Dirty Ghosts: Best of 2014

We love Dirty Ghosts and were excited to see what they loved in 2014. Here are Allyson Baker and Tony Sevener’s favorites from the year. Can’t wait to hear their new record next year!

Check out all of our 2014 year-end lists here.

ALLYSON BAKER’S BEST OF 2014:

Once And Future Band – Brain EP (Mouth Records). This is in my opinion easily one of the best records that came out in this decade. The level of musicianship and songwriting is crazy good and rare in 2014. Seeing them live is even better, they don’t miss a beat, you hear every note, every instrument played on the record, they are a really special band.

Mark Ronson w/ Kevin Parker – “Daffodils”. I know this album isn’t coming out until 2015 but the song technically came out in 2014. It’s awesome, a funked up Tame Impala. I wish these 2 did a whole album together.

Kelley Stoltz – “Cross Your Mind/The Ararchist In Me Is Gone” 7″ (Stroll On). This 7″ contains my current favorite Kelley Stoltz song “Cross Your Mind”. It’s a bit different than any of the songs on his last album “Double Exposure”, some mild 80’s guitar vibes going on which I’m a big sucker for.

The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen– I liked Ministry in the 90’s but I LOVED Ministry like crazy when I stumbled upon their first album a few years ago. Between now and then I went nuts trying to gather up as much music, info, footage and whatnot on them because I needed to consume as much as possible of this band. I even went as far as to purchase Chris Connelly’s skimpy biography and the bands depressing mid 90’s tour documentary. So you can imagine my delight when Al Jourgensen released his own book. Pretty decent account of the early years and some great stories of touring, drug addiction and music making- all my favorite literary subjects!

Sonic Highways – Chicago episode. I’ve been pretty into this series, despite the constant interruption of the Foo Fighters footage spliced into every episode. The Chicago episode, which was the first one, was pretty fun to watch. I loved watching Steve Albini being interviewed by someone he actually likes. All the insight into how he’s sustained his studio was really interesting and just hearing someone say the words “Wax Trax” on HBO made it that much more exciting.

Wrong Hole 2012 (Pleasence). One of my current favorite Toronto bands going right now. Guys from Brutal Knights/Deadly Snakes/Quest for Fire. These guys are like The Meatmen meets Chrome meets Moistboyz. Awesome and weird with an amazing sense of humor. Check out their album cover. And lyrics.

Biblical “The Quiet Ones” Video. Another awesome Toronto band, these guys released this video a few weeks ago and it’s just beautiful. When I first watched it I thought it was a big chunk taken out of some cool foreign high budget film cause it looked so incredible, but it’s not. From what I heard they flew to Italy just to make it there. It’s great.

TONY SEVENER’S BEST OF 2014:

Run The Jewels – RTJ2

The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

At The Gates – At War With Reality