'04 Times 42

Edited By Michaelangelo Matos

As years go, 2004 could have been a lot better for living. Between a heartbreaking election and a stomach-turning war, prospects started bleak and got worse. Still, we console ourselves: Even if the Mariners didn't go all the way, at least the Yankees lost the World Series—to the Red Sox, no less. Dubya may still be in office, but he wasn't put there by much—and it is possible to turn that sliver of a difference around in four years (we hope). Oh yeah—and we live in a city with maybe the healthiest music scene in the world, a scene (or scenes) we attempted for the second year in a row to condense into two hours and 38 minutes. The thing is, this isn't nearly as expansive as it might look. For sure, we overlooked plenty—there's no hip-hop, not enough jazz, maybe too much rock. We even swept past the biggest national hit in six years by a local artist. (We're not being snobs here; we just like the song we picked a lot better.) In other words, we'd probably need to fill another CD to cover it all. But we can say for certain that the two we did come up with are a lot of fun—even if the year they came from wasn't.

Michaelangelo Matos

DISC ONE (78:08)

1. The Minus 5, "Lies of the Living Dead" (In Rock, Yep Roc) 2:30 - iTunes. In which Scott McCaughey guns for re- incarnation as an O.G. garage mod—again. And succeeds— again. Crunchy guitar riff, tom-heavy drums, cheesy organ, gee-Wally-what's-that? vocal, try-shaking-it-off chorus, maracas: It's a formula, and boy, does it work. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

2. Modest Mouse, "The View" (Good News for People Who Love Bad News, Epic) 4:11 - iTunes. The song starts with a come-hither whistle; then the menacing guitar kicks in, followed by Isaac Brock's mental-patient vocals. Lyrically, Brock resumes an album-long dilemma: hope or despair? Simply existing is a form of hope ("As life gets longer, awful feels softer/Well, it feels pretty soft to me"); too bad we need despair to keep things interesting ("If life's not beautiful without the pain/Well, I'd just rather never ever even see beauty again"). As Lincoln noted, a house divided against itself cannot stand; "The View," for its part, skips cheerfully down the road to ruin. NEAL SCHINDLER

3. The Lashes, "Ex-Mas (Young in Love)" (The Stupid Stupid EP, Lookout!) 3:14 - iTunes. Part John Mellencamp, part Proclaimers, "Ex-Mas" is an '80s breakup anthem come unstuck in time. The Lashes' muscular pop freshens up the duh-inducing chorus ("It's never been easy to be young and in love, they say"), and the lyric "You can take my pictures down/Put 'em in a scrapbook/Pull them out on bad days/Remembering how we looked" shows real insight; after all, no breakup is really forever. NEAL SCHINDLER

4. Vells, "Hey Hey La La" (Flight From Echo Falls, Imputor?) 3:53. File under: magical realism for urban cynics. Vells' unicorn pop is catchier than any disease indigenous to the land of make-believe. A few nonsense syllables are always the best medicine, like a lavender eye mask for a hangover. Tristan Marcum's dream-weaving tones are haltingly beautiful whether you've heard those hey heys and la las three times or 300. Their trademark one-two-three keyboard shuffle sways like Mr. Sandman on codeine. KATE SILVER

5. The Dead Science, "Ossuary" (Bird Bones in the Bughouse, Absolutely Kosher) 4:47 - iTunes. This is a picture of the bearded lady swinging from the trapeze while the midget and the madman watch from below. In the lower right-hand corner of the frame, the trained lion holds a pose that suggests he is serenading them all; if you could hear him, he would sound like Jeff Buckley covering Edith Piaf. LAURA CASSIDY

6. Shoplifting, "L.O.V.E." (Shoplifting, Kill Rock Stars) 2:48 - iTunes. Talk about my bloody valentine. Love, however you punctuate it, is a heartbreaking and hard-drinking proposition. Shoplifting don't beg, borrow, or steal from the romantics. Instead, they fashion love letters from broken records, detuned licks, and shape-shifting voice clips, all stapled to the chest like a badge of wounded honor. KATE SILVER

7. Smoosh, "Massive Cure" (She Like Electric, Pattern 25) 1:59. Practically world-weary lyrics about finding an oasis from life, an adamant tap dance of a beat, keyboards that sound like they're being run through a remote-control 18-wheeler, and appropriately breathy vocals more charming than any adult singer's "come hither" contrivances. In short, a near-perfect indie-rock song, all in less than two minutes and by artists with at least a couple growth spurts left to go. "Novelty act," my ass. RACHEL DEVITT

8. Dalmatians, "My Little Sister" (Pop/Rock Ruff Drafts, Imputor?) 1:32. Now that's what I call completely (if willfully) retarded! Willful because everything on this electro-punk-whatsit is designed to be that way, from the opening splat-synth accompanied by "Chicken"'s snorted "Huh!" to the false ending (complete with "Balsa" yelling "Psych!" in the background) at 1:09. That's right: a false ending on a minute-and-a-half-long song—one more reason to love it, then. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

9. United State of Electronica, "Open Your Eyes" (United State of Electronica, Mannheim) 3:35. There may be such thing as too much fun, and U.S.E. definitely have the wherewithal to push that button and evaporate us all in a Bikini Atoll of giddiness, but in the meantime they keep the pleasures simple: Safeco Field–sized chant-along verses (attention Mariners: new Ichiro theme song right here), a structure that considers beats and riffs more or less the same beast, Vocoders Vocoders Vocoders. In short: the Ramones for Daft Punk fans. NATE PATRIN