Twitter

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

My Favorite Albums of 2015

WOW, so I didn't post a single entry to this blog in 2015.

The total number of 2015 albums that I initially listened to in the year when they were actually released is probably greater than any other year in my life. But not as many stuck with me as in previous years. This 4th or 5th wave of garage-rock and Paisley Underground homages have kind of run its course with me. Honestly I spent more of 2015 listening to older music. The Replacements, Superchunk, Sleater-Kinney, the Kinks, Guided By Voices, and Yo La Tengo were in my rotation a lot more than any 2015 releases.  And I finally took that deep dive on some other artists I've been meaning to check out for years: Mountain Goats, Yo La Tengo, Meat Puppets, Wire, Velvet Underground, and the DB's to name a few.

Anyway, here is my dumb list in descending order:

Top 25


   25. Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes (Trouble in Mind Records)


   24. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free (Southeastern)



   23. Yo La Tengo - Stuff Like That There (Matador)


   22. EZTV - Calling Out (Captured Tracks)


   21. Widowspeak - All Yours (Captured Tracks)

   20. Tommy Keene - Laugh in the Dark (Second Motion)


  19. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down (Matador)


  18. Mikal Cronin - MCIII (Merge)


17. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Milk!)


   16. Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer (Car Park)


   15. Torres - Sprinter (Partisan)


  14. The Woolen Men - Temporary Monument (Woodsist)


  13. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp (Merge)


 12. Bully - Feels Like (Columbia)


11. Mike Pace and the Child Actors - Best Boy (Self-Starter Foundation)








      10. Robert Pollard - Faulty Superheroes (GBV Inc), Ricked Wicky - I Sell the Circus (GBV Inc) / King Heavy Metal (GBV Inc) / Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair (GBV Inc)


  9. Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes (El Camino)


  8. Wavves - V (Ghost Ramp/Warner Bros.)



  7. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)


   6. Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect (Hardly Art)


   5. Royal Headache - High (What's Your Rupture)



  4. Wilco - Star Wars (dBpm Records)





  3. Jesse Malin - New York Before the War / Outsiders (One Little Indian).


    2. Twerps - Range Anxiety (Merge)


    1. Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us (Polyvinyl)






Honorable Mention

Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands (HUB Records)

Dilly Dally - Sore (Partisan)

The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (Rough Trade)

Houndmouth - Little Neon Limelight (Rough Trade)

The Juliana Hatfield Three - Whatever, My Love (American Laundromat Records)

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey (Contender Records)

Mac McCaughan - Non-Believers (Merge)

The Mountain Goats - Beat the Champ (Merge)

Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Merge)

White Reaper - White Reaper Does It Again (Polyvinyl)

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Harmlessness (Topshelf/Epitaph)


Other Stuff Worth Your Time


Adult Mom - Momentary Lapse of Happy (Tiny Engines)

Advaeta - Death and the Internet (Fire Talk)

Built to Spill - Untethered Moon (ATP Recordings)

Ceremony - The L-Shaped Man (Matador)

Colleen Green - I Want to Grow Up (Hardly Art)

Deerhunter - Fading Frontier (4AD)

Joanna Gruesome - Peanut Butter (Slumberland)

Albert Hammond Jr. - Momentary Masters (Vagrant)

Hop Along - Painted Shut (Saddle Creek)

JEFF the Brotherhood - Wasted on the Dream (Infinity Cat)

Lucero - All a Man Should Do (ATO)

Of Monsters and Men - Beneath the Skin (Republic)

Palehound - Dry Food (Exploding in Sound)

Pins - Wild Nights (Bella Union)

Seapony - A Vision (Self-Released)

Title Fight - Hyperview (Anti-)

Wildhoney - Sleep Through It (Deranged Records)

Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (Dirty Hit Ltd.)

Worriers - Imaginary Life (Don Giovanni)


2015 Shows

Purling Hiss/Dark Blue at Johnny Brenda's - 2/13/15
Sleater-Kinney at Union Transfer - 2/28/15
Jesse Malin at Main St Music in store show 3/31/15
Protomartyr/Amanda X at Johnny Brenda's - 4/14/15
The Replacements/Superchunk at Festival Pier 5/9/15
Soul Asylum/Meat Puppets at Underground Arts 6/19/15
Mudhoney/Pissed Jeans/Amanda X at Union Transfer 7/9/15
Archers of Loaf at Union Transfer 7/11/15
Jesse Malin at Boot and Saddle 7/25/15
Old 97's at Union Transfer 10/29/15
Jesse Malin at Johnny Brenda's 12/17/15