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Russell Gragg's Chugchanga-L Poll 2000 Entry
Here's a copy of a best-of list I compiled for an arts weekly.
THE 10TH ANNUAL eye MUSIC CRITICS POLL
OFFICIAL 2000 BALLOT
EMAIL eyepoll@eye.net
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NAME: Russell "Rusty" Gragg
ADDRESS: P.O. Box 4042, St. Catharines, ON, L2R 7S3
PHONE: (905) 329-4548
EMAIL: russell_gragg@excite.com
AGE: 29
FREELANCE OR STAFF? Staff
WHERE? !Earshot Magazine (publication of the National Campus and Community
Radio Association)
ALBUMS
(list 1 through 10 with a rating score of 0 to 100)
Artist/Title (Label) Score
e.g., 2. Spice Girls/Forever (Virgin) 99
1. Marvin Pontiac/Greatest Hits (Strange And Beautiful) 73
2. Shecky Forme/002 (Boonbox) 65
3. Blackalicious/Nia (Quannum Projects/Ninja Tune) 62
4. Bad Livers/Blood And Mood (Sugar Hill) 61
5. Tin Hat Trio/Helium (Angel) 55
6. Steve Earle/Trancendental Blues (Epic/Sony) 53
7. Susie Ibarra Trio/Radiance (Hopscotch) 52
8. Dilated Peoples/The Platform (Capitol/EMI) 48
9. 33.3/Plays Music (Aesthetics) 45
10. Sex Mob/Solid Sender (Knitting Factory) 39
SINGLES
(list 1 through 5 with a rating score of 0 to 100)
Artist/Title (Label) Score
e.g., 1. B4-4/"Get Down" (Sony) 90
Couldn't even hazard a guess here. It's tough to get decent radio reception
under a rock…
Alright. A couple…
1. John Wesley Harding/"She's A Piece Of Work" (Mammoth) 79
2. Anjali/"Lazy Lagoon" (Wiiija/Beggars Banquet) 72
REISSUES
Artist/Title (Label)
1. Devo/The Pioneers Who Got Scalped (Rhino/Warner)
2. Anthony Braxton/For Alto (Delmark)
BEST VIDEO:
Damn! I forgot to watch Much Music this year!
WORST ALBUM:
Christ, how can you narrow that down? I mean, how many hundreds of thousands
of full-length CDs are released annually? I can list off dozens of
disappointments by other wise solid artists. "Art Official Intelligence" by
De La Soul springs immediately to mind. As does "Gung Ho", Patti Smith's
2000 release. Not terrible albums by any stretch of the imagination, but
nowhere near up to par. Oh yeah, the whole Confrontation Camp debacle (Chuck
D, Professor Griff, and Kyle Ice Jason) makes it clear that Mistachuck
should keep up the political punditry, but bow out of hiphop before it's too
late.
WORST SINGLE:
Again, relative isolation from commercial radio means I lack the ability to
pick Top 40 tracks outta the air. Five months after moving to the densest
radio market in North America and I can't tell a Creed from a Matchbox.
Colour me a cultural ‘tard.
Can't Believe The Hype! (The most over-exposed and over-inflated of 2000)
1. Eminem (I mean, really! I've oft wondered exactly what it'd take for me
to long for the return of Vanilla Ice.)
2. Elian Gonzalez. Sure, I was as charmed as the next jaded hack by Elian's
heartwarming rendition of Split Enz's "Six Months In A Leaky Boat", but as
the summer wound down and the news broke that Gonzales was in fact the
Bacharach-wannabe self-styled pop genius with a preponderance for animal
imagery who penned the Hampsterdance (sic) track and a club anthem ‘bout
letting canines out, I'd had enough. The cameo in a Budweiser "Whassup!"
commercial shot on location from his uncle's front porch was the final nail.
Most Likely To Succeed In 2001
1. Hawksley Workman (c'mon, this fella shoulda been topping charts two years
ago...what's the delay?). Andy Stochansky too, come to think of it. Picture
a band featuring the two of ‘em. Now picture said band on stage at Wembley
Stadium. Now picture Workman holding down Noel Gallagher whilst Stochansky
applies bunsen burner-heated needlenose pliers to Oasis member's nipples. A
simple thought to warm you through the long winter months ahead.
2. Maximum R N B. With powerhouse promotions man Keith Maruk (Epitaph
Canada) at the helm the band can't help but break large, whether or not they
ever learn a chord. As an added bonus, they apparently have sev'ral chords
under their belts, way more than the average rock n' roll band needs.
OK now SOUND OFF! (Commentary is crucial!)
Beginning in 2001, I, Russell Gragg and !Earshot Magazine will collectively
launch a boycott of all musical artists with numbers in their monikers.
Though we're uncertain as to whether this is simply a new band-naming trend
a la the "one-syllable-word" feeding frenzy of the
late-eighties/early-nineties, or whether this is, in fact, proof positive
that all good band names have been taken.
Either way, you've been warned FingerEleven, Sum41, Matchbox20, 3 Doors
Down, Blink 182, Eve6, and don't even think about reuniting, Level 42.
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