Brett D.
Colleen: Captain of None
PC Worship: Basement Hysteria
Alessandro Cortini: Risveglio
Drew McDowell: Collapse
John Luther Adams: The Wind in High Places
Lack: Perhorrences
Six Organs of Admittance: Hexadic I + II
Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness
Evan Caminiti: Meridian
Yonatan Gat: Director
Jerusalem in My Heart: If He Dies, If If If
Sannhet: Revisionist
Jessica Pratt: On Your Own Love Again
Liturgy: The Ark Work
Zs: Xe
Viet Cong: Viet Cong
The Holydrug Couple: Moonlust
Michael D., WXDU Americana Director
Top 15 Albums of 2015 (in alphabetical order):
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (ATO)
Anna & Elizabeth - Anna & Elizabeth (Free Dirt)
Daniel Bachman - River (Three Lobed)
Built to Spill - Untethered Moon (WB)
Phil Cook - Southland Mission (Thirty Tigers)
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Jake Xerxes Fussell (Paradise of Bachelors)
The Honeycutters - Me Oh My (Organic)
Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free (Thirty Tigers/Southeastern)
Moon Duo - Shadow of the Sun (Sacred Bones)
John Moreland - High on Tulsa Heat (Old Omens/Thirty Tigers)
Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again (Drag City)
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers - Sidelong (self-released)
Pops Staples - Don't Lose This (Anti-)
Chris Stapleton - Traveller (Mercury Nashville)
Ryley Walker - Primrose Green (Dead Oceans)
Top 5 Reissues of 2015 (in alphabetical order):
Jeff Cowell - Lucky Strikes and Liquid Gold (Numero Group)
Spooner Oldham - Pot Luck (Light in the Attic)
Charlie Rich - So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hi/Fat Possum)
Connie Smith - The Lost Tapes (Country Rewind)
Universal Togetherness Band - Universal Togetherness Band (Numero Group)
Keith D.
In no order:
Bob Moses - All in All
Dick Diver - Melbourne, Florida
Doomtree - All Hands
Faith No More - Sol Invictus
Zombi - Shape Shift (or Maserati's Rehumanizer)
Ryley Walker - Primrose Green
MAKE - The Golden Veil
Kylesa - Exhausting Fire
Kinski - 7 (or 8)
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Bonus 7":
Flock of Dimes/Sylvan Esso "Don't Dream It's Over b/w Everything Is Free"
The point where XDU and my children's tastes converge:
Purity Ring "Flood on the Floor"
Will likely take the top spot once my copy arrives in the mail:
Irata - Sweet Loris
So many runners up:
Blackwing, LasoHalo, Open Field, Torche, quttinirpaaq, Pinkish Black, Nest Egg, Moon Duo, Lilac Shadows, High on Fire, Gospel Machine, Golden Void, Esmerine, Blackalicious...
Ben Cox, co-music director
The usual caveats apply more than ever: I’m sure I’m forgetting albums, and I didn’t listen to as many new things, esp. non-rock, as I should have this year. Here’s to being better next year. No particular order except for the first, which is as awe-inspiring and criminally overlooked a run as anyone has had in rock music in who knows how many years.
1. The collected Bim Thomas: Obnox – Boogalou Reed LP, Carmen, I Love You digital single, Know America LP, Wiglet LP, Blaxxx – For No Apparent Reason 12”, Bim’s unparalleled stage banter (12XU, ever/never)
2. Pleasure Leftists – The Woods of Heaven (Deranged)
3. CCTV 7” (Lumpy)
4. The Hunches – You’ll Never Get Away with My Heart b/w Like I Could Die 7” (Almost Ready)
5. Video – The Entertainers (Third Man)
6. Sheer Mag – II 7” (Katorga Works)
7. Andy Human and the Reptoids – Andy Human and the Reptoids (S-S)
8. Hierophants – Parallax Error (Goner)
9. Pusha T – Darkest Before Dawn (GOOD/Def Jam)
10. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope)
11. Downtown Boys – Full Communism (Don Giovanni)
12. Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue – Lords of the Manor (In the Red)
13. Hag Face – R.I.P. (Psychic Handshake)
14. Royal Headache – High (What’s Your Rupture?)
15. Thee Tsunamis – Saturday Night Sweetheart (Magnetic South)
16. Various Artists – Des Jeunes Gens Modernes Vol 2 (Born Bad)
17. Sex Tide – Vernacular Splatter 12” (Superdreamer)
18. Circuit des Yeux – In Plain Speech (Drag City)
19. Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect (Hardly Art)
20. Various Artists – Destroy All Art (Rock’n’Roll Parasite)
Ben P.
01. Future - DS2 (A1/Freebandz/Epic)
02. Young Thug - Barter 6 (300/Atlantic)
03. DJ Koze - DJ Kicks 50 (!K7)
04. Daniel Bachman - The River (Three Lobed Recordings)
05. Kamasi Washington - The Epic (Brainfeeder)
06. Earthly - Days (Noumenal Loom)
07. Sagan Youth - Cela (Break World Records)
08. Tom Carter - Long Time Underground (Three Lobed Recordings)
09. Floating Points - Elaenia (Luaka Bop/Pluto)
10. Jlin - Dark Energy (Planet Mu)
11. Drake/Future - What a Time to Be Alive (A1/Cash Money/OVO/Freebandz)
12. Container - LP (Spectrum Spools)
13. Circuit des Yeux - In Plain Speech (Thrill Jockey)
14. Helena Hauff - Discreet Desires (Werkdiscs/Ninja Tune)
15. Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, Girl (Sacred Bones)
16. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath)
17. Joey Anderson - Invisible Switch (Dekmantel)
18. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Marathon Artists)
19. Julia Holter - Have You in My Wilderness (Domino)
20. 45 ACP - Change of Tone (L.I.E.S.)
Marty C.
BEST NEW RELEASES OF 2015
VARIOUS ARTISTS Parallelogram (Three Lobed)
SIR RICHARD BISHOP The Tangier Sessions (Drag City)
ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS Black Record (Fire)
WOLF EYES I Am a Problem: Mind in Pieces (Third Man)
WINDHAND Grief’s Infernal Flower (Relapse)
GOLDEN VOID Berkana (Thrill Jockey)
LOW Ones and Sixes (Sub Pop)
PRURIENT Frozen Niagara Falls (Profound Lore)
SUNN O))) Kannon (Southern Lord)
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Hexadic I & Hexadic II (Drag City)
TOM CARTER Long Time Underground (Three Lobed/Divide By Zero)
MICHAEL CHAPMAN Fish (Tompkins Square)
THE NECKS Vertigo (Northern Spy)
CHERUBS 2 Ynfynyty (Brutal Panda)
COURTNEY BARNETT Sometimes I Sit and Think (Mom & Pop)
SHILPA RAY Last Year’s Savage (Northern Spy)
ALGIERS Algiers (Matador)
WIRE Wire (Pink Flag)
LARGE UNIT Erta Ale (PNL)
ONE MORE GRAIN Grain Fever (self-released)
BEST LOCAL MUSIC
CANTWELL GOMEZ & JORDAN Half-Finished Bobcat (Potluck)
SEE GULLS You Can’t See Me (Potluck)
MAKE The Golden Veil (self-released)
DES ARK Everything Dies (Graveface)
ALPHA COP Acid Cop & The Taupe EP (self-released)
BEST REISSUES
SUN CITY GIRLS Torch of the Mystics (Abduction)
SWANS Filth (Young God)
SWANS White Light From the Mouth of Infinity/Love of Life (Young God)
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND The Complete Matrix Tapes (Polydor)
COIL Backwards (Cold Spring)
Michael Sudol's (Wednesday 7-9am) top 10 for 2015 -
1 - Gospel Machine - Your Holy Ghost
2 - 10 (in no particular order)
Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down
Tame Impala - Currents
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
American Aquarium - Wolves
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love
Steve Martin & Edie Brickell - So Familiar
Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn
Leon Bridges - Coming Home
Bettye Lavette - Worthy
Sarah Carrier, co-Music Director
Records I listened to a lot:
Alessandro Cortini - Risveglio (Hospital)
Anna & Elizabeth - Anna & Elizabeth (Free Dirt)
A$AP Rocky - At.Long.Last.A$AP (A$AP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA)
Blanket – Makings of Xou (GROVL Tapes)
The Body & Thou - You, Whom I Have Always Hated (Thrill Jockey)
Carter Tutti Void - f(x) (Industrial)
Daniel Bachman – River (Three Lobed)
Faster Detail – Gear Scene (GFR Tapes)
Gesloten Cirkel – the 2 “Untitled” EPs from this year (Murder Capital)
Gnaw Their Tongues - Collected Atrocities 2005-2008 (Crucial Blast)
Housefire – burnthemasters (Hot Releases)
Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$ (Pro Era/Cinematic Music Group)
Large Unit - Erta Ale (PNL)
Mamadou Kelly – Djamila (Clermont Music)
Natural Causes - Natural Causes (Snot)
Nick Klein - Failed Devotee (Unknown Precept)
Pigeons - The Bower (MIE)
PRhyme – PRhyme (PRhyme)
Randomer - Kids Play (LIES)
Sagan Youth – Cela (Break World)
Sean Price - Songs in the Key of Price (Duck Down)
Secret Boyfriend – Haunt Stress (self-released)
Senyawa - Menjadi (Morphine)
Sponge Bath - Sponge Bath (Grovl Tapes)
Tatsuya Nakatani – Gong (Nakatani Kobo)
Various - She Knows More than She Thinks (Not Not Fun)
Vaee Solis - Adversarial Light (Signal Rex/Mordgrimm)
Windhand – Grief’s Eternal Flower (Relapse)
Young Thug - Barter 6 (300 Entertainment/Atlantic)
Reissues/Archival:
Aine O'Dwyer - Music for Church Cleaners Vol. I & II (MIE Music)
Ata Kak – Obaa Sima (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
Bourbonese Qualk - Bourbonese Qualk 1983-1987 (Mannequin)
Coil - Backwards (Cold Spring)
Joe Crow - Compulsion (Dark Entries)
Kamuran Akkor - Kamuran Akkor (Pharaway Sounds)
Patrick Cowley - Muscle Up (Dark Entries)
Rose McDowall - Cut with the Cake Knife (Sacred Bones)
Records I listened to the most:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper (Rise Above)
Them Are Us Too - Remain (Dais)
Fave album going into 2016:
Anna von Hausswolff – The Miraculous (City Slang/Other Music Recording Co.)
Fave songs of the year:
Big Sean – IDFWU ft. E40
DeJ Loaf ft. Big Sean - Back Up
Rae Sremmurd – This Could Be Us
The Game - Ryda ft. Dej Loaf
Fetty Wap ft. Remy Boyz - 679
Best TV show:
The Walking Dead
