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Year In Review: Constant Ringing Guest List Best of 2015

I have been writing in this blog inconsistently for well over two years now. In that time, Constant Ringing has gone from being read by precisely nobody to having over a hundred followers - so basically still nobody. In any case, I have been grinding at this long enough to get a bunch of my cool, creative friends on board to add to the conversation around the sounds most worthy of remembering this past year. Enjoy.

Keara S., Split Feet

Cold Beat - Into the Air LP

Downtown Boys - Full Communism LP

Daughn Gibson - Carnation LP

G.L.O.S.S. demo

Hurry Up - s/t LP

Carly Rae Jepsen - E-MO-TION LP

Lime Crush 7”

Pleasure Leftists - Woods of Heaven LP

Shopping - Why Choose LP

Wax Idols - American Tragic LP

Evan W., Strictly Discs

DJ Sotofett - Drippin For A Tripp

Ptaki - Przelot

Patti Griffin - Servant of Love

Jaakko Eino Kalevi - S/T

Maki Asakawa - S/T

Meg Baird - Don’t Weigh Down the Light

Vakula - A Voyage to Arcturus

Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness

Helen - The Original Faces

Gaussian Curve - Clouds

Chris B., Greats Brand

My favorite records of 2015:

Wolf Eyes - I Am A Problem: Mind In Pieces LP

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling LP

Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls 3xLP

L.O.T.I.O.N. - Digital Control and Man’s Obsolescence LP

Expert Alterations - You Can’t Always Be Liked LP

Diat - Positive Energy LP

Cherubs - 2 Ynfynyty LP

Barcelona - Extremo Nihilismo en Barcelona 12”

Other highlights: Ajax 7” (Beach Impediment/Static Shock), Blazing Eye - Ways to Die CS, Rixe - Coups et Blessers 7”, Strutter demo CS, Wildhoney - Your Fade Sideways 12”, Xibalba - Tierra y Libertad LP

Best live sets of 2015:

Glue (New Year’s Day at St. Vitus)

Tony Molina / Give / Response (February, Anaheim, CA)

New York’s Alright highlights: Mystic Inane, Kromosom, Condominium, Blazing Eye, Pure Disgust, Impalers (duh), Dawn of Humans, Digital Octopus

L.O.T.I.O.N. record release show (July, Silent Barn)

Total Control / Crazy Spirit (August, Palisades)

Godflesh / Prurient (September, Warsaw) - Before Godflesh went on, I was talking to the notorious Ning Nong about them, and he admitted he didn’t like them. “They just weren’t my thing.” Halfway through their set he found me in the crowd and said, incredulously, “Dude, this is awesome - it’s like the apocalypse… with a GROOVE.”

Strutter (October, Palisades)

Orden Mundial (538 Johnson Halloween show)

Madball (December, Grand Victory)

Bands I saw in 2015 that ruined their records for me by having a terrible live show: Ninos du Brasil, Uranium Club

Christina K., famed cat enthusiast

1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 2. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 3. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 5. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 6. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 7. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 8. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 9. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 10. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

M. Berdan, Uniform/York Factory Complaint

1. Pissgrave - Suicide Euphoria (Profound Lore) 2. Drew McDowall - Collapse (Dais) 3. Rectal Hygienics - Ultimate Purity (Permanent) 4. Consumer Electronics - Dollhouse Songs (Harbinger Sound) 5. Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh (Sacred Bones) 6. Peste Noire - La Chaise-Dyable (LA mesnie Herlequin) 7. Saab Knutson - Electronic Music From The Faroe Islands (Nightwind) 8. Akitsa - Grands Tyrans (Hospital) 9. Jahiliyya Fields - Chance Life (L.I.E.S.) 10. Damien Dubrovnik - Vegas Fountain (Alter) 11. Shit & Shine - 54 Synth-Brass, 38 Metal Guitar, 65 Cathedral (Rocket) 12. Shit & Shine - Everybody's A Fucking Expert (Editions Mego) 13. CP/BW - untitled (not on label) Helm - Olympic Mess (PAN) 14. Author & Punisher - Melk En Honing (Housecore) 15. No Form - s/t (Muscle Horse/Reagent) 16. Bell Witch - Four Phantoms (Profound Lore) 17. Pinkish Black - Bottom Of The Morning (Relapse) 18. Marie Davidson - Un Autre Voyage (Holodeck) 19. Container - LP (Spectrum Spools) 20. ADMX-71 - Coherent Abstractions (L.I.E.S.) 21. The Body & Krieg - untitled (At A Loss) BOAN - Mentiras (Holodeck)

Movies (some of these technically came out in 2014 but didn't get real distribution until 2015. Semantics. Whatever.) 1. Bone Tomahawk 2. Cub 3. Spotlight 4. We Are Still Here 5. The Gift 6. The Green Inferno 7. The Visit 8. Spring 9. Cop Car 10. The Boy 11. Headless 12. The Sanford Prison Experiment 13. Goodnight, Mommy

TV 1. Ash vs. Evil Dead 2. Bloodline

Live 1. Getting the honor to play with BLOODYMINDED in Chicago x1000 2. Pedestrian Deposit in Rotterdam 3. Skull Defekts in Kortjik

Jes S., Pitchfork/Split Feet

In lieu of a Best Of list, Jes made us all a mixtape. Check it out; it’s the most expansive thing I have heard all year.

Patrick R., some nerd I went to school with/Josh Homme lookalike

1. Vince Staples - Summertime '06

2. Jamie XX - In Colour

3. Grimes - Art Angels

4. Kurt Vile - B’leive I'm Going Down

5. Panda Bear - Meets the Grim Reaper

6. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

7. Carly Rae Jepsen - E-MO-TION

8. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

9. Tame Impala - Currents

10. Helen (Liz Harris of Grouper) - The Original Faces

HM: Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete

Kemdi E., Xervious/RAID

Billain - Colonize EP

Flatland Sound Studio - Maximum Vacation Plus

Wavolizer - Different Things

Venetian Snares - Your Face

Various Artists - Seminar1sts: The Agnost1k Era

2methyl - Layer 8

Phace - Shape the Random

Somniac One - Synthetic 4ms

Igneon System - The Alliance

Switch Technique - Scars

Andrew F., Noisey/Factmag/Philadelphyinz

“tbh i listened to so little music this year

like DS2 really sucked all the air out of the room and totally changed the way i approached consumption. has a lot to do with getting old. like, DS2 was the first "event" album in a minute i didn't have to try to get into. made me realize how much effort i was putting in to keep up, which is fine because it's my job, but there's just so much music and so little of it matters and i’ve always been way more interested in what's popular and why its popular than in judging anything. so tbh knowing what people are saying about an album is 85% of the time good enough. maybe i’m showing my hand too much by saying that, but, like there's nothing more sad than a 30-something white man who feels a need to tell the world he doesn't like something that everyone else does.”

Alex S., Metropolarity

1. Wizard Apprentice - Keep It In, Keep It Out 2. Moor Mother Goddess - Occult Scorpio Technologies 3. FKA Twigs - M3LL155X 4. The Breathing Light - Give Up 5. Lee Bannon - Pattern of Excel 6. Downtown Boys - Full Communism 7. Willow Smith - Ardipithecus 8. Young Fathers - White Men are Black Men Too 9. Soul Glo - Untitled 10. Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color

Honorable mention for ruling me live/recorded: TRNSGNDR/VHS, CMov, Marcelline, SWARM, +HIRS+, G.L.O.S.S.

Alexa S., Speak Softly, Get Freaky/totally not the same person as Alex S.

Albums:

1. Drake - If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late 2. Future - DS2 3. Jamie xx - In Colour 4. Vince Staples - Summertime ‘06 5. Carly Rae Jepsen - E-MO-TION 6. Jeremih - Late Nights 7. Young Thug - Barter 6 8. Drake & Future - What A Time To Be Alive 9. Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Surf 10. Tame Impala - Currents 11. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside 12. Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife 13. Miguel - Wildheart 14. Beach House - Depression Cherry 15. Justin Bieber - Purpose

Songs:

1. Wet - “Weak” 2. Chance The Rapper Feat. Saba - “Angels” 3. Jeremih - “Oui” 4. Young Thug - “Quarterback” 5. Drake & Future - “Scholarships” 6. Justin Bieber - “Sorry” 7. Jamie xx Feat. Young Thug & Popcaan - “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” 8. Drake - “Star67″ 9. Vince Staples - “Senorita” 10. Rae Sremmurd - “No Type” 11. Drake - “Hotline Bling” 12. Towkio Feat. Chance the Rapper, Lido & Eryn Allen Kane - “Heaven Only Knows” 13. Future - “Just Like Bruddas” 14. Miguel - “the valley” 15. Tame Impala - “Let It Happen”

Billy W., M//R; also a guy who was in a band

Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Meg Baird - Don’t Weigh Down the Light

Birds of Prey - s/t

45 acp - Change of Tone

G.L.O.S.S. EP

CCTV 7"

Coneheads - LP1

Vince Staples - Summertime ‘06

Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

Ork Records collection

Floating Points - Elaenia

Mo Kolours - Texture Like Sun

Patrick Cowley - Muscle Up

Lifted - s/t

Joe G., Statesman/Pitchfork Media’s Resident Fugazi Expert

SOME TOP THINGS OF 2015 (everything after no. 1 could be in any order)

1. Rick and Morty” season 2. My man Gabe Soria all but begged me to watch this thing, so I finally did and hoo boy, is this thing ever a masterpiece. Call it an amorality play -- thoughtful if nihilistic philosophy disguised as sci-fi misanthropy. Pretty much the best show on television.

2. Cherubs, “2 Ynfynyty” LP (Brutal Panda). The least likely album of 2015. No way this should have been as good as it was. Three dudes who busted up after making the amazing “Heroinman” in 1994 return 21 years later with this utter beast of an album. In a year of shockingly good reunion albums (Sleater-Kinney! Erase Errata!) this was the most shockingist goodest.

3. Sleaford Mods, "Key Markets" LP (Harbinger Sound). Speaking of misanthropy, these guys are the best British rock think this side of, I dunno, Frau, maybe. James Williamson is a ranter of the first order, the closest thing to Mark Smith that Albion has coughed up in forever. The kind of band I would love to see on a bill with Fugazi and the Ex (or the kind that would be on that bill on Earth-1024 when all three of those bands are active at the same time.)

4. “Diary of a Teenage Girl.” Movie of the year, Powerful, funny, heartbreaking and features an animated Aline Kominsky-Crumb

5. Wax Idols, “Only You.” Over on Earth-Shermer, this is the theme to the 2015 sequel to the Breakfast Club. Same school, 30 years later,about the children of John Bender and Claire Standish,

6. Obnox “Boogaloo Reed" (12XU). Dude put out three excellent albums of primo garage punk way better than the term “garage punk” would have you realize. This is one of them.

7. “The Puma Blues: The Complete Saga in One Volume” by Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli (Dover Graphic Novels). One of the strangest comics of the 1980s finally gets the reissue it has long deserved. My comment on it for Rolling Stone back in 2014 was "Puma Blues" is John J. Audubon listening to Crass and dreaming about the Book of Revelations” and I pretty well stand by that. Meditative, weird, and flat out doesn’t work sometimes, but there is very literally nothing else like it. Its gravity is powerful.

8. Seeing both Drive Like Jehu and Dag Nasty with Shawn Brown(!) at Fun Fun Fun this year. Totally excellent sets from both but could have watched another 90 min of Dag.

9. Sleater-Kinney, “No Anthems” My favorite song from this yeah-we-can-still-totally-do this comeback, maybe b/c it was the most DC-sounding.

10. Finally getting around to watching all of the Walking Dead, starting with s1e1 a few months back because I AM UP ON WHAT IS CURRENT.

Angad N., fellow music obsessive/bawse-level photographer

1. Zombi - Shape Shift 2. Conforce - Presentism 3. Voices From the Lake - Live at Maxxi 4. Vision Fortune - Country Music 5. Donato Dozzy - The Loud Silence

Anthony S., Bastard Noise/Existence In Decline

In no order:

Drew McDowall - Collapse

Devin DiSanto/Nick Hoffman - Three Exercises

Graham Lambkin/Michael Pisaro - Schwarze Riesenfalter

G.L.O.S.S. - Demo

Jim O'Rourke - Simple Songs

Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction

Sunn 0))) - Kannon

Blood Incantation / Spectral Voice split 7"

AFX - Orphaned Deejay Selek 2006-08 12"

Shingles - Doom Mood

V/A - Bloodborne Original Soundtrack

Best Reissues:

Beatriz Ferreyra - GRM Works (Recollections GRM)

Yuzo Koshiro - Streets of Rage (Data Discs)

Thomas Ligotti - Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe

Aphex Twin - user18081971 soundcloud

Man is the Bastard - The Lost Sessions 12"

Patrick Cowley - Muscle Up

Translations:

The Door by Magda Szabo

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Special shout out to the bandcamp pages of Jason Lescalleet and Kevin Drumm, who've both provided an astonishing amount of worthwhile new sounds this year.

Alexander T., unstoppable edgemaster/a guy who was in a band

1. Metal-ish releases: a. Wrekmeister Harmonies – Night of Your Ascension b. Bell Witch – Four Phantoms c. Thou / The Body – Released from Love / You, Whom I have Always Hated d. Howls of Ebb – The Marrow Veil e. Deafheaven – New Bermuda f. Sannhet – Revisionist 2. Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl - We Are Not The First 3. Julia Holter – Have You in my Wilderness 4. Longform Journalism thrives and is archived well on Longform.org to spend the first month of 2016 visiting and revisiting: https://longform.org/lists/best-of-2015 5. Horse Money (Pedro Costa, 2014): Debuted in 2014, but mostly not seen until this year and appearing on several 2015 lists, I am fairly confident this movie is nonsense but it is something to receive and admire. 6. Kara-Lis Coverdale and LXV – Sirens 7. Running and fitness. I have made more friends in the past year through running and fitness activities than I did over the ten years of my life before that. 8. Feline chemotherapy. If it weren’t for the veterinary clinics we have locally, my furry friend Dexter would have succumbed to renal lymphoma months ago and I would be $17,000 richer. I would rather have Dexter. 9. Internet comment sections. Now the destination. 10. Tropical Trash – UFO Rot 11. Ecstatic Vision – Sonic Praise 12. Star Wars: Pleasantly engaged more by the year-long excitement and stupid speculation than the final product of the movie (which I heard best reviewed as “adequate”). 13. Gnod – Infinity Machines 14. Joey Bada$$ -- B4.DA.$$

S. Sowley, Fake Limbs

Finding a means to sum up one year without coming across either cynical and heartbroken by the weight of the world, or so enthusiastic about your triumphs you annoy those around you is of no easy feat. Draw it down the middle? Pros and Cons? A two-lane blacktop of indifference that says “yeah Chance headlined Pitchfork and that’s real cool but the pigs still kill with no recourse?” I stopped buying the Wire (merely because it was cost prohibitive. Might have explained why I only saw three movies this year too) but they used to just throw it to their contributors to write pros and cons. I copped that once for dusted, nearly 13 years ago, but it seems trite to do it again. Year-ends are trash. I quit a job this year. I worked at Electrical Audio for eight and half years. It was a job I loved, but I had fallen out of love for it, and it was creating a rough environment. I left before I could sour the relationships I had built there. I left with part of the building; 2015 was the first time since 1993 that I had gone more than 2 months without full-time work. I got by, or rather I’m still getting by via a nice little bartending gig, but I still don’t know what I want. I’m 99% certain I’m done with the inner workings of the music industry—meeting with other companies in that world drove home a simple fact that was often joked about: “we exist as far away from the music industry as possible.” Was Electrical my identity? Did I peak? Am I merely set—after a year of wild goose chases, horrible interviews, the 24/7 radio silence of “we’ll get back to you”—to roam the earth in search of capable employment that won’t make me die a little bit with each day? While I struggled (still struggle?) with that, I reveled in the free time; I slept for the first time in eight years. I slept without thinking about math, or schedules, or (ironically) failure. I slept and woke up and approached each day with a focal point on self care. Some days better than others, I built out two creative outlets—“Open Swim,” my summertime exploration of the various pools around Chicago (ugh, I STILL need to finish the last days of disco that culminated in a marathon run of pools) and “Cold Storage,” a three hour music program via a friends internet radio station. With these things, I managed to get the breathing space required in a post-employment world in a creative way that merely cost me some new and cute swim gear and a used pioneer mixer. Jam econo? Sinking my teeth into such projects was a reminder that I wasn’t a complete failure. Thanks to partnering well about my station, and still making ends meet via drink slinging (while gently sliding into credit card debt for the first time,) self care and survival was met with records, bike pedals, a beach towel and a lot of seltzer. I watched my partner propel themselves further into the world of music journalism, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. They saw an opportunity with their writing, and their voice is one that is needed. I also watched them fight against their social anxiety, slowly chipping away at a beast that’s haunted them for their entire life. They also recorded an amazing record with their band Split Feet, and we celebrated ten years of putting up with each others emotionally fragile asses. Outside of that, there were a lot of records, bands, friends and newfound loves to keep me going. Here’s some of what made the cut.

Full lengths:

Hungry Man—Eater (clean guitars, a gnarly bass constantly going over the top, a h/c drummer told to channel his inner Appice, and the constant threat of covering The Steve Miller Band’s “Jungle Love” this is where aluminum based guytar rock should be going from now on.) Mike Krol—Turkey (whiny smart ass makes good, as Mike Krol delivers some very clever blasts of noisy garage pop. No songs, about pizza or beer—something some people could learn from.”This Is the News” might be one of the most perfect love songs in the last ten years) Vince Staples—Summertime ’06 (“It’s about you not caring.”—Vince Staples)

Diat–Positive Energy LP (If the delay between DIAT’s two phenomenal singles and this album proves anything, it’s that you really cannot force genius. The prefect cross pollination of Aussie punk ideology, and German mechanics, “Positive Energy” is a precise and finely tuned attack on a mundane world that requires year end commentary on art.) Joshua Abrams–Magnetoception DLP//Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas—Automaginary (Abrams continues his flawless run of guimbri-bassed compositions. One in a much more large scale exploitation of time, the other an off the floor meditation with fellow travelers Bitchin Bajas. Earth and Sky music of the highest order.) Regis—Manbait (I have to let go of the fact that that Sandwell District record aint ever showing up in my hands, and I couldn’t stomach Raime, but this long overdue examination of Regis’ production/remix work is as sublime as it is terrifying. The dance floors this stuff bleeds on is not the one you want, and it’s not going to be the one you’re welcome at, but it’s going to be the one you’ll get the most lost in.) Bjork-Vulnicura (I’ve listened to this album twice, and I’ll probably listen to it a hell of a lot more in like five years. It’s pure heartbreak, and not for the weak; these are not songs, this is “working through something.” The most startling record I heard all year.)

Smaller lengths: Violence Creeps—On My Turf 7” (completely blown out lurchers from people that didn’t ask to be born and are not going to die. This is power music for those that have completely lost their mind and are straight pissed about it.) C.C.T.V.-s/t 7” (One of my favorite people compared them to Primus, but C.C.T.V are on some wild weirdo speed rock. Which speed? WHO CARES AMIRIGHT? I swear to god, Mark Winter is the JJ Dillon of the NWI Punk scene…good luck plotting that whole map out.) Aye Nako—The Blackest Eye 12” (relentlessly honest and complicated pop punk about some relentlessly honest and complicated struggle with their own racial and sexual identities. The world needs a band like this.) Laurel Halo—In Situ 2x12” (Laurel Halo moves further into the territory explored on “Chance of Rain” but with a more concentrated, heady journey. Wildly disjointed by it’s own live manipulation, Halo continues to carve out her own world of electronic music that is as confounding as it is heart aching.) Tape Lengths: Split Feet—Shame Parade (full disclosure: this is my partner’s band, but whatever I love it. A blur of death rock and NZ-inspired chaos, the songs are bracing, vicious and timeless.) Mozart—The Tick (I’ve talked about this tape so much you’d think I was dating it; four person wrecking crew of badtimes and bad vibes, repeating the wrongs until it’s right, “The Tick” is unquestionably fucked beyond belief. The only band that matters.) The Bug—What’s Bugging You? (What’s wrong with being a bug? Midwest dissonance by some cute ass social rejects that would probably be your friend if you stopped being so scared of leather and skree.) Public Humiliation: Eddie Palmieri @ Symphony Center (at 78 years old, Eddie Palmieri displayed a range of humility, passion and heartbreak that’s rarely scene by artists five decades younger than this pioneer. Count your blessings if you’re ever lucky enough to be in the same room.) Moritz Von Oswald @ Smartbar (showing up to a dance club soaking wet is never a good look, but in the dark and alone, it doesn’t matter; Moritz commandeered the decks with a stoic presence as he turned the heat on some severe quad heavy minimal techno, while acknowledging just exactly where he was: knowing your fruit by examining it’s roots.) Malportado Kids @ Weenie Hut Jr’s/Downtown Boys @ The Bell House (When Victoria Ruiz talks, you listen. Ruiz is an astounding figure of a frontperson, speaking from the heart on the atrocities that society has presented us, and how/what we need to do to survive. Be it the enthusiastic dance floor madnesss of Malportado Kids or the agit-punk of The Downtown Boys. It’s okay to dance and ask questions. It’s okay to ask questions while smiling. It’s okay to ask “Who taught you to hate yourself?” Victoria just asked all of us that question, and I’m confidant we’re figuring out the answer and pushing back.)

Total Control @ The Empty Bottle (I make jokes about scene unity regularly, but this show was maybe the biggest punchline of them all. Southside goths, garage sweatstains, queer punx, techno producers, hardcore figureheads, your token p’fork gourmand, and more babes than you can shake a stick at descended on this monster jam from a band that by all rights should’ve broken up a year ago, was probably going to break up a year ago, and somehow managed to return to our miserable city. A searing forty minute set that—while well packed—provided a space of intimate joy from the vast eyes of our local counter culture. At one point, walking down the bar as Total Control kicked into “Retiree,” it was like a park full of puppies reveling in the sheer joy these dudes could bring. By the time the track jacket was off for a vicious version of “Black Spring”—its made it almost forgivable that Daniel Stewart decided to wear flip flops on stage.)

Circuits Des Yeux @ Empty Bottle (once you’ve put the ship in the bottle, you need to break the bottle to get the ship back out; the same can be said for Haley Fohr’s fever dream of ethereal rock. The loudest acoustic guitar you’ve ever heard in your life, Fohr conjures the spirits of dark worlds and lost souls in a way that’s truly her own. Once the shape is in front of you, Fohr and her band smash it to pieces only to leave you feeling the ground for the shards. An unstoppable force to be reckoned with from here on out.)

Inescapable entities G.L.O.S.S. Seriously, at this point what the fuck else needs to be said? With the strength of an incredibly powerful 2014 demo, this band had quite a year, punishing the hell out of people that stood in their way, telling the New York Times to fuck off, telling almost every record label and “indie” A&R to fuck off, and a nation-wide run of relentlessly brutal hardcore. Girls from the future indeed—this band is as on time as Big Ben and as necessary as sunlight. Obnox Can Lamont “Bim” Thomas be stopped? Short answer is “apparently not.” The long answer is “wow why would you want to stop a dude that in four months released three albums of blown out weeded garage punk soul? A dude that has a seemingly high amount of quality control, that even after a previous year of releasing a stupid amount singles/eps/albums, non-stop touring, somehow managed to create a concept album about am radio, rap skits and punk rock (“Know America”) a needle burying steamroller of red-eyed boogie (“Boogalou Reed”) and an album of lawless anthemic rock (“Wiglet.”) Why would you want to stop that?” Before the end of 2016, there’s going to be morons from hell sitting around doing their Top Five ‘Nox records…Know Nox. Bully To be fair, this band got my ass out of the city for a while; watching someone whom I’ve cared about for years get propelled into an international spotlight and being reminded on a nightly basis that when you met this person you said “They are going to do whatever they want for the rest of their life and they’re going to be great whatever they do.” Then you’re watching them talk to young girls every night and you’re seeing them as the “influential rock star.” Then you’re in the city you live in, and there are five hundred people around you and you get them to sing Carol King’s “It’s Too Late” for no reason other than it’s amusing to you and like four other people. Then you’re off tour and life is weird and fucked up and an endless problem and you’re listening to their album and you’re feeling the escapism of rock, that escapism you felt when you realized that music was going to save you from the brink. Then you’re in North Dakota and you’re zooted and you’re hugging people goodbye and you don’t want it to end. Thanks Bully fam. That was a pretty nice year, huh?

That about ends it for 2015, and I’m about as glad as anyone that that’s the case. I want to make a special shoutout to Mosurock and his 2015 mix here as well. Without Still Single, there would be no Constant Ringing. Keep looking out for new sounds, y’all. Keep the dialogue going. There’s plenty for me to catch up on, thanks to everyone.

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