2001 is also a great film year - not as insane as like 1999, but a pretty defining year for the 21st century. This is the year we got the first Lord of the Rings, the first Harry Potter, the first Shrek, the first Fast and the Furious move. It's also the year of Mulholland Drive, The Royal Tennanbaums, Memento, Zoolander, Wet Hot American Summer, Monsters Inc, Donnie Darko, Super Troopers, Training Day, Waking Life, Ghost World, A.I Artificial Intelligence, Ocean's Eleven, Vanilla Sky, Legally Blonde, Black Hawk Down, Not Another Teen Movie, Rush Hour 2, Scary Movie 2, Amelie, and the Japanese release of Spirited Away! Anywhere, here are the most important albums of 2001 for me: Daft Punk - Discovery Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American blink-182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket Gorillaz - Gorillaz TOOL - Lateralus Brand New - Your Favorite Weapon Saves the Day - Stay What You Are System of a Down - Toxicity Incubus - Morning View Slipknot - Iowa Nas - STILLMatic The Strokes - Is This It The Bouncing Souls - How I Spent My Summer Vacation Aphex Twin - Drukqs Radiohead - Amnesiac Pete Rock - Petestrumentals Converge - Jane Doe Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come To Fear the Most Jay-Z - The Blueprint The Shins - Oh, Inverted World Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein Thursday - Full Collapse The Ataris - End is Forever The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
In retrospect, Stay What You Are and Bleed American are my two favorites from that year. When my girlfriend at the time borrowed me Bleed American, marks the time when I questioned my tastes which were mostly nu-metal. Also I was on Shoutweb.net and they began posting more about punk/emo bands around that time.
I think us basically being the exact same age made this hit me extremely hard. I actually teared up a little bit reading this. Very well written. I think you handled the musical elephant in the room extremely well. Being honest, I really can't reflect on the music of my formative years without wrestling with that particular band and how much they meant to me at that time.
That was definitely a TOYPAJ year for me, I had it on my walkman all the time! Also getting into JEW and STD, so many memories!
Holy shit, I'm late to the party, but I'm loving these nostalgic posts! I discovered mp3.com in 2001, and came across the EP "Driven to Distraction" by Knockout. I've been in love with that fast-paced brand of pop-punk ever since.