Okay, we know what you’re thinking: Isn’t it a bit of an oxymoron to list the “best” things to come from such a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year?
While yes, we completely agree with that statement, we would be remiss not to shine a light on all the wonderful things that helped us survive one of the most challenging years in recent memory – you know, like best album, best song, best movie, etc.
So, as a way to help you count down the end of this miserable year (22 days, 7 hours and 52 minutes to go as of this writing), we’ve completely turned our year-end, best-of list over to the artists we cover on a daily basis. Because let’s face it, as we’ve noted in years past, their opinions are the ones we all really care about, right?
Right.
To check out what members of Underoath, The Amity Affliction, August Burns Red, Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck, Movements, Counterparts, Hatebreed and more have all been obsessing over for the past year or so, be sure to see below. We hope you enjoy this final list as much as we do and wish you all the most peaceful and positive holiday season.
Enjoy!
SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN - UNDEROATH
Best Album of 2020: Tame Impala - The Slow Rush
Best Song of 2020: Foster the People - “Lambs Wool”
Best Music Video of 2020: Sir Sly - “Material Boy” (also one of the best songs of 2020)
Most Underrated Album of 2020: The Chain Gang of 1974 - Honey Moon Drips
Best Movie of 2020: Onward
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: American Horror Story
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Metal Kenneth Copeland had me cracking up
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: I really enjoyed playing Lost In The Sound of Separation in full for the first time ever and it was our first ever live stream so it was super special and something I’ll never forget
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Writing tons of music, my lady, hiking/working out and my great dane Snoopy
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Put MORE art into the world
AHREN STRINGER - THE AMITY AFFLICTION
Best Album of 2020: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
Best Song of 2020: Spiritbox - “Holy Roller”
Best Music Video of 2020: Architects - “Black Lungs”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Lost For Life - We All Share The Blame
Best Movie of 2020: Palm Springs
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Queen’s Gambit
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Europe tour with Beartooth right before the pandemic.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Drawing and painting
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Start smoking more
JB BRUBAKER - AUGUST BURNS RED
Best Album of 2020: Hum - Inlet
Best Song of 2020: Sir Sly - “All Your Love”
Best Music Video of 2020: NOFX - “Live At Red Rocks”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Sea Wolf - Through A Dark Wood
Best Movie of 2020: The Social Dilemma
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Queen’s Gambit
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: https://youtu.be/0JPRvxTjfOk
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Best show I played this year was our Thrill Seeker 15 Year Anniversary livestream, though I hope that we one-up that show on Dec 12th when we do our Christmas Burns Red show.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: The return of live sports, specifically baseball and especially football. Fantasy sports have been my 2020 escape.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: I’d like to look on the bright side more. 2020 has been an easy year to focus on the negative. I don’t want to be that way next year (or ever).
KEVIN MAIDA - KNUCKLE PUCK
Best Album of 2020: Tie between HAIM’s Women In Music Pt. III or Owen’s The Avalanche or Slow Pulp’s Movey
Best Song of 2020: “Me & You Together Song” by The 1975
Best Music Video of 2020: Faye Webster’s “Better Distractions” or Phoebe Bridgers’ “I Know The End” or HAIM’s “Man From The Magazine”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Burst by Snarls
Best Movie of 2020: Dang, what movies came out this year? Each year, I gauge the movies I saw by recounting seeing them in theaters, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I really enjoyed Portrait of a Lady On Fire though and I saw Uncut Gems on New Year’s Day this year, so I’m counting that as well.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: I’m really bad with keeping up with contemporary television, but I am always watching The Sopranos on a loop. I’ve had so many people tell me this year that they started watching Sopranos because of all the extra time at home, so I loved living vicariously through others watching it for the first time. I’ve also been binging 30 Rock for the first time and it is simply a delight.
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Phoebe Bridgers and Maggie Rogers’ “Iris” cover album art.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Back in February, we played at Beat Kitchen in Chicago with Heart Attack Man and One Step Closer to begin the only tour we would do this year. We hadn’t played there in years, but it felt so good to be back in that venue’s atmosphere again.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: My girlfriend, staying connected with my friends and family, riding my bike around the city, having time to somewhat enjoy summer at home in Chicago and revisiting favorite movies of mine.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Be kinder to others and kinder to myself.
PATRICK MIRANDA - MOVEMENTS
Best Album of 2020: Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
Best Song of 2020: Too many to pick just one
Best Music Video of 2020: “Popstar” - Drake/DJ Khaled
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Marigold - Pinegrove
Best Movie of 2020: Borat 2
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: The Mandalorian
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Cranberry juice skateboard guy
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: LDB Fest in Louisville Kentucky 2020, BC (before Covid)
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Video games and comfort food
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Let’s be honest, I’m not sticking to any resolutions
BRENDAN MURPHY - COUNTERPARTS
Best Album of 2020: I haven’t even heard it yet, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be the new Seahaven record. Band fucking rocks and I’ve been waiting like 6 years for new music.
Best Song of 2020: The 1975 - “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
Best Music Video of 2020: It’s a tie, but I’m gonna have to go with “Spirit Halloween Theme Song” and the follow up “Unleash Your Spirit” both by Nick Lutsko.
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Chamber - Cost of Sacrifice
Best Movie of 2020: I don’t think I’ve watched any movies that came out this year other than the new Borat, so I guess that’s my pick by default. It was VERY NICE!! I wish I could marry the movie so the movie could be MY WIFE!! Get it? You get it. We all get it. It’s great.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Again, I’ve been slacking in terms of newer movies/tv and honestly, I just kinda alternate between watching The Simpsons seasons 3-9 and then watching Kenny Vs Spenny from beginning to end. If you haven’t seen KvS, the entire series is on YouTube so please just watch it. I promise it’s the best thing to come out of Canada… me being the second best.
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: When we released the embroidered NLTL hoodie and everyone filled their diapers with shit.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Tough call, but it’s gotta be either the Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons or the biker festival in Sturgis that Smash Mouth played.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Alcohol, adopting my cat Kuma and finally being diagnosed with ADD so I could get a Vyvanse prescription.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Play a single show LMAOOOOOO
OSHIE BICHAR - BEARTOOTH
Best Album of 2020: Bring Me The Horizon - Post Human: Survival Horror
Best Song of 2020: Bring Me The Horizon - “Parasite Eve"
Best Music Video of 2020: Bring Me The Horizon feat Yungblud - “OBEY"
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Silverstein - A Beautiful Place To Drown
Best Movie of 2020: Tenet
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: The Mandalorian
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Baby Yoda memes
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Beartooth drive-in show in Oshkosh, WI
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Call of Duty: Warzone
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Stop spending so much money on Star Wars toys
TRAVIS MIGUEL - ATREYU
Best Album of 2020: Insect Ark - The Vanishing
Best Song of 2020: clipping. - “Say The Name”
Best Music Video of 2020: Billie Eilish - “Everything I Wanted”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Thundercat - It Is What It Is
Best Movie of 2020: The Social Dilemma
Most Binge Worthy TV Show of 2020: The Mandalorian
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Any of the “My Plans for 2020” memes
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Atreyu - Melbourne, Australia @ Max Watts, Feb 2020.
Things that helped you get through 2020: Guitar, video games, hanging with the wife and cat, finishing an album, Atreyu “Carry the Fire” livestream and lots of junk food.
2021 New Year Resolution: Gonna try to have more of that PMA.
MATT BRYNE - HATEBREED
Best Album of 2020: Napalm Death - Throes of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
Best Song of 2020: See question #1. Pick any song from it.
Best Music Video of 2020: I don’t have one. I miss the infant days of MTV when music videos were new, fresh and hypnotizing. I used to sit for hours and wait for the Van Halen “Jump” video to come on. So, I’ll go with that music video for this question. Can I do that?
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Hum - Inlet
Best Movie of 2020: The Mandalorian series. I rarely watch full movies anymore. It’s all about getting sucked into a TV series.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Can’t choose only one. The Queen’s Gambit, The Mandalorian, Living With Yourself, Dead To Me…
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Anything posted on kookslams. I could surf that Insta account all damn day!!!
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: None. We have all been stuck at home. So, best attended/played/watched is me, myself and I crushing it on my basement practice jams. Or falling down the rabbit-hole watching drum solos or drum clips on youtube.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: 1- I got married in May so that was a huge event that we made happen and enjoyed, given the current craziness. Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. 2- Our dog, Ziti. He is a constant source of entertainment. 3- Yoga. 4- Ripping around on my mini-bike.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Drink more water. Spend less time looking at my phone. Get back to playing shows again!!!
SAM BOWDEN - NECK DEEP
Best Album of 2020: Haim - Women In Music Pt. III
Best Song of 2020: Seaway - “Big Vibe”
Best Music Video of 2020: The 1975 - “The Birthday Party”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: I don’t really know what’s underrated and I’ve not listened to a bunch this year but Knuckle Puck 20/20 is a great album that people should go check out if they haven’t already.
Best Movie of 2020: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Schitt’s Creek. Although this wasn’t strictly all released in 2020, the final season was and I hadn’t seen any before this year. It was amazing and I definitely binged the whole thing. Final season is a tear jerker for sure.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Well like most people in music we didn’t get to play a show this year, however, I did attend a Counterparts show in Feb at Rock City which ruled! Static Dress were also on the tour so was great getting to finally see them!
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Call of Duty - Warzone. Can’t say I’m proud about this one but It helped pass time if nothing else. More serious though, I bought my girlfriend a kitten a few months ago and he’s been a bundle of joy for us.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Enjoy the little things. This year took a lot of normality out of life and it’s given me a lot of time to reflect and look back on things I’ve done and we’ve done as a band. It’s easy to get caught up and just be thinking about what’s next and not really live in that moment, so next year I’ll be savoring every moment and every show we get.
NICK VENTIMIGLIA - GRAYSCALE
Best Album of 2020: This is so tough but I think Deftones’ Ohms is my favorite album of the year.
Best Song of 2020: I really don’t know if I can pick one but my most listened to was “The Spell of Mathematics” by Deftones
Best Music Video of 2020: I absolutely loved the Bring Me the Horizon video for “Parasite Eve.” But also, the “Ohms” video by Deftones was unreal as well.
Most Underrated Album of 2020: There really are a few I believe. It was a very weird year to put out a record so I think a TON of albums flew under the radar which is a bummer because there was so much great music put out. I think Four Year Strong’s Brain Pain was amazing and their best album to date. I think Hundredth’s Somewhere Nowhere was unreal. Rich People put out Harmony in August and I absolutely love that record and those boys. The Killers put a record out called Imploding the Mirage that has some absolute heaters on it as well. The Ghost Inside made a wild comeback with Aftermath that makes you want to go ape shit front to back. Finally, I’d say The Used made an amazing album that caught them right back up with making great music. Not that they didn’t on the previous records, but it feels like they found themselves again. They pushed a lot of boundaries on Heartwork and had some insane songwriting on that record.
Best Movie of 2020: To be honest, I didn’t really watch many new movies this year. The Social Dilemma was super eye-opening and very true. If you dig creepy thrillers, The Devil All the Time was probably top for me. A ton of great actors and just such an eerie vibe in the cinematography.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: I feel like the easy answer is Tiger King, but I really dug The Queen’s Gambit and The Undoing as of late.
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: I hate the internet really, there is just so much bullshit overload that I can’t even process it all. With that said, when Joe Exotic threw on his EMS jacket when his employee got her arm bit off by a tiger, THAT was UNREAL. I was crying laughing. This man had this jacket for a moment like this. He is wearing this EMS bomber with king tight white jeans, a true fashion icon. The memes that followed were priceless. The “I am never gunna financially recover from this…” memes. So great.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: I would have to say the best show I attended this year was the Dashboard Confessional anniversary shows in Detroit. It was back to back nights where Chris played ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most’ and ‘A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar.’ in their entirety. He did some older stuff as well off of the ’So Impossible’ EP and ‘Swiss Army Romance’ which rocked. Best show we played would have to be on our headliner earlier this year. We played The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA and it was unreal. Best watched show was probably the Puscifer live stream or the Underoath stream.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: I think it was the ability to write more than we usually are able to and kind of tighten up the behind the scenes aspects of Grayscale that people don’t often see. Beyond that, being able to spend time with loved ones and family has been great. It’s been a great year for self reflection as well and I feel like that’s always a good thing when you can get a fresh perspective on life when things get shaken up. I’ve been super thankful even more so this year for the people I have in my life and the opportunities I’ve been given. Those are some of the big things that got me through.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Honestly, I am not much of a resolution guy, but I’d say just give my all to everything I am passionate about and treat everyone with love. Playing shows in 2021 would be absolutely ideal for a resolutions well.
JULIET SIMMS
Best Album of 2020: Starbenders - Love Potions
Best Song of 2020: “You About To Lose Your Job”
Best Music Video of 2020: In This Moment - “As Above So Below”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Creeper - Sex, Death and the Infinite Void
Best Movie of 2020: Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Queen’s Gambit
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Ocean Spray Fleetwood Mac guy.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: uhhhhh - welcome to hell. I attended exactly one concert this year and that was a live stream for BVB.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Music, YouTube, good shows, my babe, my pets and staying busy.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: To get the fuck out of the house 😂. On a more music related note - put my album out ✨
OLLIE BAXXTER - BROADSIDE
Best Album of 2020: Into the Raging Sea by Broadside
Best Song of 2020: “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles
Best Music Video of 2020: “Parasite Eve” - Bring Me The Horizon
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Into the Raging Sea by Broadside
Best Movie of 2020: Palm Springs
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: 90 Day Fiancé
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Anything involving our EX president
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: *one long sigh*
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: My miniature dachshund puppy and books
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Never take seeing someone’s whole face for granted again
VINNIE CARUANA - I AM THE AVALANCHE // THE MOVIELIFE
Best Album of 2020: Songs For The General Public - The Lemon Twigs
Best Song of 2020: “War” - Idles
Best Music Video of 2020: I haven’t seen any
Most Underrated Album of 2020: DIVE - I am the Avalanche
Best Movie of 2020: On the Rocks
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Jeopardy on DVR. RIP ALEX TREBEK
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Four Seasons Total Landscaping
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Constant Elevation/ Rule Them All @ Max Fish NYC
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Jon Oliver, beer, weed, whiskey, Liverpool Football Club, friends, family, music.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: To spread more joy than ever
ALEX MAGNAN - YOUNG CULTURE
Best Album of 2020: Folklore by Taylor Swift
Best Song of 2020: “How Big Is Your Brain” by Super American
Best Music Video of 2020: “The Birthday Party” by the 1975
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Women In Music pt. III by Haim
Best Movie of 2020: Tenet
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Ozark
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Pretending to break up my band
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Playing Tampa, FL back in March
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Zoom calls
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Be the best live band when shows come back
MAX BREMER - KINGDOM OF GIANTS
Best Album of 2020: Man there’s a few really good ones that make it so hard to choose. I really enjoyed Loathe’s I Let It In And It Took Everything but I gotta shout out Like Moths to Flames’s No Eternity in Gold and Bring Me The Horizon’s Post Human for sure.
Best Song of 2020: Another insanely hard question! I guess I’m gonna say “Teardrops” by Bring Me The Horizon but again I’m gonna also shout out “Animals” by Architects
Best Music Video of 2020: “Teardrops” by Bring Me The Horizon. If you couldn’t tell I’m a big fan of them haha
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Idk if I’d say it’s underrated but I absolutely loved Make Them Suffer’s How to Survive a Funeral
Best Movie of 2020: I haven’t even seen it yet, but I know it’s gonna be Tenet
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Lovecraft Country
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: There’s so many it’s hard for me to retain any of them. I can’t keep track.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Well my band sold out every show we played this year which was only one haha but for real it was an awesome time and I love hearing our lyrics screamed back at us.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: My wife, our new daughter, Indi, and our album PASSENGER 100%
2021 New Year’s Resolution: My wife and I just had our first daughter so it’s gonna be to be the best father I can possibly be and write as many songs as possible until we can rip shows again.
NICK ANDERSON - THE WRECKS
Best Album of 2020: Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
Best Song of 2020: “Dying Breed” - The Killers
Best Music Video of 2020: Nothing But Thieves - “Impossible”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Color Theory - Soccer Mommy
Best Movie of 2020: The Go-Go’s
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Dave
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Four Seasons Total Landscaping
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: :(
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Pro Tools
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Spend more time outside of the studio
CAMM KNOPP - NEVER LOVED
Best Album of 2020: It’s hard to pick one, but a few I really enjoyed are Father Of All… by Greenday, Ugly Is The New Beautiful by Oliver Tree and RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
Best Song of 2020: There has been so many amazing songs released this year it feels impossible picking just one
Best Music Video of 2020: Any Oliver Tree music video from his recent album
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Watchito Rico by Boy Pablo
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Tiger King
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Tiger King memes were pretty great
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Probably the Sugar Ray livestream
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Zoom parties, friends/family, writing music, netflix, and lots of self care
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Getting back on the road!
SHARPTOOTH
MATT HAGUE
Best Album of 2020: Purity Ring - WOMB
Best Song of 2020: “Headlights on the Parade” - The Blue Nile
Best Music Video of 2020: “When Doves Cry” - Prince
Most Underrated Album of 2020: The Hot N’ Heavy - Drop Dead, Gorgeous
Best Movie of 2020: Joker (shit was crazy bro)
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Devs
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Trump getting COVID
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: The only band I saw this year was Single Mothers. Their drummer is very handsome.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: HBO’s Oz
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Get yourself together. Move to Philly. Buy a loft. Start a noise band. Get 6 or 7 roommates. Eat hummus with them. Book some gigs. Paint. Smoke cloves. Listen to Animal Collective. Start some type of salsa company.
KEITH HIGGINS
Best Album of 2020: Endless Twilight of Codependent Love - Sólstafir
Best Song of 2020: “Oh Ruthless Great Divine Director” - Lingua Ignota
Best Music Video of 2020: Hot Gospel or Cane Hill
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Grave of a Dog - Sightless Pit
Best Movie of 2020: Color Out of Space
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: The Mandalorian
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Trump getting COVID was top tier
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: LOL
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Destiny 2, dogs and a lot of repressing things
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Turn my brain back on and be a person again hopefully
LANCE DONATI
Best Album of 2020: Underneath - Code Orange
Best Song of 2020: “Boss Bitch” - Doja Cat
Best Music Video of 2020: “Swallowing The Rabbit Whole” - Code Orange
Most Underrated Album of 2020: I Disagree - Poppy
Best Movie of 2020: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Mandalorian
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: The fly landing on Mike Pence’s head
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: Darkest Hour
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Writing music for the next album.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Get the next album process set up.
PETER BRUNO
Best Album of 2020: Poppy - I Disagree. While critics might write this off as a unique, albeit kitsch blending of genres, this record is one of the more satisfying emotional journeys I’ve been on in quite some time. Poppy is able to capture a strange sort of sadness within these songs, that ironically, is often read as mere jouissance.
Best Song of 2020: Poppy - “Sick of the Sun”
Best Music Video of 2020: Run The Jewels - “Ooh La La”
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Sound VVitch - Becoming. Imagine taking something like Chelsea Wolfe but leaning more into an experimental direction that is both sonically beautiful and grotesque.
Best Movie of 2020: I’m Thinking of Ending Things, directed by Charlie Kaufman. It’s a shame that a lot of movies got pushed back this year. I think because of this, I didn’t wind up watching many movies from 2020, instead I used the pandemic to try to catch up on films from the past that I never seem to find time for. Still, I’ve come to really appreciate the journey that Kaufman seems to always insist on taking me.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: Admittedly, I also haven’t watched a ton of new TV shows this year. But, there were both new seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Eric Andre Show, which always finds a way to make me happy. However, in terms of 2020 itself, I did finally watch The Sopranos for the first time and it completely lived up to the hype. Just an incredible TV show all around. I also binge watched all of Tim Heidecker’s On Cinema at the Cinema, which is quite the ride. There’s a whole cinematic universe for that TV show, it’s insane. I give it five bags of popcorn.
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Conner O’Malley’s video where he learns how to communicate with trains got me pretty good.
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: I thought the Code Orange live stream acoustic set was pretty neat.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: Marijuana and Magic The Gathering.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Try not to die.
LAUREN KASHAN
Best Album of 2020: 1. High Road - Kesha. Basically, Kesha wrote an incredibly intense, emotional and fucking hilarious album about living her truth and telling all her haters to eat a dick and that’s really all I’ve ever needed in life.
2. “WAP” burned twelve times onto a CD-R from Best Buy. This one fucking song is a better album than 95% of anything I’ve ever heard and I’m a huge fan of anything related to black women kicking ass and taking names, sex and kink positivity, and insanely clever and funny lyrics. Plus, ANYTHING that makes weak, sexist, insecure men as BIG MAD as this song did is literally my kink.
Best Song of 2020: “My Own Dance” - Kesha.
Best Music Video of 2020: “Say Nothing (In The Absence Of Content).” Fuck anyone who disagrees, that shit is iconic. Second runner up goes to “The Gray” because Peter made that whole fucking video himself and it’s POWERFUL and I still cry every single time I watch it.
Most Underrated Album of 2020: Vagina Witchcraft’s self titled record. If you didn’t already notice, I’m pretty fucking done with listening to cis straight white dudes be ANGERY for half an hour; so this album is SUCH a breath of fresh air in a genre that’s become incredibly boring and derivative as of late. Listen to Vagina Witchcraft for sonically inventive, sludgy hardcore, bone-chilling vocal delivery and lyrics that are simultaneously calculated yet raw, and that ACTUALLY FUCKING SAY THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT AND RELEVANT AND SO FUCKING URGENT RIGHT NOW.
Best Movie of 2020: Miss Americana - The Taylor Swift documentary. One of the most validating things I’ve ever watched in my life and I ugly cried though the whole thing. I fucking love that woman.
Most Binge-Worthy TV Show of 2020: I don’t watch TV… Does a YouTube series about voice actors playing D&D count? If so, my answer is Critical Role. Don’t try to binge it though, each episode is like 4 hours and there’s over a hundred episodes.
Favorite Internet Moment of 2020: Hardcore twitter taking my band way too seriously and as a result of their own hubris, accidentally blowing up our music video and record release, and getting us exponentially more attention than we would have if those losers would just finally learn to fuck off and leave us alone! NICE GOING MOTHERFUCKERS I OWE YA ONE! *blows a kiss* Also, everything Lizzo did. DID YOU SEE HER “FLY IN MIKE PENCE’S HAIR” COSTUME?!?!
Best Concert You Attended/Played/Watched in 2020: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA GOOD ONE.
I think the only live music related thing I even went to was a Drum & Bass show back in February in Brooklyn with Dimension, Sub Focus, and Culture Shock. I danced with my friends and drank Bright Fox. It was a simpler time.
The Thing(s) That Helped Get You Through 2020: D&D, getting a suet feeder to watch birds outside my window and my bootcamp, Launch Academy, with all my brilliant and incredible Boston 30 Cohort-mates. Also, the warm weight of knowing that this coming year, a lot of terrible, evil, abusive people in the world are gonna finally get their comeuppance and I’m making popcorn with EXTRA salt.
2021 New Year’s Resolution: Ohhhh I’m not going to spoil the surprise for you! But let’s just say I’m planning on using my new superpowers as a full stack software engineer, combined with my old superpowers as a vindictive and enraged bitch who hates rapists, to make the world a safer and more just place.
