For my birthday this year, I relived the glory days of 2020 by having a party on zoom with four of my college besties. We celebrated by revisiting our not so glorious college days. Specifically, we stole an idea from the Bandsplain podcast and conducted a fantasy draft of the music from the opening years of the millennium.
Five of us—Nick Byron Campbell, Scott Goldstein, Mark Edelbrock, Josh Edwin, and I—drafted a lineup that included six categories: album, pop song, rock song, rap song, indier than thou, and wild card. There were rules. But we’re kinda rebels, so they were not always followed.
You needed to pick music from the time period of August 2000 to May 2004, the time that we attended college together. “Scar Tissue” was excepted because it’s rad.
If someone picked a song for a category, then no one else could pick the same song, or album on which it appears, for any category. Similarly, if someone picked an album, no one else could pick a song from the album for any category. Despite selecting three Outkast songs in the first six picks (we went to college in Atlanta when Outkast were cooler than a polar bear’s toenail), we managed to follow this rule. Go us.
Mark stretched the meaning of “pop song” by selecting “Zoloft,” a song by Ween that pop radio has played a grand total of never. But I have a boognish tramp stamped on my lower back, so we let this fly.
After drafting, I asked some fine folks, including the other Band of Townies guys, to pick which lineups they thought were best (they didn’t know who picked the teams). John told me that this was the dorkiest thing I have ever asked of him, which is saying something. Nevertheless, he complied because he is a mensch. Thanks to him and the other judges: Nate Harvey (Band of Townies), Adam Lazarewicz (Band of Townies), Andrew Gravel (The Gravel Project), Eric Schmidt (The Bellmars; founding member of Parties with Townies), Andrew McIntyre (Emory Concert Choir), and Ethan Pew (UT Austin kazoo orchestra).
You can listen to a playlist with our selections sequenced by draft order here.
1st place: Mark Edelbrock
Votes: 4 top picks, 1 second-place
Thoughts…
Adam: They’re right that Amnesiac is somehow even better than Kid A, which is an amazing feat. Ween is cool. I might’ve picked a different song from Yoshimi, but it’s an incredible album and the lyrical point about Do You Realize is well-taken. I don’t know the Outkast or PJ Harvey songs, but Gorillaz are also the most wild card-y submission of the 5.
Andrew McIntyre: The Radiohead album is a tour-de-force mix of styles, including prominent use of the keys. An All-Star album to lead this line-up. I love how experimental the Flaming Lips are, and “Do You Realize” is no exception. “Humble Mumble” may be the strongest draft pick of the lineup. A groundbreaking song on so many levels. And what a creative wildcard pick, to introduce anime—and a great tune—into the lineup.
Andrew Gravel: This is one of my favorite Radiohead albums, so this is really driving the choice here. I also like the Outkast song and the PJ Harvey tune.
Caleb: I stacked the odds in my favor for this competition. I made the rules, chose the categories, and picked the judges. Yet, Mark still blew me out of the water. Bravo, sir.
2nd place: Scott Goldstein
Votes: 2 top picks, 3 second-place, 1 third-place
Thoughts…
Eric: Lots for me to like here, with Radiohead and RHCP being longtime favorites and the Strokes seeming to define being cool at that particular moment in time. Although I’m generally weak in the rap department, I did appreciate Missy Elliot’s fuck-you attitude and popularization of the term badonkadonk. But what really pushes this one over the edge for me is the Darkness. When this came out, I couldn’t tell if they were serious, a cheeky Queen cover band, or maybe both, but we played that album constantly. I even learned the guitar riff to that song in the hopes the Belmars might play it, but that ended up being thwarted by the fact that literally no one else can sing like that guy… Side note about the Strokes: I remember our cousin Gracie lived in the same building as them for a while and said they threw big parties. She also said they played their own album very loud, which seems about right to me.
Andrew McIntyre: Drafting “Is this It” was a major win. The album covers much musical ground and matches up well against other albums, particularly on the point of melodic interest. While the line-up did not include an Outkast song, “Missy Elliott” measures up against the competition. A big win drafting “Scar Tissue.” And the wild card added just the variety this line-up needed, conjuring up Rene Magritte images with the guitar falling out of the ceiling in “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” Excellent musical variety while packing a strong punch with multiple heavy hitters.
Andrew Gravel: Number 2 goes to the group with the Strokes album. I like some stuff of that album and it reminds me of that time of music, plus I like the RHCP and Radiohead selections even if Scar Tissue came out a couple years prior. It was probably still getting overplayed on the radio.
Ethan Pew: Chili Peppers and Missy Elliot are solid picks.
3rd place: me (caleb)
Votes: 1 first place, 2 second-place, 3 third-place
Thoughts…
Eric: Big fan of Wilco, and, while not a part of my college experience, I have since come to appreciate Jason Isbell and his various bands. And Ween – how can you not like a one-string poopship solo? I will say someone here seems to really like Outkast. Finally, thanks for ruining one of my favorite Wilco lyrics (or at least what I thought were the lyrics). Instead of “assassin down the avenue,” I heard it as “I’m a-sassin’ down the avenue,” as if “sass” were a verb. I figured that an aquarium drinker was basically just your typical boozehound (as in, “he drinks like a fish”) and loved the visual of your standard middle-American getting blasted and just strolling down some street in Chicago without a care in the world as if he owns the goddamn place. But you’re right, maybe just jibberish.
Andrew Gravel: Third goes to the group with the Drive by Truckers album. I'm going with this because I like Jason Isbell, and also Hey Ya was an anthem during this period that nobody can deny. The Wilco song is cool too!
Andrew McIntyre: The Drive by Truckers album is a fine record that’s a nostalgic recall of the early aughts, but what really makes this line-up pop is what follows. I paused to think about slotting the lineup’s second Outkast tune in the pop category, but doing so works. Why keep their music one silo? And the song itself transcends genres. A major win drafting two of the Atlanta band’s most ground-breaking songs. The Wilco tune is just the soothing melody one needs after (and before) Outkast. And the lineup did well to continue the Atlanta theme with the addition of a wild card concert from the Big Peach in the Peach State.
Ethan Pew: There are four Outkast selections across all picks, and this lineup has two of them. I like the moxie of doubling down. That feels right for a college music set.
Fourth place: Nick Byron campbell
Votes: 2 third-place
Thoughts…
Eric: I’m just going to go ahead and say I’ve never heard Boards of Canada or Red Chord and will have to check those out. But I did enjoy Of Montreal and remember well when that Nirvana album came out with a fairly decent song from beyond the grave. I would have made snide remarks about Britney at the time and continue to have mixed feelings about the shit show that ensued over the past 20 years, but that song has actually held up better than I would have thought and reflects the moment very well. And BOB – while I never really got into Outkast (unlike most of you, apparently), that song is brilliant and captures the early aughts like nothing else.
Ethan: A set of selections that I like and would be fine listening to.
Caleb: In typical Byronic fashion, Nick claimed both the poppiest (Britney Spears) and most obscure (Boards of Canada, the Red Chord) selections. Brilliant. He also gave me a mild panic attack by selecting Outkast with his first overall pick. Fortunately, it didn’t prevent me from snagging both “Ms. Jackson” and “Hey Ya.”
Fifth place: Josh edwin
Thoughts…
Caleb: In a just world—or even if I had sent this to a more representative sample of judges—Josh’s team would have won this silly competition. His picks were more universal and his analysis more insightful than the rest of us. Maybe it’s my fault because I had to edit his responses to get them to fit onto a slide? His explanation of “Maps” and Aaliya is spot on, and I was about to pick the White Stripes before he took them off the board.
Eric: Side note about the Strokes: I hadn’t heard that story about the NYC cops song, but that is about as 2001 as you can get. The only other thing close would be Jimmy Eat World having to rename its Bleed American album released around the same time, although I have to think that the fear of offending the boys in blue is even lamer. I actually knew that song, because I guess I bought an import single with Last Night and the cops song that made it through the censors. But this was all kind of the equivalent of putting a yellow ribbon bumper sticker on your car and saying you’ve done your part.