I’m not sure my decade started on Jan 1, 2000. It started, more appropriately, on Sept 21, 2001. That’s when I snagged a “Study Abroad In Spain” brochure from my community college, ran home, and told my parents there was no way in hell I would miss the opportunity. I’d say the 90′s ended for me exactly a year earlier, on September 16, 2000, when I saw Rage Against The Machine’s last shows (they’ve since come back) at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. That’s when all the real dreaming of the decade started. One album, in particular, initiated a departure from the 90′s angst I’d known through “Killin In The Name Of” and “People Of The Sun.”
Radiohead’s Kid A released October 2000. Rolling Stone named Kid A album of the decade, but what the hell do they know? I still remember driving down Brand Blvd in Mission Hills, CA, listening to “Optimistic” in my 1996 Camry, pulling over, leaning back and listening. Music changed after that. The angst, movement and influence would forever be warped for me. I no longer needed a mosh-pit to enjoy something. This was groundbreaking.
I’m sitting in the corner of my hotel room at The Listel Hotel in Vancouver, BC clicking away at photos on my flickr photostream. There are 2,334 total images. Some are dull, others stirring, but most are simply digital snippets of days and nights I enjoyed enough to share with the world. A photoshoot with friends, 35mm B&W SLR shots, a man strolling in Berlin, my parents visiting in Mexico City and Jesse being Jesse. These photos all have music attached to them. In my head. No one usually hears any of it. But my favorite is this portrait. Cinematic Orchestra’s “To Build A Home” is attached to this one. Everyone knows that. I’m telling you this because I’ve been thinking about “What My Song Of The 2000s Will Be” and photos seem to help me out.
I’ve been scrambling to make sense of this decade. I moved to several cities in the 2000s including Salamanca, Berlin, New York City, Mexico City, West Hollywood and San Francisco. But what’s the point of reminiscing now? I invest enough in nostalgia on a daily basis that all I’m feeling right now are tremors in my brain from neurons blasting away. What will change on Jan 1, 2010? I’ll be in Canada with my fiancee, with my same camera, with my same desire to capture a new city and its people. I’ll discover some new music soon, eat at a new restaurant in a new “up-and-coming” neighborhood. I’ll report back on my findings. And my evenings will end the exact same way they’ve ended for the last 2 1/2 years. Essentially it’s all going to be the same, right?
After considerable brouhaha consisting of playing music very loudly in my hotel room — and pondering over Rayluv’s genius with “Sedatives 2009” — sitting in a trance, and thinking, “I remember exactly where I was the first I heard this song, the special places I played it and the dreams attached to it”, it finally came down to one song… that continues to move me…Yet, there is something that excites me most about this track: what will this music sound like to three generations removed from us? How will I explain this music to my great-grandchildren? Think about it.
P.S. This song came in a close second.
Happy New Year!
This is personal, thoughtful, and sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed it.