My 2015 Favorites and End of Year Wrap Up

This is a repost from my other blog Lightning's Girl. While not all the artists below feature at least one female member, almost 75% of them do.

If you truly believe that there aren't any good modern day bands or great new records being made, you didn't try very hard this year. 2015 delivered an abundance of quality music. So much in fact that this might be the largest list of stuff I loved since I started making end of year best of lists two decades ago. I think playing in an active band (Positive No) has helped me stay on top of new music too but in the end, I will always call myself a music fan before I call myself a musician. Finding new music to fall in love with is an addiction I don't ever want to kick.

This Spotify playlist features 100 songs from a large variety of genres that I really loved this year. Not all of the artists on this playlist made my best of / end of year list below so they are two different beasts, great songs -v- great albums. 

Happy new year friends. 

Top 25

Sauna Youth DISTRACTIONS  (Upset the Rhythm) 

Whyte Horses - Pop or Not (self released)  

Dirty Ghosts LET IT PRETEND (Last Gang Records) *"Cataract" is my song of the year

Trash Kit - CONFIDENCE (Upset the Rhythm)**came out Dec 2014 / LP arrived in 2015

Sacred Paws 6 SONGS (Rock Action Records)

Desperate Journalist ST (Minty Fresh) 

Joanna Gruesome PEANUT BUTTER (Slumberland Records)

Love of Diagrams BLAST (Bedroom Suck Records) 

Novella LAND (Sinderlyn)

Annie Girl and the Flight BODIES (Annie Lipetz)

Viet Cong ST (Jagjaguwar)

Dilly Dally SORE (Partisan Records)

The White Birch THE WEIGHT OF SPRING (Glitterhouse Records)

Doe FIRST FOUR (Old Flame Records)

Soko MY DREAMS DICTATE MY REALITY (Babycat records) 

Shopping WHY CHOOSE (Fatcat Records)

Soak BEFORE WE FORGOT HOW TO DREAM (Rough Trade Records Ltd) 

Julia Wolfe ANTHRACITE FIELDS (Cantaloupe Music)

Boogarins MANUAL (Other Music)

Chain of Flowers ST (Alter)

Pinkshinyultrablast EVERYTHING ELSE MATTERS (Club AC30)

Hurry Up ST (Army of Bad Luck Records)

Wand GOLUM (In the Red Records)

Infinity Girl HARM (Topshelf Records)

Eternal Summers GOLD AND STONE (Kanine Records)

Other Favorite Records

Terrible Truths ST (Bedroom Suck Records) 
The Leaf Library  DAYLIGHT VERSIONS (Where it's at is where you are)

Salad Boys METALMANIA (Trouble in MInd Records) 

Cloakroom FURTHER OUT (Run For Cover Records)

Menace Beach RATWORLD (Memphis Industries)

Gnoomes NGAN! (Rocket Recordings)

Kagoule URTH (Earache Records Ltd)

No Joy MORE FAITHFUL (Kemado Records) 

Wildhoney SLEEP THROUGH IT (Deranged Records) 

Swervedriver I WASN'T BORN TO LOSE YOU (Cobraside)

Death and Vanilla TO WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (Fire Records)

Jacco Gardner HYPNOPHOBIA (Polyvinyl)

Noonday Underground BODY PARTS FOR MODERN ART (Hands Full Records)

Cold Beat INTO THE AIR (Crime on the Moon) 

Eerie Summer - THE WAY I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING ANY MORE (self released) 

Youth Lagoon SAVAGE HILLS BALLROOM (Fat Possum Records) 

Julia Holter HAVE YOU IN MY WILDERNESS (Domino Recording  Co Ltd) 

C. Duncan ARCHITECT (Fatcat Records)

Ghetto Ghouls COLLISIONS (Self Released)

Knife Pleats HAY BARK BEACH (Where it's at is where you are)

Jeff Bridges SLEEPING TAPES (Squarespace)  

Myrrias ALL ALONE (self released)

Bjork VULNICURA STRINGS (self released)

Beach Slang THE THINGS WE DO... (Polyvinyl Records)

Protomartyr THE AGENT INTELLECT (Hardly Art) 

The Spook School TRY TO BE HOPEFUL (Fortuna Pop)

Intelligence VINTAGE FUTURE (In The Red Records)

Sextile A THOUSAND HANDS (felte)

Killing Joke PYLON (Spinefarm)

Sumac THE DEAL (Profound Lore)

Reissues / Collections:

Oz Brazoes ST (Som Livre) 

Annie Philippe - SENSATIONNEL! - Ace Records

Guerre Froide ST (Born Bad Records) 

Va CRIMINALE VOL 3 & 4 (Goodfella)

Marie et les Garcons 1976 - 1979 (Ze Records)

Va LIBRARY OF SOUND GROOVES / OBSCURE PSYCHEDELIC MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE ITALIAN CINEMA (Semi-Automatic Records)

Assorted Favorite 2015 Moments:
Being featured on Apartment Therapy

Playing Brownies one last time (Hi-Fi Bar) 

Favorite show I played was @ Bathtub Republic in DC

Harrisburg, PA / Little Amps - secret weapon of a DIY show space and great coffee / people.

Peep Show final season (Favorite show of all time) 

Twin Peaks DJ set to cast members Mrs. Briggs and Lucy

Beach Slang live / seeing Jim some 20 years post Weston 

Live: Mutoid Man / Child Bite live at Gwar-B-Q (Gwar Bar is also a favorite place of 2015) 

Dynamic Truths reunion show @ The Answer

Asbury Park, N.J. Pinball Museum

Beaufort, SC - who knew?  

Supreme Court ruling making same sex marriage legal

Loretta Lynch as Attorney General

U.S. and Cuba make nice

Strangeways Tirami'zu Brew Rum Barrel Aged Porter  

Master of None for its stellar music supervision
DJing with Bob Nastanovich in the name of charity

This band doesn't have much of an online presence so here is a video from one of the best records I purchased this year. 

Throw Back Thursday : Pylon

It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.

Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.