My 100 Favorite Albums of the Decade

This is my list for best 100 albums of the decade. Making this list was a lot harder then my previous list. There are tons of repeat artists in this, but that is to be expected. I have changed some things, like added and subtracted albums from previous "top albums" lists I have done.

2000
Belle and Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasent
Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of the Bewilderbeast
Taproot- Gift
The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving
Five For Fighting - Americatown
Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines
Eve 6 - Horrorscope
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Twothirtyeight - Regulate the Chemicals
best album: O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
honorable mention: Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2

2001
Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter
Rilo Kiley - Take Offs and Landings
Thursday - Full Collapse
Brand New - Your Favorite Weapon
Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most
Our Lady Peace - Happiness is Not a Fish You Can Catch
Old 97s - Satelite Rides
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Incubus - Morning View
best album: The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
honorable mention: Alien Ant Farm - ANThology

2002
Idlewild - The Remote Part
Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundtrack
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window
Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
Breaking Benjamin - Saturate
best album: Desaparecidos - Read English/Speak Spanish
honorable mention: Beck - Sea Change

2003
Third Eye Blind - Out of the Vein
Motion City Soundtrack - I am the Movie
Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Cursive - The Ugly Organ
The Format - Interventions + Lullabies
Criteria - En Garde
Jose Gonzalez - Veener
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
best album: Brand New - Deja Entendu
honorable mention: Something Corporate - North

2004
Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who, Love Bad News
Pedro the Lion - Achilles Heel
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me
The Garden State Soundtrack
Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill
Tilly and the Wall - Wild Like Children
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Wilco - A Ghost is Born
best album: The Good Life - Album of the Year
honorable mention: Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

2005
Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Day
Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit
Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This to Memory
The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
My Morning Jacket - Z
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
best album: Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
honorable mention: Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness

2006
Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Gin Blossoms - Major Lodge Victory
Cursive - Happy Hollow
Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
Kimya Dawson - Remember That I Love You
Ray LaMontagne - Til The Sun Turns Black
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
best album: The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
honorable mention: The Kooks - Inside In/ Inside Out

2007
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature
The Gaslight Anthem - Sink or Swim
Rilo Kiley - Under the Black Light
Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild Soundtrack
best album: Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
honorable mention: Bright Eyes - Four Winds EP

2008
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger
The Gaslight Anthem - The 59 Sound
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
She & Him - Volume One
Frontier Ruckus - The Orien Songbook
best album: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
honorable mention: Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords

2009
Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen
Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
Pete Yorn - Back and Forth
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
M. Ward - Hold Time
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
best album: Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
honorable mention: Brand New - Daisy

My Favorite Albums of 2007 and 2008

My Top 10 albums of 2007 (just incase you were curious)
- spoon / ga ga ga ga ga
- bright eyes / cassadaga
- the good life / help wanted nights
- modest mouse / we were dead before the ship even sank
- band of horses / cease to begin
- wilco / sky blue sky
- jose gonzalez / in our nature
- the envy corps / story problem ep
- rilo kiley / under the blacklight
- iron and wine / the shepherd's dog

My Top 10 albums of 2008
- the hold steady / stay positive
- conor oberst / conor oberst
- fleet foxes / fleet foxes
- the tallest man on earth / shallow grave
- jack's mannequin / the glass passenger
- the gaslight anthem / the 59 sound
- kings of leon / only by the night
- vampire weekend / vampire weekend
- she & him / volume one
- coldplay / viva la vida or death and all his friends

Welcome to the Monkeyhouse

To start this off with a positive jam, let's get to know each other. My name is Patrick. I grew up in Iowa. I am 24 years old, engaged to an amazing women and the proud father of a perfect dog and cat.

Furthermore, my life is in turmoil as of late. My fiance is in New York City, where as I am not. We are seperated, yet again, by miles and miles. Also, I don't have a job. (I am not incapable or lazy, I am just in between things. And lazy.)

Here was what you should really know about me to decide if you want to read my blog(s) or not.

1. I LOVE TRAVELING and have been all over. My goal is to see the entire world. Not sure if that'll happen, but I am going to do my damnedest to try. In the United States, there are only 7 or 8 states I have yet to go to. Outside the U.S., I have traveled around Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Italy and Spain. I will go into great detail later about all of this.

2. I LOVE MUSIC and listen to it all the time. I used to play in bands, and appreciate a well written tune. Most of my tastes tend to be indie or rock, but I was raised on country. There are also lots of artists that I feel like I should like but I don't (Example: Tom Waits, I just cannot get into it. I want to, I think I should, but I can't). If I had to put my top 5 current listened to bands/artists right now it'd be (in no perticular order): The Hold Steady, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, The Good Life, Third Eye Blind and The Gin Blossoms.

3. I WATCH/OWN A LOT OF MOVIES and look at them like works of art. I worked for a long time at a video store and for better or worse it has shaped my tastes. I hate horror movies, it's not because I am scared, it is simply that they are usually not that good. Even the ones that are supposed to be good I don't like. What do I like? I am a fan of good comedies. Not annoying fly by night popcorn comedies but the real funny ones (recent examples: I dug Tropic Thunder, and I get into all the Judd Apatow flicks. I think one of the funniest movies of this decade is a totally under-rated film called Slackers. If you haven't seen it, see it). My favorites are good drama/comedy or dark drama films. Movies with a real sense of weight and feeling. I like a movie that I can totally get lost in. Usually it's the indie/art house ones (recent examples: any Wes Anderson or Danny Boyle Film, About a Boy, I Heart Huckabees, High Fidelity and the like.) When it comes to action movies, it just depends. I notice a lot or cheesy popcorn flicks that don't turn me on. However, because I am a 24 year old male, some totally do, (obvious example: Trans-Fucking-Formers).

4. I LOVE A GREAT READ and wish I had the attenion to read more. I never started reading until I was around 21 and working overnights at a gas station. In the matter of a year, I found a fondness for literature, that rivaled my love of music and movies. I find an author I like, and run with it. My favorites are Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Nick Hornby, and Augustan Burroughs has a few really good books. Books, like movies, are best when I can lose myself. Be on the edge of my seat. Not in a Clive Cussler/Tom Clancy way, where the bomb will go off, but in a Nick Hornby kind of way where you can't beleive how the character will fix his current self inflicted situation. Another favorite book, is On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I have a hell of a story about it, and I'll tell it later on in this here blog. Pretty much, any kind of ficition I get into, as long as it's reality based. I have a hard time with Sci-Fi, and no interest in Fantasy (even if my brother tries hard as hell to get me to read a 500 page Robert Jordan epic.) And lastly, I think the greatest story ever written is The Count of Monte Cristo.

5. I DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD. That's that. I am not going to condemn you for what you think is right, and in the same respect don't do it to me. I am a humanist, and think everyone should be good and honest and nice to each other just because. I don't think we need a higher being telling us to do so.

6. I THINK I AM A FUNNY GUY and I come up with some funny things. If you read this blog, it'll be light hearted, I am not gonna use this is a bitch session or anything. I mean, maybe, but I don't intend to. I wanna make people laugh and think and have a good time with this life.

7. I AM FULL OF USELESS INFORMATION that no one person should ever know. Whenever family or friends play trivia games, they want me on there teams. I don't know why I pick up the stuff I do, but for some reason, weird facts stick with me. I also enjoy telling random stories that may not have any point besides the peculiarness of it.

8. I WANT TO BE A WRITER/FILMMAKER. Hopefully this blog will help me hone my skill. I have never studied the english language which will be apparent in my grammer/spelling mistakes, but I want to rise above that. I have written a few movie scripts, short stories and started a couple novels. Who knows if anything will ever come from it, but I fully enjoy losing myself in my own characters and scenes, almost as much as I do losing myself in other peoples. (If you would like to see some proof of my lack of film making abilities, watch this or this or this.)

9. I AM A LOT OF THINGS: a fiance, an uncle, a friend, a father (to said dog and cat), a son, and a brother. That is me. Who I am. And it will show through, I hope.

10. I ALSO LOVE TELEVISION SHOWS. My favorites, the ones I watch regularly(either on tv, DVR or DVD) are The Office (us and uk), Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, The Larry Sanders Show, Entourage, Rescue Me, House, Bones, Lost, Leverage, Heroes, Dexter, My Name is Earl, M*A*S*H, Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. I also really get into some cartoons. The Simpsons, of course, and then a lot of the Adult Swim stuff like Aqua Teen, Squidbillies, Tim and Eric, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Sealab 2021, The Boondocks, Family Guy, and I am very excited that King of the Hill is now on the AS lineup. There are a lot more shows that I like, but this is a good sampling of what gets my goat, television wise. (note: I think 30 Rock is a good show, but I really do not understand why it is so fucking popular. It won the Emmy for best comedy.... Again.... Really? I think Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother and even Earl are hands down better shows. I know there has got to be more people out there who think like this. what the fuck? you know?)

SOOOOOOOOOOO, THAT'S THAT.... We'll see what happens. I plan on incorporating music, movies, books and travel into this blog regularly. Other stuff will just seep in. I also, would like to leave all my blogs with a quote by someone or from something I like that is relevant to the blog.

"The crickets and the rust-beetles scuttled among the nettles of the sage thicket. "Vámonos, amigos," he whispered, and threw the busted leather flintcraw over the loose weave of the saddlecock. And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight. "
-Eli Cash (Owen Wilson) in The Royal Tenenbaums