gave me reason to stop collecting so many comics and other things. I even started ripping CDs onto my hard drive and getting rid of a lot of them for extra money.

Writingwise, I'd stalled on The Process of Belief, and while stepping away from that one for awhile, I started writing a vampire novel based on a weird dream I'd had, which would eventually become Love Like Blood. By this time my 7-days-a-week/2-hours-a-day writing habit had been dropped, partly due to exhaustion and partly due to frustration. I still wrote, but not quite as often as I'd had.

Workwise, things were getting even more frustrating at Yankee Candle. We'd lost a few long-standing coworkers either due to quitting or getting fired. Temps were few and far between. It had become your usual understaffed/underpaid/overworked situation, and Bruce and I had gotten rather pissed about it by then. It wasn't much fun working there anymore. The only actual part that was sort of fun was when I volunteered again to do the mail run between YC's buildings (some of which were a good few miles apart), something I'd done in the summer of 2003 as well.

As for life?

Well...after commenting on each other's LJs (and after head58 emailed me with a "ya know...just sayin'..." hint), I went to 2004's Worldcon in Boston, where I met emmalyon for the first second time. We met up frequently during the con, chatted a lot, attended a lot of the same con panels, and had a lot of fun together. A little later at one of head58's parties, he and lynxreign hinted shamelessly that I offer to drive emmalyon to her next destination, which happened to be Newport RI for a business meeting. Our first official dates, I suppose...by winter of 2004, I was making weekend trips down to New Jersey to visit her, and by March of 2005 I had quit my YC job and moved in. And the rest, they say, is history. :)

SO! Musically? A lot of interesting stuff, most of it heard on Launchcast...nothing that was absolutely brilliant that floored me, but it at least kept me entertained and provided more writing soundtracks. :)

Oh--and it was also the year of the mashup, apparently. I have a LOT of mashups from this period.

Videos below...


The Pillows, "Ride on Shooting Star" from the anime FLCL (strk rel. 1/20/04)

I didn't watch the anime until about a year or so later (check the first part of episode one here, and yes, it is that weird), but it was worth buying. This is the ending credits song. :)

Franz Ferdinand, "Take Me Out", from Franz Ferdinand, rel. 2/9/04

Two things stuck out for me on this song--the fact that the first minute seems to be a completely different song, and that the video is very dadaesque. :)

Audio Learning Center, "Stereo", from Cope Park, rel. 2/26/04

This was a CMJ suggested buy, and well worth it. Excellent noncommercial alt.rock.

TV on the Radio, "Dreams", from Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, rel. 3/9/04

One of the first albums I recommended on this here blog (and probably the first use of the RTS initials :p ). This song is extremely retro, if you think about it...very early 80s new wave, like something Talking Heads would have done.

Gary Jules, "Mad World", from Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets, rel. 3/23/04

I of course didn't hear this song until it got big for Donnie Darko (and later a great CSI episode), and had no idea the great Michel Gondry made a video for it, but another one of my favorite cover songs.

L'arc~en~Ciel, "Ready Steady Go", from Smile, rel. 3/31/04

Also known as one of the theme songs to the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. This song kicks all sorts of major ass, and I always wish that more US bands even attempted to rock this hard and be this tight!

Secret Machines, "Nowhere Again", orig. from Now Here is Nowhere, rel. 5/18/04

Live version of the song and kind of lacks the punch of the original, but this album was another big writing soundtrack for me as well.

My Chemical Romance, "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, rel. 6/8/04

I totally admit to liking MCR, despite not liking most whiny emo. I think this song wins just for the amusing video!

West Indian Girl, "What Are You Afraid Of", from West Indian Girl, rel. 8/28/04

Another song Launchcast got me into. Very laid back, summery album!

Arcade Fire, "Wake Up", from Funeral, rel. 9/14/04

This is the song you hear in the Where the Wild Things Are trailer. I didn't expect to be into this band, but they proved me wrong!

Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", from American Idiot, rel. 9/21/04

SO many great songs from this album. This one's my favorite.

Yoko Kanno, "Inner Universe", from the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, strk rel. 11/7/04

Extended version of the theme song. I didn't get into this anime until a few years ago...this song proves yet again that Yoko Kanno writes AWESOME anime themes. :) And yes, that is, Russian, English and Latin you hear. ;)

And as a last embed:
"Echo Game" sequence from the movie The House of Flying Daggers, rel. 11/30/04

The first official date once emmalyon and I were going out was to go to this movie. :)


Other Videos:

Air, "Surfing on a Rocket" from Talkie Walkie, rel. 1/26/04. Probably their best album since Moon Safari, and heavily played during writing sessions.

The Vines, "Ride with Me" from Winning Days, rel. 3/21/04. While this album didn't go as far with me as the previous Highly Evolved did, it wins purely by this video alone, especially the drum break in the last minute. :)

The Standard, "Even Numbers" from Wire Post to Wire, rel. 3/23/04. No official video. Another Launchcast-inspired buy. I love the agitation in this song, and its length (a good seven minutes) is well worth a listen.

tweaker, "The House I Grew Up In" from 2am wakeup call, rel. 4/20/04. No official video. A big summer album for me...definitely one of those albums to listen to late at night. This track features Johnny Marr on guitar.

The Killers, "All These Things That I've Done" from Hot Fuss, rel. 6/15/04. This band didn't call out to me at first, at least not until I found a cheap copy on sale and heard this song!

Scissor Sisters, "Take Your Mama" from Scissor Sisters, rel. 7/27/04. Took me awhile to get into these guys (I tend to be averse to retro disco)...but I think it was this song's "No, we're not Elton John, no really!" that got to me. :)

Snow Patrol, "Spitting Games" from Final Straw, rel. 8/4/04. I love how these guys are one of the most unlikeliest bands to get major airplay. :p

U2, "Vertigo" from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, rel. 11/19/04. A welcome return for U2, with a much harder-edged album than the last. I was also soon reminded of just how much I like U2 when I ended up doing the Complete U2 download from iTunes! :p



So all in all, 2004 may have been frustrating at times, but it ended on a very good and positive high note!