Ahhhhhhh… 2001. It's hard to be nostalgic and poetic about a year that possibly produced more crap music than any before in the history of rock n' roll. Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, the influx of rap metal, jock punk, and mall emo in 2001 was unbearable. As a result, our list of the worst records of 2001 seems more crucial than the list of the best. Sadly, in 2001, re-issues, "best of" albums, and previously unreleased material collections far out-shadowed releases of new offerings. If it was fair to count these releases on our list, we'd have an impressive showing from the likes of The Who, Ol' Dirty Bastard (Yes, we know we said that "Nigga Please" would make the list of 2001, but we changed our minds), My Bloody Valentine, The Birthday Party, Outkast, Bill Hicks, The Pixies, and Joy Division among many, many others. But of course there were also a few gems here and there. Once again, the "worst of" list comes courtesy of Buddyhead almost as a compass for the youth of the world; A guide to point them in the right direction, and steer them clear from audible danger. Just like we study world wars and genocide, these albums and artists should be studied, so that they can never possibly happen again. Both lists of 25 aren't placed in any particular kind of order. Like we've said before, how could you possibly decide between Shat and Radiohead, and which of them contributed the greatest album of the year? It's simply impossible. They both delivered historic and landmark bodies of work. And here they are…

THE 25 BEST RECORDS OF 2001
(in no particular order)

Spiritualized
Let It Come Down
This dude is still making good music to take drugs to. Just ask Travis. This is good to listen to when you're depressed and all you want to do is shoot heroin and bang hookers. Tom does that when he's not depressed.

Fugazi
The Argument
It's almost irritating that these guys always put out an amazing record. Just for once could you guys please put out a shitty record? Or at least a mediocre one so we can finally make fun of how Ian sings like a drunken sailor and Guy dances like a girl and call you old or something.

Burning Brides
Fall Of The Plastic Empire
One of the freshest faces in underground rock today. MC5 meets Dinosaur Jr meets T Rex meets Nirvana meets Slayer. Get down with the sound or get out of town.

Radiohead
Amnesiac
The rumors preceding this album were actually partially true. Was Radiohead sitting on a more "by the book" rock record? No. But were they sitting on material even more superior to that on "Kid A"? Yes.

Pleasure Forever
Pleasure Forever
Songs about drugs and orgies made with only guitar, piano, and drums. They used to be called Slaves but then kinda pussed out cos they thought black people would get mad at them. Rock n' roll.

Tool
Lateralus
Tool went prog and made another great album. Go figure.

DJ Assault
Jefferson Avenue
He's huge in Detroit, and soon to be the rest of the world. The Godfather of Detroit bootie bass club music. This isn't one you wanna listen to in mom's car. Did we mention he's Shat's ebony brother? Ass N' Titties 2001.

The White Stripes
White Blood Cells
Is their schtick already a little tired? Yes. Is the songwriting here stellar? Yes. Do most people only care about this band cos the girl has enormous melons? Yes. Even though these two kinda look like they came from parents who are brother and sister, they still rock.

Aphex Twin
Drukqs
Changing the way you look at music and spelling. This is what music sounds like at Martian titty bars.

Lightning Bolt
Ride The Skies
These two dudes, a bass player and drummer, scare the nerd glasses off of pansy little indie rock geeks who thought they'd be seeing some artsy-fartsy Joan Of Arc band, but OH FUCKING NO, they get THE BOLT. This is something along the lines of speed metal meets free jazz on really bad hard drugs. Don't fuck around.

System Of A Down
Toxicity
Is simplistic metal brain surgery? Is it rocket science? Hell no, but these guys delivered one of the most charismatic metal albums ever made. You wanted to!

Les Savy Fav
Go Forth
A band that doesn't get enough credit these days. One of the hardest working, hardest rocking bands that exists, period. If you come to their show, they will bring you the rock. Les Savy Fav is the get-down, feel-good band of 2002. Be warned.

Shat
Cunt Flavored Lollipops
This album is quite possibly Shat's "Sgt. Pepper's". Do we even have to say the words? Record of the year. Tune in and be saved.

Built to Spill
Ancient Melodies of the Future
A throwback to their indie pop breakthrough album, "There's Nothing Wrong with Love". Great spacey pop songs, even if he does look like someone's perverted dad.

The Icarus Line
Mono
This album is possibly the only thing that Courtney Love and Dave Grohl agreed on all year. We had to twist Aaron's arm to put this on here cos he thought it would be "embarrassing", but if Gwyneth Paltrow can declare this as her favorite new band, then so can we.

N.E.R.D.
In Search Of
An experiment in pop music from the super hit making hip hop producers, The Neptunes. They come at you with their own blend of hip hop, rock, and pop music. Yeah, it's cheesey, but that's why we like it. Listen to this and try not to get "jiggy". Who knows if this record is even out, they've recorded it twice as far as we know.

Bob Dylan
Love and Theft
Bob might be old but he's still bomb.

The Lost Kids
Belle Isle Is On Fire e.p.
Four snotty, ass kickin', dirty garage rock songs from the ashes of Starlight Desperation. Just enough to leave our mouths watering for more. Oh and their singer, Dante, is taller than you too.

The Rapture
Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks
Solid rock n' roll by a band from New York who actually does sound a bit like Television and Gang of Four and is actually great as opposed to that other New York band whom we won't mention. This band does have goofy haircuts too though, so it's kind of a draw there.

Mogwai
Rock Action / My Father My King e.p.
Rock Action, although it's pretty mid-tempo paced, delivers what it claims… ROCK ACTION. My Father My King, the 20 minute companion e.p. to Rock Action, contains everything the full length lacked… and beyond. The e.p. is amazing in itself, but alongside the album the two feel complete. Buy this and do drugs.

Alkaline Trio
From Here To Infirmary
Fast food rock… Catchy songs about the best and worst things in life… drinking, women, more drinking, and drinking with women. Pop punk through a dark and distorted view. Burp.

Gayrilla Biscuits
Live In Italy 7"
Recorded live in Italy, this little gem contains the already legendary supergroup doing most of their hits including "Nailed In the Ass", "Get Hard", and "No Homosexual Surrender" as well as newer material such as "Walk Together, Suck Cock Together", "Spray It In My Face", and "Bringin It Down My Throat". Although the recording quality is rough, the gayness still cuts through quite well. Classic.

Autechre
Confield
These dudes tweaked their sound a bit after Radiohead ripped them off and came up with this gem. Like what muzak would sound like in a David Lynch movie where some girl gets fucked in an elevator then morphs into the guy's sister. Shoot dope, blow loads, kill pigs.

Dead Meadow
Howls From The Hills
Another stellar showing from this Washington D.C. trio that's a cross between Black Sabbath and a healthy game of Dungeons and Dragons. They even recorded this album in a fuckin barn. Sure these guys are weirdos and stand there looking bored when they play, but they deliver the goods.

Fantomas
The Director's Cut
If only this could be the soundtrack to all of Freddy Prinze Jr.'s movies. Nerd girl and jock boy make out while the audience hears some dude screeching, belching, and doing whatever the fuck else this dude does with his mouth.

THE 25 WORST RECORDS OF 2001
(in no particular order)

Weezer
Weezer
While "Pinkerton" was a step forward for these guys, this album was a giant leap back. This record is completely contrived and manufactured to pander toward self professed "geeks" everywhere, while these guys snort every line and bone every last underage asian groupie in sight. Who fuckin cares.

Radiohead
I Might Be Wrong: Live
You could have downloaded a better live record than this. What a disappointment.

Limp Bizkit
New Old Songs
Fart on a mic. Sell millions of records to steakheads everywhere under the guise of "underdog". Lose a guitarist… the only dude in the band with any slight musical talent whatsoever. (when we say slight, we mean extremely slight) Now try to smokescreen the public into thinking you're actually being productive by re-mixing the farts you previously laid down on mics by getting "big names" to remix your farts. Let's not forget the fact that this will also make you even more money by milking the era of your band when you actually still had a band. We all know what the verdict is on this one. You still can't polish a turd, even if the people trying to polish it are "big names". Give it five years and this album will look a lot like Poision's double disc live record.

System Of A Down
Toxicity
Even though these guys made the "best of" list, they have pretty lame beards and that one dudes voice can get ultra annoying, so we put them on the "worst of" list as well. Only fair.

Dashboard Confessional
So Impossible / The Places You Have Come To Fear…
The pinnacle of mall emo. Pure evil. The scariest thing about this record is that these are the songs that will be playing when the deflowering of all those 300-pound emo gorilla girls in light blue "princess" t-shirts you see hanging around hot topic happens. Yikes.

Various Artists
"What's Goin On?" cover benefit song
Yeah, yeah, we know this is a list of bad albums, but this song was so bad it demanded attention. Appropriately enough, the first time we saw the video for this "who's who" of shit music trying to act compassionate in a recording studio while butchering this song, as soon as the rappers started coming in towards the end and fucking RAPPING over a song that should be SUNG, our immediate reaction was, "What's Goin On?" The following people will burn in hell for all eternity for SLAUGHTERING the classic Marvin Gaye song: Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Destiny's Child, Jermaine Dupri, Fred Durst, Eve, Nelly Furtado, Ja Rule, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Aaron Lewis, Lil' Kim, Jennifer Lopez, Nas, Nelly, *NSYNC, P. Diddy, and Britney Spears.

The Faint
Dance Macabre
Retro new wave? This sucked when it was called Flock of Seagulls.

Incubus
Morning View
Oh how fascinating. Nice guy rap rock. At least all the other 5 string bass / dj / rap rock bands out there are pissed about being in shitty bands. These guys just want to be your friend and hang out with their moms. Fuckin wack.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy
A New Morning, Changing Weather
"So what's the idea behind your band?" "WE WANT TO SMASH CAPITALISM!" "How do you plan on doing that?" "BY BEING ON MTV SO WE CAN SELL LOTS OF RECORDS." Huh? What did we miss here? Anti-capitalism? On Epitaph records no less. Huh? If these guys are so "anti capitalism", then we expect to see their next show for free, and walk away from their merch table with our arms full of cd's and t-shirts at no charge whatsoever. This sucked when it was called The Make Up. This sucks again when it's called The Hives.

P.O.D.
Satellite
Jock metal meets Jesus in southern California. Just because it's positive doesn't mean the music is better. HEY DUDES, EVEN JESUS THINKS YOU SUCK.

Misfits
Cuts From The Crypt
For the love of all things sacred. When the Misfits got back together with a new singer (i.e. the FAKE Misfits) nobody could possibly care any less about even the best material these guys had in them. What on God's green earth would make anybody want to listen to b-sides of the shitty, fake Misfits? B-sides?! From the fake Misfits?! What the fuck is happening here?!

Slipknot
Iowa
The WWF meets jock metal. A bunch of fat white trash dudes from the midwest dressed up like clowns with masks and jumpsuits on, who actually take themselves seriously while looking this way and think they're the fuckin saviors of rock n' roll or some shit. These guys have too many people in the band. It's kinda like the ska version of death metal.

Creed
Weathered
This is one of those bands that sells like 40 million records, but you never know a single person who owns one of them cos all the people who do live at a truckstops somewhere in rural Arkansas or something. This is what people who normally listen to Garth Brooks listen to when they wanna get "crazy". Hey dudes, Jesus thinks you guys suck too, and somewhere in heaven he's being nagged by John Bonham about your shit band ripping off Zeppelin.

No Doubt
Rock Steady
Gwen, what the fuck happened here? You're not even on the cover.

Good Charlotte
Good Charlotte
This band signals the apex of jock punk. If you're curious what the Warped Tour is all about, these guys are all the bands on it rolled into one.

The Juliana Theory
Music From Another Room
Grossly egocentric soft rock with a headphone headset. Like we said last year… this is the polar opposite of rock n' roll. If there was ever a reason to carry firearms to shows, this would be it.

Alien Ant Farm
Anthology
Fat dudes making funny faces and trying to make a name for themselves like every other shitty flash in the pan band does… by getting big off a novelty cover. Weak. Now they realize there aren't any other single worthy songs on the album, so they have to re-shoot a video of their first single that flopped and work that angle. People who own this album deserve to be pistol-whipped. We'd kick our own asses if we liked this shit.

River City High
Won't Turn Down
No more bands with dudes wearing cowboy hats please. We will have to eradicate you. We are dumber now after hearing this.

Nelly Furtado
Whoa Nelly!
Fuck this bitch.

Pink
Missundaztood
Fuck this bitch too.

Sum 41
All Killer No Filler
It was bad enough when we first heard their songs. Then we found out they're from Canada. This band is the reason it's embarrassing to call yourself "punk" anymore.

Nickelback
Silver Side Up
Watered down Creed sung by a guy who could pass for the return of Jesus Christ after he got beat down severely by the ugly stick.

Little T and One Track Mike
Fome Is Dape
Goofy white guy rapper. Die.

Puddle Of Mudd
Come Clean
Not only is this a fabricated band, but it's a band that was fabricated by Fred Durst. Double shitty.

Fieldy's Dreams
Rock N Roll Gangster
This album is just too perfect. I mean, even if we would have plotted for months we never could have scripted this any better. The bass player from Korn, you know the short dude with pony tails who does that disgusting nu metal bob up and down thing all day, put out a solo rap record. This has to be heard to truly realize how bad it is. It's the closest thing we've found to actual audio diarrhea, you'll be begging for a Limp Bizkit remix record.