3 Rock Songs From 2001 You Almost Forgot About Until Now

If you are old enough to remember, 2001 always felt like some distant, unknowable future. The kind of reality that bears little resemblance to the “normal” times of the 20th century. When it finally arrived, along with iTunes, life carried on as usual. But rock music was changing, and with emerging technology, the genre would slowly begin to lose its grip on culture. It took time, but eventually digital music stores paved the way for the mid-2000s streaming boom, and more kids began making music on laptops instead of guitars.

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But for music fans, (pre-9/11) 2001 still mostly felt like the previous decade, with an abundance of rock bands as CD sales were reaching a global peak. So let’s revisit those fuzzy pre-Myspace, pre-Facebook, and pre-YouTube days and highlight three rock songs from 2001 you may have forgotten about until now.

“Wish You Were Here” by Incubus

Incubus struck me as a band formed directly from alternative rock’s rise in the early 1990s. While the influence of classic rock and heavy metal on Pearl Jam and Soundgarden was noticeable, Incubus seemed to draw from more recent sources such as Faith No More and Primus. The California band, fronted by singer Brandon Boyd, mixes rock and metal with funk, jazz, and hip-hop into a sound that’s not easily identifiable. “Wish You Were Here” was produced by longtime R.E.M. collaborator Scott Litt and helped distinguish Incubus from the dominant nu metal bands of the early 2000s.

“Hard To Explain” by The Strokes

Decades before Geese was hailed as rock and roll’s New York City saviors, The Strokes received a similar anointment. And depending on your view, American rock music was indeed in rough shape during the early aughts. While bands raced to become louder, angrier, heavier, and more produced, The Strokes were doing the opposite as they echoed quintessential New York legends like The Velvet Underground, Television, and The Ramones. The Strokes arrived on the scene with a raw, distorted, stellar debut, and “Hard To Explain” helped ignite America’s garage rock revival.

“Chop Suey!” by System Of A Down

System Of A Down is a band that makes you stop what you are doing and just stare at the speakers. Just wait and allow your brain a little time to work out exactly what it is you are hearing. “Chop Suey!” feels like chaos presented with military precision. Meanwhile, Rick Rubin’s production strips away what’s not necessary. You don’t hear superfluous instrumentation or production layers. But you do hear rapid-fire howling from singer Serj Tankian. And in an era of copycat heavy bands, System Of A Down sounded like absolutely nothing else at the time. Building on Mike Patton’s experimentations with Faith No More and Mr. Bungle.

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