Ye Olde Hit Parade: Sexx Laws

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1999: Beck - Sexx Laws

The turn of the millennium (or even dare I say the Willennium) was quite the time. Everybody was freaking out about the Y2K bug, which supposedly was going to cause the world's computers to shut down after 12/31/99 changed over to 1/1/00. Napster made its debut in June and before long was in heavy use on college campuses everywhere as kids discovered a free and easy way to get MP3s. President Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The Columbine High School massacre took place in April; sadly, we're no closer to eradicating that particular problem. JFK Jr. and his wife died in a tragic plane crash. Woodstock '99 took place and the whole thing went to hell during Limp Bizkit's set. It was also the height of the dotcom boom, as plenty of companies with barely an idea were scoring huge sums of money from investors.

I was living with my buddies Mike and Roger for most of the year, but a huge event happened in late July, when I proposed to my girlfriend (we decided to get married in the summer of 2000). A few months later, we got our own place across town. Right around the same time, coincidentally, I left Opus for a new job at a dotcom called Webnoize, which was run by a friend of mine and covered the intersection of entertainment and technology. I had actually been helping out at Webnoize for a few years, writing album reviews and other features, but when they finally got the money to staff up, they offered me an editor job and I accepted. The internet was exploding and it seemed like a fun chance to take. Plus, I'd be working with friends and hopefully getting in on the ground floor of something cool. I joined the company just in time to fly to LA for their annual conference, which was attended by the major record labels and studios as well as a gazillion dot coms. It was a fun way to head into the new millennium.

The music industry was never bigger than it was in 1999. Recorded music sales were $28.9 billion in '99, primarily on the sale of  CDs. But soon sites like Napster took off and the labels were not prepared to deal with them. That was what we were writing about at Webnoize. But in '99, it was a time for the industry to celebrate: Acts like Britney Spears, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and hell, even Cher (who had the top single of the year with "Believe") were riding high, selling a veritable shitload of albums and concert tickets. What were some crappy-sounding digital files going to do to eat into that monster of an industry?

Nu metal was still big, with Korn, Limp Bizkit and others getting a lot of attention. I never got into it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a big hit with their Californication album, although this was the first one I didn't get because I was starting to get bored with them. Santana bounced back with a huge guest-star-filled album, including that song with the dude from Matchbox Twenty that pretty much playing on a loop from the moment it came out.

I was still listening to a lot of so-called alternative rock: Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, the Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Ben Folds Five, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Sheila Divine, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson. Concerts attended included: Sloan (twice), Frank Black, Rollins Band, R.E.M. I went to more sporting events that year (hockey, baseball and even a Patriots game) and was doing a fair amount of traveling for work, so that ate into my concertgoing.



The hottest song for me in '99 was Beck's "Sexx Laws," off his excellent Midnite Vultures album, which amped up the funk and R&B sound in a big way. It was 100% fun, all horns and horniness, with Beck at his most self-assured and entertaining. He's done a lot of work since then, but I don't think he's approached the heights that he did in the '90s with Mellow Gold/Odelay/Mutations/Midnite Vultures. If anything, he set the bar too high and hasn't been able to get back there. But that doesn't diminish the greatness of Midnite Vultures and in particular, "Sexx Laws," which kicks all of the ass.

On New Year's Eve, Deb and I decided to stay in and have a few friends over instead of engaging in the insanity of going out to bars. Plus, we wanted to see if anything would happen once the clock struck midnight in terms of technological mayhem. What happened? Find out tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat station.

Honorable mentions: Beck - "Nicotine and Gravy"; Sloan - "Losing California"; Sloan - "Friendship"; The Sheila Divine - "Hum"; The Sheila Divine - "Like a Criminal"; The Flaming Lips - "Waiting for a Superman"; The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"; Built to Spill - "The Plan"; Gigolo Aunts - "The Big Lie"; Sebadoh - "Flame"; Chris Cornell - "Flutter Girl"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Switched You"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "So. Bay"; Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger"; Rage Against the Machine - "Guerilla Radio"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; R.E.M. - "The Great Beyond"; Len - "Steal My Sunshine"