Your second job in the field though, you better have your head screwed on straight, your I’s dotted and your T’s crossed because THAT one hired you BECAUSE of your work at job #1 and they assume (rightfully so) that all the adjustment into your role was dealt with already. You have to be present, you have to be on the ball and you have to (at least appear to) know what the hell it is you’re doing. Remember in the first paragraph I mentioned a summer arts program for teens at a prominent university in the Boston area? This is my second summer there and, in fact, they were job #2.

Recommended by two of their staff members that I happened to work with during my first year in school, after a little bit of missed and rerouted connections, I ended up moving into my first ever dorm room in June 2010 (the position also included a residential staff portion that required me to live in the dorms with the kids as a resident advisor of sorts). This program was founded by the same man that founded my high school and many of the precepts and policies reflected what I already knew from my many years at school, so the transition into this new setting wasn’t as jarring as I expected it to be.

The jarring part was my class, or I should say my Arts Lab (the word “class” is frowned upon around these parts, and for good reason). Unlike at school, where I had a framework and some mandates as to what I had to accomplish with the kids, the program gave me a largely clean slate. Based on my history as an artist, they essentially gave me carte blanche to create a curriculum that combined Jewish and secular artistic study and lead to the kids creating a final thesis product demonstrating a connection between the two categories I just mentioned. My super ego dulled the impact of the task again, but a bit of fear and trepidation managed to creep through, especially after I decided to focus NOT on film but on my second love, sound, for this class. Looking at audio production as a whole and alternative ways of making and structuring sound, I threw together a nine session curriculum that combined audio production essentials, bible study (specifically the personal favorite story of Lot and his wife) and a healthy dose of music appreciation. If that sounds a little scattered, that’s absolutely because it was. I had faith in what I had thrown together, but all that faith did NOT guarantee that it would actually WORK.

And oh, were there setbacks. You see, students at summer jewish arts camp have so very little interest in anything resembling school. This set me on a path of great resistance from the get-go, and pretty much eliminated ideas like “starting on time” and “thinking assignments”. I realized that during the year, while students tended to enjoy my class and the work we did, they had the added impetus of institutional pressure forcing them to succeed (or at least try to). That summer, there were no grades, no institutional pressure and no realistic consequence if they did not get anything done except for ME looking bad. I was taming a new lion, and all I had were my wits, my experience and my music collection to make it lie down and roll over.

Or so I thought.

I had one more crucial weapon in my arsenal: the kids themselves. Or rather, their innate curiosity and willingness to hear someone out that they deemed legitimate. If I had gotten up there and thrown the “class” word around or gave them extra assignments or penalized them for this, that and the other thing, I would have lost them entirely. Besides, none of those things was the point. This program was guided by an idea that combined exploration and personal discovery was paramount in the education it provided, so by projecting myself as someone with knowledge that wanted to share said knowledge and framed it in a way that I felt a connection to (music and sound), these kids saw something they themselves could connect with, and thus I tricked them into learning something. The kids that rewrote the story of Lot into a modern day tale set in Tijuana wherein Lot’s wife is shot in the head by drug lords rather than turned into a pillar of salt by the power of our Lord was creative adaptation and active modernization. The kids that wrote and performed a hip-hop song about their connections to Judaism was cross-cultural analysis and augmentation, all things that had been present on my initial pitch for the class. By boiling down these ideas into the bare essential elements and presenting them in a way that was familiar and welcoming, I defined education in a way I never thought it COULD be defined, let alone by me.

However, there was one singular moment that summer that I go back to when I doubt my abilities as an educator. There was a girl in my Arts Lab that desperately wanted to record a piano piece to accompany a beautiful set of lyrics she had written with her partner. To say the least, the recording process ran into problems. Trying to get a completely live cut of this song was just not possible for this girl, she kept psyching herself out and over-analyzing everything about her style until she herself felt inadequate to perform the song SHE WROTE. She was breaking down in a really obvious way, even with the entire room empty except for her, the piano and me running the laptop. Despite never having to deal with a situation like this before, I almost instinctively sat down with her on the bench and said “Look, I know this is hard. My first recording session was unbearable and even now I’m not the biggest fan of them, but NO ONE in the entire world can play this song better than you can. And that’s a fact.”

What followed was an (almost) perfect (but good enough) take of the song, enough to throw the track together and present it. It was also around that point that the noted tremble in my voice when I said things like “I’m a teacher” disappeared. However, the fulfillment and confirmation did not end there. Sometimes life sends you messages that you are on the right track and sometimes it beats you over the head with them. In this case, watching me teach ended up becoming a major catalyst for what would evolve into a relationship with the girl I plan to marry. Results = undeniable.

I had my heading now, and I had the proof that I could get where I was going. The next step would be charting my voyage, but that would not come until later.

End Part 3

The following exchange happened about five minutes after I first set foot into school wearing my new identity (along with my traditional blue plaid and chuck tailors) when I sat down to get my picture taken for my shiny but familiar staff ID card.

The most common question I got over those first few months (and still get, to be honest) was “Is it awkward to come teach where you went to high school?” And the answer was (and still is) “no”. I’d imagine that, for some, my choice to go back to that school could be viewed a lot like a multiple choice question:

“Q. Josh going back to teach at his high school is…

A. Pathetic                B. Naive              C. Nerdy              D. All of the Above

The truth of the matter is that I had a really great high school experience, and reflecting on it throughout college made me realize just how important it is that my alma matter (to clarify, it is a private Jewish day school) exist. On top of that, there had not been a film teacher since the man who taught me left. If there was ever a time to pull a self-constructed sense of honor and duty out of my ass, now was the time. In other words, I was just bullheaded enough to forget how awkward it SHOULD have been. Massive Task + Massive Ego = Equilibrium.

Another thing my bullheaded nature prevented me from comprehending (or protected me from realizing, one of the two) was why I was even there in the first place. I mean, sure, on a basic level I was there because a former teacher saw some kind of potential in me and got the school to offer me enough of a meager salary to get me out of Montreal, but in terms of strict sense qualifications I didn’t have a lot going for me. I had just graduated with a degree in Communications with a GPA (slightly) lower than REDACTED. I had never taken an education class in my life, and the only experience I had that could even remotely help me was two summers as a camp counselor and sixteen years of institutionalized education. Contrary to popular belief, that actually IS enough to get you going, for a while anyway.

The fact that I could fumble my way through a few months of classes wasn’t enough to QUITE convince me that I had any right to be there though. Those first few months, once my post-summer haze wore off, were harrowing to say the least. Throughout faculty meetings and interim comments and report cards and parent/teacher conferences (stunning that they’d even want to talk to the film teacher right?) I was periodically terrified that I would be found out. That someone would realize I didn’t actually know what I was doing, that I was some kind of fraud playing at having bigger britches than I did. Somehow, that point never came, and I even ended up surprising some people (most notably myself) with the work I did. Kids were learning from me, both inside and outside of the classroom, and what little knowledge (or so I thought) I had amassed in 23 years was actually making a difference on a scale larger than non-existent.

It was around this time that a band I loved released a record that I liked. On the last track of this record, the chorus was one very pointed line that helped me define my current existence: “What God doesn’t give to you, you’ve got to go and get for yourself.” Simply stated for maximum impact, it gave me the clarity and sense of purpose I had lacked over the preceding few months by denying the intrinsic need for both. I was a teacher because I wanted to be, I didn’t suck at it, and that was enough.

And it was.

End Part 2 

For the last four weeks, I’ve worked as a Community Educator at an Arts Summer Program at a well known university in the Boston area. Part of my work includes a healthy dose of specified professional development designed to create time for us to reflect on our educational practices in order to hone and enhance our abilities as educators. In other words, we’ve spent time studying ourselves (slightly narcissistically on my part, but I’ve always maintained that a functional bit of narcissism is an okay thing.) On top of this, a few weeks back we had guest writer come in named Larry Smith, who pioneers the Six Word Memoir Project (more info here), which amongst other things exists to spread ideas related to self reflection, documentation and personal selfworth. Both of these factors were fundamental in bringing me back to wordpress for this post, because despite the fact that I spend so much time focusing on the IDEA of reflection, I very rarely do it in any tangible way.

Reflexivity is a touchy subject for some adults, most notably the kind of adult I never expected to be. When I was younger, it was almost comical how quickly I would reminisce on events that had just happened. My desire to make every little thing significant and worthy of a good chronicling tended to grind the gears of those close to me, which combined with the legitimately loaded schedule I found myself with once I started college is probably why I engaged less and less with the idea of reflecting on my life. Living in the moment became the name of the game and in many ways it still is. However what I have come to realize lately is that thoughtful reflection and living in (and often FOR) the moment are not mutually exclusive ideas and indeed that they enhance each other a lot more than they detract FROM each other.

Another motivator of this piece is the life I’ve lead over the last two years that I have yet to adequately reflect on, in any way really. Which is pretty absurd given the literally life changing events that took place during that time. Given all the immense changes in my life and the perspective shifts and ongoing questions present as a result of them, I’ve pretty damn well avoided thinking about them in any deep way, and that is undeniably problematic. Don’t mistake my intentions though, I’m not doing this to gain clarity. My life path is clearer now than its ever been. Consider this more like giving the devil his due.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, here’s what I’ve got.

This stage of my life can be traced back to an email I received in April 2009 from a former high school teacher I had kept in contact with and had met up with a few weeks prior. In this one line email I was offered a job teaching film at my old high school, four days after I officially completed my BA. Prior to this, I had given SOME thought to going into education, but nothing substantial. Truth be told, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and an only basic idea that I was nearing the time when I had to figure that out. I wasn’t quite aimless since I had ideas, but I was a lot like a sailboat in a the middle of the desert and lacked any kind of momentum in any direction. I had a good life, friends, a purpose beyond just being a student but I’d be hard pressed to say it was going anywhere quickly. So when I got the offer I had a choice to make: stand still or keep moving. With much love and respect for the life I had, I chose to keep moving for no other reason than I believed with all my heart that if I didn’t see where that road lead then I would regret it for the rest of my life.

From that point on, life started to move a lot more quickly. I needed a new wardrobe, needed to build a new routine and adapt who I was into something a little (but not completely) more presentable and more importantly I had to give up the idea that everything I needed to know would be given to me. For all of my radical, faux-intellectual blah blah, I had become pretty damn dependent on being told what to do by some established system or another. Like it or not, what I thought and more importantly what I said would start to actually matter and would be taken seriously because of my position. While I had often taken pride in the things I thought and the high level of thought I perceived myself to engage in, I had never really considered the idea that someone would eventually HAVE to value what I said in some way. In other words, my days as a wallflower were over. I was an educator now. Whatever that meant.

It would be a while before I believed that myself.

End Part 1

I direct you now to a quote from prolific social activist and sometimes Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha: “Fans of our music, our stories, our films and our words can be pulled over and harassed every day because they are brown or black, or for the way they speak, or for the music they listen to. People who are poor like some of us used to be could be forced to live in a constant state of fear while just doing what they can to find work and survive. This law opens the door for them to be shaked down, or even worse, detained and deported while just trying to travel home from school, from home to work, or when they just roll out with their friends.

Some of us grew up dealing with racial profiling, but this law (SB 1070) takes it to a whole new low. If other states follow the direction of the Arizona government, we could be headed towards a pre-civil rights era reality. This unjust law was set into motion by the same Arizona government that refused to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. day as a national holiday.”

This quote comes from a press release from a recently constructed coalition of artists called The Sound Strike. This group, including artists from many areas of the music and entertainment community (Rise Against, Conor Oberst, Michael Moore and Cypress Hill, just to name a few), has pledged to boycott the state of Arizona until which time as Bill 1070 is repealed and are currently encouraging others to do so as well.

This type of action I completely agree with and support. For what they’ve done, the Arizona chamber of commerce deserves ZERO support from anyone, especially anyone from out of state. However, my problem with this movement is relatively simple, and it revolves around who ACTUALLY suffers from an artistic boycott: the kids.

Let’s face it, the kind of people who signed this bill into law and who support it tooth and nail are by and large NOT the same people that would go to a Sonic Youth show or listen to a Rise Against record or watch a Michael Moore movie. They just aren’t.  In fact, I would even wager that the people who WOULD do all of the above actively stand against the bill themselves. However, by boycotting the entire state, these artist are effectively punishing legions of (potentially young) fans for the sins of their overbearing, oppressive government that they, in all likelihood, had no hand in electing.

I mean, punishing the child for the sins of the father is totally punk rock, right?

Despite making it seem incredibly cut and dry, I am well aware that it is not. For a lot of bands, especially some of the bigger names on that list, putting on a show in a normal fashion costs a lot of money. Money that inevitably will end up back in the hands of the state. This is a very reasonable concern and that one that, I wager, is the basis of this boycott.

However, to that I say: remember your roots, suck it up and play.

Forgo your twenty page riders and your bottles of aquafina and your fancy lighting set ups. Just rent a PA, find a basement, a warehouse or an empty field and play for free. If it gets shut down, oh well at least you tried. Chances are, a fifteen year-old in Tuscon is going to be a lot more inspired to make a difference after witnessing something like that than by you playing and over-priced stadium show anyway. How the hell do you expect kids to inform each other, take action and arm themselves for a better future if you, the supposed paragons for a better tomorrow, completely abandon them. When I was that age, I sure as hell would not have been inspired by someone that told me to go fuck myself for something I wasn’t responsible for. For a bunch of pseudo-inspirational lefties (I’m looking at you, Zack), this seems like a really easy concept to grasp.

In short: by all means boycott the STATE of Arizona, but the moment you begin to equate the STATE with the PEOPLE, and punish both equally is the moment you officially lose a bit of that bleeding heart, activist cred you so crave…at least in my book.

10. The Bouncing Souls – How I Spent My Summer Vacation (2001)

Much like D4, there isn’t a whole lot about The Bouncing Souls that I can really say…they’re one of those bands that has just transcended and become such an important part of the (specifically East Coast) punk scene that I lack the ability to really talk about them in the grand scheme of things. However, over the course of their lengthy catalogue, this record would be my pick regardless of what decade it came out in…the fact that it was this one just gave me an easy entry.

Choice Track: True Believers

9. Thursday – Full Collapse (2002)

This record has timing on its side almost completely…it entered my life at the most perfect point for me to achieve the maximum impact from it…and to this day it finds regular playlist love. Like many records on this list, it pulls the “loud and abrasive vs. calm and melodic” card as the means for its message…but unlike all of them, it does it the best.

Choice Track: Cross Out the Eyes

8. Samiam – Astray (2000)

Admittedly, I did not hear this record until VERY recently. However, the speed in which it entered my must listen pile is honestly astounding. It is an almost perfect example of how 90s post-hardcore can be done to its most profoundly heartbreaking extent but still remain completely uplifting at the same time.

Choice Track: Dull

7. Kid Dynamite – Shorter, Faster, Louder (2000)

The keynote in the all too brief history of Kid Dynamite. Although chances are had they continued to this day, they would not ultimately be as influential as they eventually became. However, that does not make this interpretation of the classic DC hardcore sound transplanted to New Brunswick any less successful at embodying the pure and unbridled fun of the genre that so many bands have forgotten about. Punk should be fun people…and this record knows that.

Choice Track: Cheap Shot Youth Anthem

6. Small Brown Bike – The River Bed (2003)

This is how post-hardcore is done. Loud (except when its soft), fast (except when its slow), honest (except when it tricks you) and inspirational (except when it breaks your heart.) All of the above can be used to describe this record and all of the above are completely legitimate.

Choice Track: Safe in Sound

5. Botch – We Are the Romans (2000)

Probably the last time complete aggression combined with odd time signatures has been done this successfully. The fire from which every half successful metalcore act found its sound. Often imitated, but never repeated.

Choice Track: To Our Friends in the Great White North

4. Paint It Black – New Lexicon (2008)

I mince no words when I say that this record reaffirmed my existence more times than I can remember in its year and a half long lifespan. Very few in the scene take the uplifting nature of positive hardcore as seriously as Dan Yemin and for this record he pulled out all the stops…leaving no stone unturned he manages to comment on the current political climate in both the country and the punk scene and addresses it perfectly in relation to anyone listening along (“don’t let the bastards get you down”) while still managing to throw his own personal ethos in the mix to be learned from by those who are willing (“live fast but don’t die young…slow down, but never, EVER, stop.”) Thanks Dr. Dan.

Choice Track: Past Tense Future Perfect

3. Hot Water Music – Caution (2002)

It’s Hot Water Fucking Music. Must I really say anything other than “DUUUUHHHRRRR”?

Choice Track: Trusty Chords

2. At The Drive-In – Relationship of Command (2000)

When I visited the Berkinow concentration camp in Poland and walked silently down the train tracks that lead so many people to their deaths nearly seventy years prior I had the refrain to “Invalid Litter Dept.” stuck on repeat inside my skull. If you need any more evidence as to this record’s haunting intensity then there is a very good chance you have zero soul.

Choice Track: One-Armed Scissor

WARNING: EXTREME SENTIMENTALITY ALERT!

1. Against Me! – Reinventing Axl Rose (2002)

When I drove away from my high school graduation, “We Laugh at Danger and Break All the Rules” spilled from my car stereo. Four years later, I ended my last radio show with the same song. When I get married, I will serenade my wife with “Baby, I’m an Anarchist” (or possibly “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong.”)I will make sure my children know the chorus to “Walking Is Still Honest” by heart and know that I mean every word when I sing it back to them. Quite simply, no record has meant more to me in my life, let alone the last ten years of it (scene be damned.) Far more concerned with the honesty, intensity and purity of the message rather than the recording, this record is about love, friendship, integrity and perseverance in its purest form…and we can’t ask any more of our music than that. (Melodramatic I know but I mean every word…more or less.)

Choice Track: We Laugh at Danger and Break All the Rules.

That’s it. Get outta here.

20. A Wilhelm Scream – Ruiner (2004)

A genuinely unique sound is hard to come by in most rock circles today…and ESPECIALLY in the punk scene. Maybe being the most intense band on a bunch of ska tours for years was the key to AWS’ sound developing the way it did…who knows…but whatever it was that lead to the finger tappy, sing/screamy, hard/soft goodness present on this monster got it right in almost every way.

Choice Track: Killing It

19. Bridge and Tunnel – East/West (2008)

Easily one of, if not the best new bands to rise out of the entire second half of the decade, if these spunky New Yorkers are an indication of what’s to come from the “org” scene then we have some amazing years ahead of us. All heart, no bullshit, no filler…every word intricately chosen for maximum effect…this record is a great example of how to do political commentary through music completely correctly.

Choice Track: Call to the Comptroller’s Office

18. Mastodon – Leviathan (2004)

When someone with little credibility told me Mastodon were “the next Metallica” I said “fuck off n00b they’ve been saying that about *insert half-decent metal band* for years and it hasn’t played out…even if a band comes along that was tight enough to respectfully exist within the genre they would still have to cross commercial battlelines and get the rubes into it like Metallica did…NOT happening.” Then I heard Leviathan and my immediate response was short and sweet: “well…fuck.”

Choice Track: Blood and Thunder

17. Fucked Up – Hidden World (2006)

Making a good hardcore record after the mid-90s was hard enough…making one so good that it redefined the entire genre seemed like an impossibility before Hidden World. This record, the one that followed it and the millions of EPs that preceded and came between them showed that loud and fast could still have legs, even in 8 minute increments.

Choice Track: Baiting the Public

16. Murder by Death – Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them? (2003)

Remember when an album telling a complete story wasn’t out of the ordinary or frowned upon? So much more than a concept album, even if it WAS every emo kid’s token artsy record for three years, this record defied all expectations as it trudged through its sweepingly epic story with its own unique brand of punk-tinged country magnificence.

Choice Track: That Crown Don’t Make You a Prince

15. The Distillers – Sing Sing Death House (2002)

There isn’t anything particularly noteworthy about this one…it’s a fairly straightforward so-cal punk record that never really had much of an impact on anyone…except me. We all made our entrance into the genre some way…and when this 16 year-old Audioslave fan witnessed Brody Dalle and crew blaze through 25ish minutes of tracks from this record to a crowd of about 10 people at 2PM at Lollapalooza ’03…it was all over.

Choice Track: City of Angels

14. Andrew WK – I Get Wet (2002)

“When it’s time to party, we will party hard.” Nuff said.

Choice Track: Party Hard

13. Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends (2002)

Under normal circumstances, this record, while still the most notable record to arise out of the long island post-hardcore scene this decade, would have been much lower on this list..if not off it all together. However, if it weren’t for this record, I never would have discovered The Descendents…and, more likely, would still be listening to nu-metal. For that, I owe Taking Back Sunday more than I can really explain.

Choice Track: You Know How I Do

12. Cursive – The Ugly Organ (2003)

The OTHER token artsy record of all emo kids at the beginning of the decade, filling “art-rock” quotas on mixtapes to this very day. Kasher and crew haven’t really been as haunting, soul bitingly honest and heartbreakingly dense since (largely due to the departure of Greta Cohn right before their follow up)…*insert other hyperbole…rinse…repeat*

Choice Track: A Gentleman Caller

11. Dillinger Four – Situationist Comedy (2002)

What can really be said about D4 that hasn’t been said before? The entire mid-west pop punk scene owes the entirety of its existence to these drunk punks (as well as half of punknews), and this was “the last D4” record for the vast majority of the decade (its follow-up didn’t land until 4^th quarter 2008.) Maybe not as anthemic as Vs God but, I’d argue, a lot more memorable in the long run.

Choice Track: A Floater Left with Pleasure in the Executive Washroom

Almost done now…

NEW DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: In case you haven’t figured it out…I’m only working with full lengths for this list…however, if I wasn’t, the demo and two following EPs by Rochester’s Sakes Alive!! (AKA the nine total original songs they released this decade)would have appeared together in this post…because they totally fucking rip.

30. The Unseen – So This is Freedom? (2001)

Over the course of this decade the once proud Boston street punk tradition began to fade…with The Freeze gone, Toxic Narcotic MIA and the Dropkick Murphys blowing up and sound tracking Oscar winning flicks, the scene became almost unrecognizable…however The Unseen stood strong. Like Strike Anywhere, all of their records really sound pretty similar, but this tends to be the one that everyone remembers…and I’m sure that has NOTHING to do with its catchy choruses, fast hooks and driving energy present from the first note to the final twang of the hidden cover track at the end.

Choice Track: So This is Freedom?

29. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine (2004)

Easily one of the most innovative, risk taking metal releases of the decade…not only combining traditional metalcore with more industrial elements, but proving once and for all that DEP were still a force to be reckoned with, lineup changes and all, after Calculating Infinity. Admittedly I had a bit of trouble deciding between this album and its follow-up…but in terms of groundbreaking ingenuity and face melting intensity…Miss Machine wins.

Choice Track: Sunshine the Werewolf

28. The Blood Brothers – Burn, Piano Island, Burn (2005)

I won’t lie…when I first heard this record I thought it was some elaborated inside joke…most likely at the expense of Claudio Sanchez. It took me literally years of relatively consistent listening to realize how important this record was…it took the mold created (and then later maligned) by screamo and turned it into something much more intense but still, in some odd way, danceable. Sing/Scream/Destroy/Repeat.

Choice Track: Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon

27. The World/Inferno Friendship Society – Addicted to Bad Ideas (2007)

I know what you’re thinking: “WHAT?! HOW COME YOU DIDN’T PICK “JUST THE BEST PARTY” YOU FUCKING POSEUR?!” Here is why: Just the Best Party was as great an introductory record as can exist…but prior to that record, the band went through more sound changes than anyone can count…Party showed us what the band was doing then…and it was marvelous…however Addicted to Bad Ideas showed us what one of the most important punk bands this decade could really DO. Perfectly arranged, punk and circus elements intricately balanced…lyrically complex and almost a challenge to the audience…”hey punk kids, we DARE you to NOT like this!” Some didn’t, it’s true…but they are completely soulless and entirely intolerable as human beings.

Choice Track: Thumb Cinema

26. Thrice – Vheissu (2005)

I knew the first time I heard this record that I liked it…a lot…so much so that it was my favorite record of that year and still regularly finds its way onto my playlists four years later…but it took me a little bit of time to realize why this record mattered: Thrice really were the first of the early decade emo generation to break rank and legitimately do something different with their soapbox (and I don’t just mean because they added piano)…and the result can’t be ignored. Everything about this record is epic…the highs boom and the lows haunt in a way that the band really hasn’t been able to quite repeat since (though they came close with The Alchemy Index.)

Choice Track: For Miles

25. Isis – Oceanic (2002)

Back when labeling people by the music they listened to was cool, I was a lonely depressed teenage metalhead with playlists that included Metallica, Killswitch Engage and Disturbed. Then I discovered punk and hardcore and left my nu-metal collection and oversized black hoodies behind without much of a second thought. However, two things happened in 2006 that reignited my love of the genre a thousand fold: Metalocalypse began to air…and I heard Oceanic for the first time. However, unlike before, I was met with a metal that was lyrically intriguing, musically dense (audibly hulking in a way) and not even particularly easy to listen to…but if you stuck with it, were brought to levels of musical pseudo-enlightenment heretofore unseen by my poseur-teenage self.

Choice Track: False Light

24. The Dropkick Murphys – The Warriors Code (2005)

This might be the single entry I have thought most about on this entire list. While Dropkick certainly gave me more than a few releases to choose from over the past ten years, I went with this one not only because it was (somehow) my first real exposure to the band and not only because it came out the year I starting to feel at home in New England…but because this record contains within it the sound of a city reborn. In 2004, after 86 years Boston finally had its day again…and the enthusiasm was infectious. We were a city of champions, and Dropkick came along with their light hearted vocals, blaring bagpipes and punk rock intensity and immortalized that time more than anyone ever could…and gave the city its anthem for this new era like it had the last.

Completely Obvious Choice Track: I’m Shipping Up to Boston

23. Converge – You Fail Me (2004)

Another tough call, because like a lot of the other bands on this list this was not the resoundingly clear pick for decade’s best. However, unlike its predecessor Jane Doe, I feel like this album solidified the band’s sound moving forward just a LITTLE more…showing us a deeper, darker, more complex but resoundingly heartfelt side of hardcore that hadn’t been seen for a couple years beforehand.

Choice Track: Eagles Become Vultures

22. Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies (2002)

As much as the city of Boston wants to believe their celt-punk troops are the only true heirs to the Pogues throne, that title will always and forever belong with Flogging Molly…and unlike some other bands on this list, this record was the resoundingly clear winner for decades best. From start to finish, every emerald-ilse-lovin’ track is just as danceable, mischievous and fast paced as the last and together creates a complete, whiskey drenched package that, literally years later, I still can’t put down.

Choice Track: What’s Left of the Flag

21. My Chemical Romance – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004)

No matter how you feel about them, there were very bands active this decade that the masses remained completely undecided on like My Chemical Romance. Few other groups were as alternately loved and hated by so many…and I should know, as I felt both toward them over the last ten years…and that kinda controversy demands recognition. Of course, the catchy, morbid pop-punk anthems that come along with said controversy and that re-ignited the pseudo-goth branch of emo and ended up, consciously or not, starting a movement that will be commented on for years to come aren’t bad either.

Choice Track: I’m Not Okay (I Promise)

40. The Alkaline Trio – From Here To Infirmary (2001)

Remember that brief two (some would say three) year span this decade when emo and melodic hardcore weren’t commercially viable and ended up producing some of the genre’s best work? This is one artifact from that time period. Hitting the right balance of melody, aggression and morbid angst, Skiba and crew crafted a near perfect tribute to the 90s while laying the ground work that oh so many would build upon (mostly badly) in the years to come.

Choice Track: Bloodied Up

39. Johnny Cash – American V: A Hundred Highways (2006)

Forthcoming Volume VI and other assorted Rick Rubin wankery notwithstanding, nothing really compares to the feeling of picking this record up for the first time. Despite the widespread commercial success of its predecessor, when IV came out there was always at least a chance for more to come…when this one landed, almost three years after the man in black’s death, we were officially on borrowed time. From the first note to the last whisper it’s become plainly evident that Rubin was effectively having the man eulogize himself…normally, an act I would not approve of…but this time, it worked.

Choice Track: I’m Free From the Chain Gang Now

38. The Descendents – Cool To Be You (2004)

There was a lot of pop-punk flying around this decade…a LOT of it….given that, it’s easy to forget that one of the godfathers of the genre was active for a while and released this instant classic. Almost every song on here is an anthem and once a little more time has passed I guarantee this record will be just as influential as their 80s output…if not more so.

Choice Track: Nothing With You

37. Silverstein – When Broken Is Easily Fixed (2003)

One of the cornerstones of the swansong of screamo, this one managed to sneak in right before the genre (and indeed, the band themselves) took a shit train to shitsville. Wearing their Grade influence high and proud (sometimes to a pathetic extent), these Ontarians managed to package early-00s teen angst into a neat robot allegory and 98% of the Hot Topic clientele shat the bed for it.

Choice Track: Bleeds No More

36. O Pioneers! – Neon Creeps (2009)

The term “instant classic” isn’t something I throw around lightly (so far I’ve only applied it to the GODDAMN DESCENDENTS), but the first time I listened to this record…and the four times I played it all the way through immediately afterward, I knew this one had staying power. Unassumingly original, almost heartbreakingly candid and bleeding honesty, this may be the only record with actual staying power to rise out of the orgcore scene this year.

Choice Track: Stressing the Fuck Out

35. Read Yellow – Radios Burn Faster (2004)

This record will forever live as a testament to what could have been. Sure, their final posthumous release did quietly see the light of day for those who actually cared, but it’s this record (and the accompanying live sets) that I feel really encapsulates the all too brief life of Read Yellow. Charging drums, wailing guitar and hauntingly biting vocals blend to form one of the best pure rock records heard this decade.

Choice Track: The Association

34. Gogol Bordello – Gypsy Punks; Underdog World Strike (2005)

In a scene so dangerously close to stagnation, Gogol Bordello provided a much needed breath of fresh air with their SideOneDummy debut. Who would have thought that teen angst would be brought to its knees by energetic, eastern European infused anthems in broken English by a guy who grew up in REFUGEE CAMPS. My only regret is not getting into them earlier so that I could witness the looks of horror and confusion on the faces of every scene kid at Warped Tour that summer.

Choice Track: I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again

33. P.O.S. – Audition (2006)

No, this record is NOT only on this list because the lack of hip-hop made me feel too white (though, for the sake of full disclosure that IS part of it), but this also happened to be one of the most punk records put out in the last ten years. Every track is seemingly crafted to create a perfect storm of rage, heart and playfulness that has more to do with pizza than sex. If all hip-hop was made with this much heart, the world might be a better place.

Choice Track: Half-Cocked Concepts

32. Big D and the Kids Table – Good Luck (2000)

I will say this is no uncertain terms: this record was the only not only listenable, but genuinely GOOD ska record put out this decade. THE. ONLY. ONE. (okay…the two that followed it were also pretty good…but seriously? Fuck Streetlight Manifesto.) Combining the best of Operation Ivy’s intensity and The Specials’ groove with a Boston attitude to form a crazy ska love baby that will stand the test of time (if I have anything to say about it anyway.)

Choice Track: G.L.D.

31. The Dresden Dolls – The Dresden Dolls (2004)

Ah the fluke that turned in a phenomenon. Who would have thought the spunky piano/drum duo of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione would ever win that battle of the bands that landed them on shitty metal heavyweight Roadrunner and who further still would have thought their 1940s Cabaret meets 1980s street punk sound would lead a renaissance of weirdo avant-gardists in the semi-mainstream. I sure didn’t…but you can’t argue with the result.

Choice Track: Girl Anachronism

First: I’m not even going to pretend to be objective with this one. This list is based just as much on my own personal experiences with the listed bands/records as it is the musical/theoretical attributes put forth by said bands/records. My best advice to anyone looking to tackle this somewhat daunting organizational task is to do the same: there was a LOT of good music this decade and to try and rank them based on some kind of objective rubric is inane and almost defeats the purpose of writing about an art form. Don’t be afraid to make claims only because you want to (just don’t be TOO much of a dick about it.)

Second: I’ve elected to only select one album from any given band for this one, as to level the playing field a bit. This, believe it not, was the hardest part of this whole ordeal as in many cases a given band put out more than a few quality releases over the last ten years (case in point: Mastodon.) Chances are my selection of some given album is based entirely on when I heard it in relation to it’s brethren…nothing more, nothing less. Ideally my commentary will illuminate my choices a bit though.

Got it? Good. There will be a test later.

50. Bison BC – Quiet Earth (Metal Blade, 2008)

After I turned 17 it was rare for a new metal release to be as immediately addictive as this one and even rarer for that release to come from a relative newcomer. However, from the moment I saw these guys take the stage opening for Baroness last year I knew we had a winner on our hands…I still hold to that.  Raw, crushing and, as once amazingly described to me (by this musically apt feminista), “boner-iffic”, if you’re a “beardrock” fan, a connoisseur of all things brutal or just an occasional metal fan, this is the record for you.

Choice Track: These Are My Dress Clothes

49. Protest the Hero – Kezia (Smallman, 2005/Vagrant, 2006)

Speed metal has never been as poppy or as solid. In the future, I’m fairly sure that this will be the release that informs the memory of Protest the Hero. Far and away more put together and musically informed than anything they did before or (so far) since. The fact that these guys were all teenagers when this came out is also pretty keen.

Choice Track: No Stars Over Bethlehem

48. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound (SideOneDummy, 2008)

Impeccably crafted, this record managed to encapsulate a feeling mainstream music hadn’t managed to quite convey for almost 40 years and did it deep within the annals of the independent punk scene. That didn’t last though, as this all too brief window into the minds of this tattooed New Jersey Quartet rocketed them to fame and almost universal praise faster than anyone could have really expected. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess, but they certainly do have a lot bigger of an audience to wow this time around.

Choice Track: The ’59 Sound

47. Fear Before the March of Flames – Art Damage (Equal Vision, 2004)

If you weren’t paying attention when this came out, it would have just fallen in with the literally hundreds of screamo releases that year…however, those who did pay attention were delivered one of the most progressive grindcore releases of the decade, possibly made even more unique by the fact that the band moved on from this sound almost immediately. An all too brief snapshot, but a worthwhile one nonetheless.

Choice Track: Should Have Stayed in the Shallows

46. Old Man Gloom – Christmas (Hydra Head, 2004)

The inspired but all too fleeting side-project of *insert monumentally influential doom/sludge/metal band* (but in reality Isis, Converge/Doomriders & Cave-In), this release manages to stand up just as powerfully as any other project by its assembled creators. Hard when it needs to be and soft when we weren’t aware softness was possible, brought together with soundscapes that are as haunting as they are thought provoking. The fact that these guys never play live is a genuine shame.

Choice Track: Something for the Mrs.

45. Trash Talk – Trash Talk (Independent, 2008)

Clocking in at just over 14 minutes, this California quartet manages to encapsulate so perfectly what it must have been like to hear bands like Sick of It All and the Cro-Mags for the first time, combined with a healthy dose of thrash thrown in as seasoning. Over almost as soon as it began but still feeling oddly complete, it’s rare that hardcore is this well crafted.

Choice Track: Birth Plague Die

44. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (Vagrant, 2008)

Perhaps not as ground breaking as its predecessors, but arguably the tightest release these classically influenced New York pseudo-punks have under their belt. It’s rare that a record so perfectly encapsulates the season of its release, but everything about this record screams summer: sunshine, cold beer, good friends and a sense of hope and wonder that’s almost palpable…truly inspirational stuff here.

Choice Track: Constructive Summer

43. Gallows – Orchestra of Wolves (In The Deep End, 2006/Epitaph, 2007)

Just when it seemed like semi-mainstream punk was through taking its cues from the 80s hardcore giants, Gallows burst onto the British hardcore scene and beat in the faces of every single doubter and then proceeded to set their targets on the oh so many half-hearted lip servers that have popped up since Hot Topic started selling Black Flag shirts. A Day to Remember? Watch your back.

Choice Track: Abandon Ship

42. Strike Anywhere – Change is a Sound (Jade Tree, 2001)

Admittedly, I could have chosen any of Strike Anywhere’s albums for this, as they are all very much cut from the same cloth. However, that being said I figured going with the one that started it all wasn’t that bad of a move. From the politically charged ashes of beloved Richmond speed-punks Inquisition, Thomas Barnett and crew roared onto the scene and reminded people just how alive and well the political punk tradition was…and they haven’t let up since. (Sidenote: I bought my first copy of this record at Celebrated Summer in Towson, MD…a shop, as it happened, owned and operated by the dude on the cover of this very album. Coincidences like this make me giddy.)

Choice Track: Refusal

41. Comeback Kid – Wake the Dead (Smallman/Victory, 2005)

Canada has a long and storied hardcore history and this monster out of Winnipeg is just one gem to come out of it. However, it has the distinct note of being one of the first records to really get me to listen to hardcore and like it (and before you purist kids judge me…the Minor Threat discography was another, so suck it.) It also wins the award for some of the most subversively inspirational HxC anthems of the decade.

Choice Track: Wake the Dead

Ten more coming tomorrow…or maybe tonight, we’ll see.