Your favorite gear/artists/live shows of 2015?

With the year drawing to a close, I thought it'd be fun to jot down some things that stood out for you in 2015. Three categories come to mind that would be fun:

1. Favorite gear (new or old).
2. Favorite artists (could be newly discovered, or old favorites you came back to).
3. If you go out to see live music, your favorite shows.

I'll start.

1. Fav gear

In the guitar world, I obsessed over vintage Gibson hollow and semi-hollow body guitars, culminating in my recent purchase of a 1972 Gibson ES-325 that I've been hunting for. In the electronic music world, I'm very impressed by the Roland AIRA line. I played with a friend's TR-8 and loved it.

1. Fav artists

Guitar based: I listened to a ton of Interpol, and discovered Paul Banks' solo stuff which I really like. Foals, Noel Gallagher, and Kings of Leon were also in heavy rotation.

Electronic: Mat Zo and Porter Robinson continued to get lots of action. Also live sets from Dirty South. Oh and Arty, I enjoy all his stuff. Odesza and Slow Magic were probably my favorite two discoveries.

1. Fav live acts

Mutemath, Damien Rice, Arty, and Odesza were the best shows I attended this year.

Favorite gear... oh wow, I bought my ac4hw this summer and I am really in love with this little monster... I didn't try a lot of new stuff in 2015 (it seemed like more of a pedal guy's year and I am an amp guy) but I got some stuff that was new to me and I think the ac4HW is my favorite. The one new-ish toy I tried and was wowed by was Bogner's ecstasy blue drive pedal. I can't see myself buying one any time soon because I can't justify the purchase of a device I know I will use sparingly, but next time I need pedal overdrive because I'm gigging regularly at small clubs I might consider it. There wasn't much in the realm of new products in '15 that really blew my mind....

Favorite artist? I rediscovered the Smith's around Thanksgiving this year. I had forgotten them and now I remember why I liked them as a kid. In addition, I gave Modest Mouse another listen and warmed up to them a lot. I finally bothered to listen to the last QOTSA album yesterday and really enjoyed it as both a return to form (harmonically) and a move towards a more nuanced, adult sound that resonated with me as an oldster. Josh has come a long way since Kyuss (still love that band and am sad JH refused to do a quick reunion tour with them, but I get it, you can never go back unless there's nothing ahead of you). I haven't heard a lot of new music that gets my rocks off that was actually released this year though. Sad. I am really glad QOTSA is still going because there isn't a lot of heavy music left that is worthy of the name. Heavy does NOT mean more distortion or lower bass tones, though that can help to set the mood. I feel like the only bands left that still understand HEAVY are Queens and Mastodon. But whatever, gainiacs, keep on keepin' on, you all keep the pedal and preamp tube manufacturers in business.

Live acts? I went to literally 1 show this year. No shit. And it was a local band, my good friend was sitting in on bass for a few shows, but I also know the singer. They were tight but they had songwriting, arrangement and schlockiness problems. My man Bryan held it together though. Kept the drummer in line and laid down a solid groove that kept me from throwing up. I got hit on by this middle-aged chick who was high as a kite, gotta love bar shows in fishtown, man. She was actually pretty cute, but being deranged on speed or psychadelics or whatever? Not a turn on, babe. I am gettin' too old for this shit. I give the singer an E for EFFORT. He gives it 110% on vocals, but his rhythm guitar playing needs help. Well delivered, but lacking in groove, nuance, technique.... guess that's why he has a DS1 though, hardly matters when you get makin' with the Boss distortion in the choruses. If you can't figure it out on your own take a few lessons, dudes. Covering it all up with a wall of diode clipping is not appropriate in every tune and was definitely wrong for this material. SOOOO my favorite live act is nobody, I guess. There was nothing I even wanted to see. I didn't even bother to see Paul McCartney when he was in town and I could've.

you got the 325 lust from the guy from Kings of Leon, right? please tell me you got it for less than a current Gibson dot reissue. Until he started playing one they were a cheapie with no vntage value, a purely Norlin model. Cool, but not worth much scratch and not collectible. used to see 'em under a grand all the time. I hope you paid no more than $1500

Might mate got a 395, don't know who uses them? Its got his weird filter thing.

1. My favourite gear, as I own very little, has to be the Digitech Supernatural. Absolutely fantastic pedal, sounds heavenly, very spacey. Only wish that I could turn tails on without sacrificing the buffer. Turning tails on adds a bit of noise. It's minimal, but it's there.

2. I've recently been listening to Sigur Rós, and it has quickly become one of my favourite bands. I've already listened Kveikur, and I'm making my way to Valtari.

3. We Were Promised Jetpacks at The Observatory. It was my second live show ever, the first being For Today because my friends like the band. That was fun because I crowd-surfed for the first time in my life, twice, and broke my glasses. No regrets.

Anyways, Jetpacks was fun because that was a band I really like. Anyways, they finished with Sore Thumb, which was fantastic. Love that silent space when Adam starts singing, everyone was really into the song and it was quite magical :D

you mean an ES345? that has a chickenhead knob in addition to the usual 335 controls that sits on a rotary switch/inductor doohickey called a varitone.... its an inductor filter sort of like inductor EQs, but less refined... love the varitone

if your friend has a 345 I hate him by the way, I have been looking for a good mono one off and on for years, but they've never been made in large quantities and I am both picky and cheap.... BB's Lucilles are mainly mono 345s w/o F-holes and the man swears by the varitone, or swore by, being dead... dead men play no blues

you are turning a buffer ON not OFF.... the noise is because its not a very well designed buffer

I see you're on the site right now.

Shame, a well-designed buffer would really complete this pedal.

Edit: I tried it out, but the noise is gone, won't make a difference if I turn tails on or off... strange.

welp, that's why folks buy boutique effects, for their true bypass with silent switching or an audiophile buffer... it costs, although these days even DOD/digitech makes a silent-switching true bypass line, but they didn't spring for a burr brown opamp in their buffer I am sure, the cost difference between that and common shit seems minimal when you buy one for a homebrew, but multiplied over millions of production pedals it will effect your profit margin if you don't pass a substantial markup on to your distributors... a good opamp would be more transparent and noise free

Anyways, Jetpacks was fun because that was a band I really like. Anyways, they finished with Sore Thumb, which was fantastic. Love that silent space when Adam starts singing, everyone was really into the song and it was quite magical :D

aren't you in college?

you got the 325 lust from the guy from Kings of Leon, right? please tell me you got it for less than a current Gibson dot reissue. Until he started playing one they were a cheapie with no vntage value, a purely Norlin model. Cool, but not worth much scratch and not collectible. used to see 'em under a grand all the time. I hope you paid no more than $1500

Kind of. :) All my favorite artists use some kind of hollow/semi-hollow, and while I love me a 335 I was drawn to the lesser known ones, ES-345, ES-355, ES-135... and yes, I started looking into the ES-325 because of Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon. I didn't really want it for collect-ability purposes, it was more that I fell in love with the idea of it over time. That rich walnut grain, the slim neck, the mini-humbuckers, and the imperfections of those built in the early 1970s. An early-70s ES-325 in walnut finish was the one I kept going back to over and over in my mind. I finally found the one, here she is:

http://i.imgur.com/bvvhEy1.jpg

What are you trying to say?

I was trying to ask you if you were in college, which I did.

Go beer, happy new year...

OMG that shit is SOOOOO norlin, got the awful harmonica bridge and everything, wow.... awesomely 70s, you have to cut a disco track with her, have to!

Oh, well yes. I am in college. I don't know anybody there, though, it's only my second semester.

What school do you go to?