blog post The Best Songs of the Decade, picked by Grant and YOU

Dan Mangan: Fair Verona. It's not radio friendly, but it's the most amazing song on that album.

Wilco: Poor Places. Ditto (but not Canadian.)

but I'm a huge Sammy Roberts fan. (Alright so I might have a huge crush on him too...)

I love him, and he's the one that really got me listening to Canadian indie in the 2000s. Plus, I think "We Were Born in a Flame" is a fantastic album. I'm going to go ahead and say it's my favourite on the decade. It's pure rock and so Canadian. 

I'll go with "Don't Walk Away Eileen" as my favourite song of the decade. 

I don't know if I can sum up my musical thoughts from the 2000s with one song, but I do know there were a few  that captured me, and never let me go.

And one of those songs is Stars' "Your Ex-Lover is Dead." Everything here is wonderful: the heartbreaking lyrics, the harmonizing of Amy and Torquil, those aching strings and the beautifully-melancholy advice: "live through this and you won't look back."

Just a perfect, perfect song.

Agreed! Sam Roberts took Canadian indie by storm and "Don't Walk Away Eileen" never gets old. That album is actually the 100th best Canadian album of all time (according to the book I got for Christmas)  :p

"I don't know if I can sum up my musical thoughts from the 2000s with one song, but I do know there were a few  that captured me, and never let me go."

That statment is exactly how I feel. Not to mention "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" is a fantastic song for the very reasons stated.

Wow - hard to pick just one, but at this particular moment, I think maybe Jim Bryson's 'Sleeping in Toronto'. That song brings back all sorts of great memories of seeing Jim, Kathleen, 50men, Andrew Vincent and all the other great Ottawa indie bands play at the Black Sheep. Oh the memories! Happy new year, Grant....

One of my favourite albums of the decade is All of Our Names by Sarah Harmer.  I still love her unabashedly, and she is the soundtrack to my Saturday mornings as I read the paper.  I don't know if I can pick a favourite from the album, but today feels like either a "Greeting Card Aisle" or "Things to Forget" kind of day.

Can't pick just one.  Somewhere in Bison B.C. - Th Curse and Mother Mother - Arms Tonite and The Sword - Maiden, Mother, & Crone and MGMT - Kids and Saucy Monky - Don't Wanna Know Your Name and Elliott Brood - Write It All Down For You is the winner.  I think.  Right now I'd lean toward the Brood but I think I have to dwell on it for a little while.

I've always loved that line, dunno why. It's so "young" perhaps.

Tough Question:  One track that comes to mind is Wintersleep-Danse Macabre 

Every time I hear this track I'm reminded of touring around the maritimes with my old band and the first time I heard the track preformed live I was floored. Previously Wintersleep had been mostly acoustic based and this song is sonically crushing and really displayed this band in a new light and displayed the groups heavier influences. 

Constantines-Shine A Light another amazing song of the 2000's 

Another Fav of mine: Corb Lund- Five Dollar Bill....... I saw Corb Lund for the first time in 2004 in Jasper AB.  Previously never thought that I could have fun at a country show.  Corb and crew instantly changed my point of view. 

He got me going on the Canadian Indie music the most and "We Were Born in a Flame" is such a great listen from start to finish.  It's very hard to narrow it to one artist let alone one song...but I personally have to go with "Hard Road" because when it starts I am taken back to when I first heard it.

My favorite groups of the decade have to be Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers, but The Weakerthans have to be up there too. So hard to pick the best song though - maybe "The Bleeding Heart Show"? It's endlessly uplifting.

Another solid Wintersleep track.  That second wintersleep album is special, pure nostalgia for me. You really hear a collective band gelling and the result is one of the best albums of the 2000's.

I've been so lucky to have found Canadian indie music in the last ten years. I'll be eternally grateful for it, I promise. Since "finding it," I've been introduced to so much wonderful music and those that create it. But, admittedly, I have to give credit where it is due. Earlier in this decade, I was introduced to Tegan and Sara. And since these two ladies have no qualms about promoting the music they are into, I was further introduced to more Canadian talents. So, I have to give thanks to them for helping to guide me in the northern direction.

So if I'm going to nominate a song from them, which one? Perhaps I should go with the fan favorite, Living Room. The song often heard chanted by fans to be played at their shows. With the use of a banjo and the growled lyrics, what's not to love?

The 2000's started with the potential to be the worst decade of my life, but by half way through I realized everything was going to be alright.

There are so many events, emotions, people, experiences attached to every song I listened to in this period of time, it is impossible to isolate one, or even one hundred.

There has not been a single song played so far in this show that does not have a memory attached to it.

So, I am just going to put one song out there, a song that I have seen performed several times, and has always transported me away from the real world.  GLS, Your Rocky Spine.

Janessa in Victoria-that Hidden Cameras show at the Collective, one of the last shows ever played there, is one of the most memorable shows ever for me.

one of my fav tracks of the decade would have to be the suffering machine by Buck 65. Not only did he expose creative canadian music, he also made a record that spanned genres, and helped show me as a hip hop artist that pushing the boundaries is essential. his Bike for Three! project is also amazing, though later in the decade. lyrics are often beautiful, images are often vivid and haunting and the production is greeat

that would probabaly  make my top 10 pretty easily.  that's a great thought.

tho, my fav live Tony Dekker moment is not GLS.  he covered 'case of you' at the Last Waltz anniversary show & it remains one of my favorite live moments from the decade.  admittedly, that whole show is at the top of my list.

i'm trying to think back toward earlier in for some stuff.  Stephen Fearings tribute to late great Johnny Cash, 'johnny's lament'  is pretty high on the list too.

i have to say one of my favorites lines from a  song is  'Buddha & Jesus & Ghandi & the girl sitting next to me all say the same you see -lets talk about love'.  from Jimmy Rankin.  that's good stuff.

I'm HOME! My ears are plugged and stuff is everywhere, but I made it.

(I also got several double-glances at the airport with my radio3 scarf.)

According to my iTunes my most played song is Love is Art/Sleep Through Fire by Said The Whale...

I have to say knowing those boys for most of this decade and seeing how far they've come is pretty awesome. Can't wait to see where the '10's bring them...

"Don't become the thing you hated" - Destroyer

that's a great thought.  what your most played song of the decade was.  i'm not an i-podder but according to the mp-3 on my phone is '49 tons'.  the B&RK version, not the Eaglesmith.  that only covers the past 2 years i've had the phone though

Very hard but looking back to the songs I listened to the most I can narrow it down to:

Shampoo Suicide - Broken Social Scene

Lost in the Plot - The Dears

Tyrants - Black Mountain

Clinically Dead - Chad Vangaalen

Needy Girl - Chromeo

On to You - Constantines

Black Heart - Cuff the Duke

Bye Bye Bye - Plants and Animals

The Landlord is Dead - Do Make Say Think

Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers

Sorry I can't pick a #1 fav...

1. Ladyhawk - New Joker

2. Constantines - Do What You Can Do

3. Broken Social Scene - Cause=Time

Only three of too many brilliant songs over 10 years!!

this question is so difficult seeing I've only been head over heels in love with cdn indie for the past 2 (2.5?) years. so many great discoveries.

Looking at my iTunes' "most played," I wore out my (digital) copies of Sam Roberts' albums, so anything from the man is on my 2000's list. And Joel Plaskett Emergency, Feist, The Weakerthans, and yes, "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead." Funny story, my ex-boyfriend is the one who turned me on to Stars and took me to see them as my first indie concert. So there's a whole bunch of jokes you can make about the song title!

My pick for song of the decade is probably Fashionable People by Joel Plaskett Emergency. It also happens to be the background for my Twitter page :)

Hope you're feeling less shaken from yesterday's car crash too.

Back in 2005 I caught the CBC Radio 3 podcast for the first time. It was your Best of 2005 show and I remember the Deadly Snakes song in the second to top spot and it just stopped me in my tracks (well a bunch of songs back then made an impression as I became a weekly - and now daily - listener ever since!). Gore Veil ranks pretty high for me, along with so many songs you've played today! Thank you for taking the pain out of an otherwise boring xmas holiday workday.

A

ps - this show was seriously podcast worthy Grant! Can it be released for download?

Grant, this is seriously the best set I've heard you play - and I've been an avid listener ever since I heard your Best of 2005 podcast back in, well, Dec 2005. And as I sit hear on a boring between holiday workday I am drawn right back to that time - especially when you played Gore Veil by the Deadly Snakes. I would say that that whole 14 song set was the most influential for me as it totally turned me onto Cdn music while I was abroad (that and Funeral by Arcade Fire).

Do you think this day's worth of music can make it into podcast form? I would love to hear it again... every song is a Cdn gem. Your Rocky Spine, Jaws of Life, list goes on... hey, what about Macarena? That was a good little song by Aunt Ida (also from 2005). This is the Dream of Win and Regine from FInal Fantasy?! Long live Cdn music!

I would have to agree with the SAM ROBERTS votes....although there were better picks (in my mind) than the "Eileen" song...definitely "Hard Road" and "the Canadian Way" are at the top for me. 

Other top picks of the 2000's are:

"Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by STARS

"Wake Up" by ARCADE FIRE

"I Quit my Job" by OLD MAN LUEDEKE

"Valley Town" by ELLIOTT BROOD

"In Field and Town" by HAYDEN

"If the Creeks don't Rise" by SUN PARLOUR PLAYERS

last.fm tells me that radiohead - weird fishes/arpeggi is my top played song.

i can't possibly narrow it down to one band/artist or song. off the top of my head, my list might look something like this:

radiohead - kid a/amnesiac/in rainbows

stars - your ex lover is dead (the whole album, but that song specifically)

shane koyczan - (everything he's ever written basically)

danny michel - feather fur & fin (the album..)

the slip - eisenhower (this got me through some very dark & lonely nights living in halifax)

wintersleep - faithful guide (i swear they reached inside of my head and wrote this song. it hits very close to home over losing someone dear to me when i was 16.)

Thank you.

i knew it!!! Don't think you ever said her name & fiancee in the same sentence before but I had my suspicions as she/her bro made a lot of appearances on the show (not that they weren't worthy, Jill Barber's music is great but it was a little disproportionate :)). Best of luck - on leaving her out of the list & the happily ever after stuff!

i mean really. you guys hook us, an' then there we are jonesing... for weeks it seems.

oh wait. it are.

easy.

Buck 65 - "wicked and wierd"

In fact, this show was so great, is there a playlist available? I'm thinking I should put together a "Best of the 2000's" mix tape.