As most of you have probably (and hopefully) already realized by now,2014 is coming to an end. And, with it being the end of the year, it is now time for the obligatory “Best of 2014” lists to begin.
Now, when thinking of ideas on how to jazz up our list, we came to a realization: Our opinions aren’t nearly as cool nor do they carry as much weight as band members.
So, after coming to that conclusion, we thought to ourselves, “why don’t we just turn our list over to the bands?” So guess what? We did.
Below are ten questions we sent out to dozens of acts spanning all different types of genres with the best of the best answers making the cut.
We hope you love it as much as we do and wish you all the raddest holiday season ever, ever! Enjoy!
Best Album:
- From Parts Unknown by Every Time I Die - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Ashes to Ashes by Chelsea Grin- Malcolm Brickhouse (Unlocking The Truth)
- Our Endless War by Whitechapel - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win by 50 Cent - PUP
- 1000 Forms of Fear by Sia - Elize Ryd (Amaranthe)
- The New Classic by Iggy Azalea - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- White Noise by PVRIS - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Best Song:
- "El Dorado" by Every Time I Die - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- "Maps" by Maroon 5 - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift - PUP
- "Drown" by Bring Me The Horizon - Slaves
- “Proving Grounds” by ATTILA - Malcolm Brickhouse (Unlocking The Truth)
- "Chandelier" by Sia - Elize Ryd (Amaranthe)
- “Black Widow” by Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- "Futurist" by Darkest Hour - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Best Movie:
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Slaves
- John Wick - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- The Lego Movie - PUP
- The Purge: Anarchy - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- Maleficent & Guardians of the Galaxy - Elize Ryd (Amaranthe)
- Gone Girl or Guardians of the Galaxy - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Interstellar - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Best On-Stage Moment:
- Vernon Reid passing me his guitar on stage - Malcolm Brickhouse (Unlocking The Truth)
- Tricking the crowd that it was Kam’s birthday - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Our double decker Halloween outfit for our Fest 13 set at The Wooly was pretty fun. We went as Starbucks employees who were dressed up as ketchup, mustard, a hotdog and a glass of beer, respectively. - PUP
Worst On-Stage Moment:
- When we performed in Scandinavium, Gothenburg (biggest indoor arena in our hometown) and our light guy didn’t show up! - Jake E. (Amaranthe)
- Power outage which shut off everything during our last song when we played the Starland ballroom in New Jersey - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- Some dingus heckled us (note: our first heckle ever) in Manchester, UK during our first tour there. Though we were assured by many kind audience members that she was a (INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE), we have still yet to recover from the un-named dingus’ verbal attack. - PUP
- In Trenton, we finished playing a song half way though our set and Austin stands up walks away from his drums and goes straight to the bathroom to blow chunks. The whole time he’s gone we are on stage like “wtf are we supposed to do!” Austin walks back two minutes later and finishes the set. Unbelievable. - Michael Skaggs (Outline in Color)
Best Tasting Food You Ate This Year:
- Zombie Burger in Des Moines, Iowa - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Medium rare Filet Mignon with creamy mushroom sauce - Jeffrey Wellfare - (Capture the Crown)
- Spicy chicken from Hattie B’s Hot Chicken in Nashville. The best part was tasting it twice. Note: the second time was with our asses. - PUP
- Snow Crabs at the Coachella Festival - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- Ramen in Japan - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Best Tour of 2014 (You Were Apart of or Wished You Were Apart of):
- We’re predisposed to saying our first headlining tour last October cause it was a landmark for us. But mostly, it was our tour with The Menzingers that took the cake. Not only are they, Lemuria, and Cayetana the greatest people, and amazing musicians, but Tom May (Menzo’s guitarist) taught us the glory of the greatest cocktail in the world: the boilermaker. - PUP
- The All Stars Tour (wished we were apart of) - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- This year’s best tour was the one we did with Kingdom Of Giants and The Ongoing Concept. Super awesome guys! - Michael Skaggs (Outline in Color)
- Mayhem Fest with Avenged Sevenfold - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Weirdest Experience:
- The Regency in San Francisco is haunted. - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Flying from NY to Tokyo, playing one show, flying back to Mexico City - crossing several time zones - and landing the same day I left and stayed awake for 74 hours. - Jake E. (Amaranthe)
- Loosing a putt-putt game and the wager was a bad tattoo - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- There’s been lots, but witnessing the spooky tourist trap that is Roswell, NM first-hand was pretty damned strange. The only semblance of culture they had was the lone mental patient playing rambling fuzz guitar solos at the ‘main’ intersection of town. You know, that intersection where three corners are occupied by alien gift shops and the other corner is a Subway? Yeah. Crazy guitar dude was there. - PUP
- Forrest’s phone and Polaroid camera all got super messed up when we drove through Roswell, NM. His phone wasn’t telling time correctly and every piece of film inside the camera exposed itself. It was insane! - Michael Skaggs (Outline in Color)
- Being in an elevator with Fred Durst and his security guard - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Smelliest Experience:
- A 70-year-old man sitting next to me on a flight between Copenhagen and San Francisco - Jake E. (Amaranthe)
- Pretty much the year as a whole was like water sliding down Satan’s lower intestine; our bodies cooking in his filthy heat. But, to be specific - it was likely experiencing the punk house we stayed at in Oregon. There’s nothing as life affirming as the morning bloom of a half eaten Subway sandwich left to rot in a subterranean dungeon (loosely termed: basement). Unless you are counting the piss stain on the bed you are currently taking refuge from, by cocooning yourself in your sleeping bag. Suffice it to say, I’ve never witnessed someone living inside a structure made almost entirely of pure venereal disease, and I hope to never witness it again. - PUP
- When we performed at Webster Hall and someone threw up and it smelled like someone had passed gas - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- We went to a party in Oregon a couple months ago on tour and KC fell asleep next to someone who pissed themselves in their sleep. KC’s sleeping bag was drenched and for 10 minutes he thought that it was him who wet the bed haha. - Michael Skaggs (Outline in Color)
Thing(s) You Wish You Had Done But Didn’t in 2014:
- Jessica Alba - Slaves
- Died from rocking too hard. - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Toured Australia, Asia or Europe. Bought a pug. Made money. - Jeffrey Wellfare (Capture the Crown)
- Start taking dance classes again (jazz-dance and ballet) - Elize Ryd (Amaranthe)
- I wish I went skydiving in the Alps when we were playing a festival up there - Levi Benton (Miss May I)
Bonus Question: 2015 New Year’s Resolutions
- Rock harder than we did in 2014. - Taylor Lumley (Beartooth)
- Gain more liquor weight than we did in 2014. - PUP
- Play less video games - Alec Atkins (Unlocking The Truth)
- Get Tai laid - Slaves
