2004 | Year End Favorites

The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows (Record Collection)

Ray Lamontagne - Trouble (RCA)

Snow Patrol - Final Straw (Fiction/A&M)

Arcade Fire - Funeral (Merge)

TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (Touch & Go)

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (Domino)

Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse (Geffen)

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (Matador)

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop)

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her (Island)

Elliot Smith - From A Basement on the Hill (Anti-)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (Anti-)

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (Interscope)

The Black Keys - Rubber Factory (Anti-/Fat Possum)

!!! - Louden Up Now (Touch & Go)

The Dears - No Cities Left (Spin Art)

Rogue Wave - Out Of The Shadow (Sub Pop)

Patti Smith - Trampin' (Columbia)

Tom Waits - Real Gone (Anti-)

Pinback - Summer In Abaddon (Touch& Go)

More 2004

Calexico - Convict Pool EP & Black Heart EP (Quarter-Stick /City Slang)

Talking Heads - Reissue: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (Rhino/Sire)

The Faces - Box Set: Five Guys Walk Into A Bar (Rhino)

A Dozen Songs for your i-Pod

Make It Rain - Tom Waits           

99 Problems - Jay Z

Irish Blood, English Heart - Morrissey

Walk Idiot Walk - The Hives

It's A Hit - Rilo Kiley

TKO - Le Tigre

Ghetto Rock - Mos Def

All Falls Down - Kanye West

American Idiot - Green Day

Hounds of Love - The Futureheads

Hiding All Away - Nick cave & The Bad Seeds

Bury Me With it - Modest Mouse

10 Great Shows I saw in 2004

The Pixies - Milwaukee Theater

Wilco - Otto's (DeKalb, IL)

David Bowie - Rosemont Theater (Chicago)

Ray Lamontagne - ACL Fest (Austin)/Schubas (Chicago)

TV On The Radio - Onopa (Milwaukee)/Catacombs (Madison)

Rhett Miller - Cactus Cafe (Austin)

Sufjan Stevens - Schubas (Chicago)

Constantines -The Ritz (Austin)

Josh Ritter - Schubas (Chicago)

Snow Patrol - Metro (Chicago)

2003 | Year End Favorites

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief (Capitol)

The Postal Service - Don't Give Up (Sub Pop)

M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (Goom)

Beulah - Yoko (Velocette)

Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Barsuk)

Damien Rice - O (Vector)

Calexico - Feast of Wire (Quarterstick)

The New Pornographers - Electric Version (Matador)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell (Interscope)

Four Tet - Rounds (Domino)

Colder - Again (Output)

The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop)

Kathleen Edwards - Failer (Zoe/Rounder)

Broken Social Scene - You Forget It In People (Arts & Crafts)

White Stripes - Elephant (V2)

Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside (Virgin)

The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas (Columbia)

The Rapture - Echoes (DFA)

Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (Warp)

Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance (Matador)

2002 | Year End Favorites

Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head (Capitol)

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch)

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (Matador)

Bright Eyes - LIFTED or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (Saddle Creek)

Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (Kill Rock Stars)

Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed the Fish? (Artist Direct)

Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me (Anti/Fat Possum)

Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (Merge)

Clinic - Walking With Thee (Domino)

Steve Earle - Jerusalem (E-Squared)

Primal Scream - Evil Heat (Columbia/UK)

Gemma Hayes - Night on My Side (Source/UK)

Ryan Adams - Demolition (Lost Highway)

The Coral - The Coral (Deltasonic/UK)

Sigur Ros - ( ) (Fat Cat/PIAS)

Liars - They Threw Us All In A Trench and Stuck A Monument On Top (Blast First/Mute)

Electric Soft Parade - Holes In the Wall (db/UK)

Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly (Rhymesayers)

Sparta - Wiretap Scars (Dreamworks)

Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses (ATO)

2001 | Year End Favorites

Strokes - Is This It (RCA)

Travis - The Invisible Band (Epic)

Tortoise – Standards (Thrill Jockey)

White Stripes - White Blood Cells (Sympathy For The Recording Industry)

Ryan Adams – Gold (Lost Highway)

Les Savy Fav - Go Forth (French Kiss)

Tindersticks - Can Our Love... (Beggars Banquet)

Pernice Brothers - The World Won't End (Ashmont)

Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album (Barsuk)

Zero 7 - Simple Things (Ultimate Dilema)

Bjork – Vespertine (Elektra)

Pete Yorn – Musicforthemorningafter (Columbia)

Dismemberment Plan – Change (Desoto)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C. (Virgin)

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part (Reprise)

Lucinda Williams – Essence (Lost Highway)

Califone – Roomsound (Perishable)

Rufus Wainright – Poses (Dreamworks)

Dashboard Confessional - Places You Have Come To Fear Most (Vagrant)

Four Tet – Pause (Domino)

2000 | Year End Favorites

Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (Bloodshot)

Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (Matador)

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump (V2)

Thievery Corporation - Mirror Conspiracy (Eighteenth Street Lounge)

Sunny Day Real Estate - The Rising Tide (BMG)

PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (Island)

Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)

Sigur Ros - NY Batteri/Agaetis Byrjun (Fat Cat)

Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (Sony)

Susana Baca - Eco De Sombras            (Luaka Bop)

Neko Case & Her Boyfriends - Furnace Room Lullaby (Bloodshot)

Beachwood Sparks - Beachwood Sparks (Sub Pop)

Cat Power - The Covers Record (Matador)

Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (Barsuk)

Radiohead - Kid A (Capitol)

Laika - Good Looking Blues (Beggars Banquet)

AtomBombPocketKnife - Alpha Sounds (Southern)

Chicago Underground Duo – Synthesia (Thrill Jockey)

aix Em Klemm - aix Em Klemm (Kranky)

The Tied and Tickled Trio - EA1 EA2 (Drag City)

1999 | Year End Favorites

Wilco - Summer Teeth (Reprise)

Mogwai - Come on Die Young (Matador)

Built to Spill - Keep it Like a Secret (Warner Bros.)

Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros.)

Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage (volume 1) (Fly Daddy)

Tom Waits - Mule Variations (Epitaph)

Ben Harper - Burn To Shine (Virgin)

Smog - Knock Knock (Drag City)

Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up (Merge)

Labradford - E Luxo So (Kranky)

Folk Implosion - One Part Lullaby (Interscope)

Low - Secret Name (Kranky)

Bonnie Prince Billy - I SeeA Darkness (Drag City)

Tram - Heavy Black Frame (Jet Set)

Cocteau Twins - BBC Sessions (Bella Union)

Various Artists: Warp10+3 Remixes (Warp)

Death Cab for Cutie - something about airplanes (Elsinor/Barsuk)

Bardo Pond - Set and Setting (Matador)

Piano Magic - Low Birth Weight (Rocket Girl)

Appliance – Manual (Mute)

1998 | Year End Favorites

Mogwai - Any and All Releases (Chemikal Underground)

Godspeed You Black Emperor - F#A# Infinity (Constellation/Kranky)

Neutral Milk Hotel – In an Aeroplane Over The Sea (Merge)

Bob Dylan - Live 1966 (Columbia)

Lounge Lizards - Queen of All Ears (Strange & Beautiful Music)

AMP – Stenorette (Kranky)

Richard Buckner - Since (MCA)

Bedhead - Transaction De Novo (Trance Syndicate)

Marc Ribot - Y Los Cubanos Postizos (Atlantic)

The Beta Band - The Three EP's (Regal)

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – ACME (Matador)

Elliot Smith – XO (Dreamworks)

Darla Records - Bliss Out Series (Darla)

Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves (DGC)

Tortoise – TNT (Thrill Jockey)

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue (Elektra)

PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (Island)

Seam - The Pace is Glacial (Touch and Go)

R.E.M. – UP (Warner Brothers)

Don Caballero - What Burns Never Returns (Touch and Go)

BEST LIVE PERFORMANCES

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS @ METRO (CHICAGO)

RADIOHEAD / SPIRITUALIZED @ ROSEMONT THEATER (CHICAGO)

SONIC YOUTH @ RIVIERA (CHICAGO)

JEFF TWEEDY SOLO PERFORMANCES @ LOUNGE AX (CHICAGO)