(( Ok, so it seems that just about everyone does a "Best of" list at the end of the year. So here's mine. It's not a best of for critical reasons due to the complexity and meanings of the album, or the story behind the albums, or any other lame critic bullshit. It doesn't represent the entire musical spectrum either. It's just stuff I enjoyed listening to. ))

P.J.'s Top Albums of '02

Sleater Kinney-One Beat
~Sleater Kinney, sweet sweet Sleater Kinney. Never a band to rest on their laurels One Beat showed SK moving ahead again musically, adding organs, additional vocals, and even horns to their usual stripped down two guitar an' drum sound. Musically it's great and lyrically it's even better. Songs run the gamut, from political songs to songs about love. Check it out.

Sparta-Wiretap Scars
~When bands break up you never quite know what to expect of anything that comes after. One of the best bands of the nineties-At The Drive In-broke up and it's members went on to form two new bands: The Mars Volta, and Sparta. Sparta's full length exceeded my expectations for the non-afroed contingent of ATDI. While it's unfair to compare a band to the ashes it rose from I feel comfortable saying that Sparta's sound is very comparable to ATDI, if anything it's a bit more polished and slick, but it still rocks more than 99% of the releases out there. 
 
Pretty Girls Make Graves-Good Health
~Yet another band made up of members of other bands. Pretty Girls Make Graves first full length, Good Health, is hard to narrow down to one genre of music. There's emo, there's punk, there's hardcore, there's rock. Call it whatever you like, I'll just call it one of the best albums of the year.

Desaparecidos-Read Music/Speak Spanish
~Conor Oberst appears elsewhere on this list with his acoustic emo band-Bright Eyes. Desaparecidos is his attempt to be rocking and political. He succeeds. He knows he could catch flack for it, as evidenced by the lyrics "They say it's murder on your folk career to make a rock record with the Disappeared" (Desaparecidos is Spanish for disappeared.) but he does it anyways and does it well. Social commentary set to a rocking soundtrack. 
 
Sahara Hot Nights-Jennie Bomb
~Another Swedish band. But this time it's all hot chicks. Woot! Are they the Swedish Donnas? The Female Hives? Just a great rocking band? All of the above? I dunno, I just think they're cool. They're going to fall into the garage/lo-fi sound group, but stand out for being the only female group to really do so thus far.

Coheed and Cambria-The Second Stage Turbine Blade
~This album is supposedly the soundtrack to a comic the lead is working on. As a comic geek I think this is neat. And they remind me of Rush. Hot.

And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead-Source Tags And Codes
~The band with a giant name....2002 seemed to be the breakout year for Trail of Dead. I saw them on a couple of different late night talk shows performing a bit more restrained than their usual chaotic stage shows. 

Other Releases I thought were great but I'm too lazy to write about:
Dillinger Four-Situationist Comedy
Nekromantix-Return Of The Loving Dead
Bright Eyes-Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Interpol-Turn On the Bright Lights
The White Stripes-White Blood Cells
The Anniversary-Your Majesty
Jawbreaker-ETC

Top Pop Punk Releases  that I should hate but actually really like:
Starting Line-Say It Like You Mean It
Taking Back Sunday-Tell All Your Friends
Something Corporate-Leaving Through The Window
Finch-What It Is to Burn

Top Releases from bands that played in Bend:
(ok, we don't get that many bands in Bend, but here's the ones I thought were great.)
Thought Riot-Shattered Mirror Syndrome
800 Octane-The Return
NY REL-X-She's Got A Gun / Paranoia
Choke-There's A Story To This Moral

Saddest break up of '02:
Life WIthout Buildings
~Ahh, I cried. LWB is a British band, their LP was released stateside this year, so I could technically add it to the Best of '02 section. But I got a copy of the import version last year because I'm special and stuff. This is truly one of my favorite bands and they'll be sorely missed. With any luck we'll see the lead singer Sue's unique vocals gracing another band soon. Anyone who finds me some of their singles will be praised. 

Biggest Disappointment of '02:
The Get Up Kids-On a Wire
~I like the Get Up Kids. Alot. I dislike the new album. It's ok and all, mellower, but its lost something from their older records. Bands change, that's part of anything. But this change just doesn't capture a certain sound that I enjoyed in their previous releases. 

Band that isn't deserving of the praise they received:
The Vines-Highly Evolved
~Terrible. I picked up their album for cheap in Canada based on the hype. Their label is taking advantage of the current mainstream obsession over "garage" bands to push them. It's got a couple of decent songs, but overall it's crap that's nowhere deserving of the praise it's gotten. I do appreciate the stupid faces that the lead singer makes as he sings. Perhaps he's really retarded and I should give them extra credit for being fronted by a handicapped kid from Australia. 

Trends in Bend:
More shows:  Hurrah! The past year has seen a HUGE spike in the number of shows we're seeing in Bend. From tiny shows featuring just Central Oregon bands, to larger shows with national touring bands, from tiny basement gigs with 12 people in attendance to huge shows at the roller rink. With any luck '03 will only see the trend continue, maybe even getting Bend put back on the map for midlevel touring bands like it once was.

Less Venues: Booo! The past year has seen the number of available venues for all ages shows drop to two as of this writing. You could include the Roller Rink for a 3rd, but we don't see enough shows there to really make it count. 

More Punks: I see a huge number of "Punk" kids in Bend. It's a disproportionate amount compared to the amount of kids I see who could be put into any other categories. Where's the emo kids? Where's the indie kids? The Goths? I guess the leather stores should stock up on strips, studs, and spikes. Wait, 95% of the kids don't bother to make their own stuff, so skip that last sentence. They should stock up on pre-made leather goods and manic panic.

More Talk Less Action: Just like it says.