Greetings! It may be just the beginning of December, but we are kicking off our annual best of Springfield music poll a tad early this year so that we have plenty of time to compile results and get together write-ups because this year our results are going to be published in the January issue of Activator Magazine! Our poll has three parts: your favorite albums/releases that came out by local bands, your favorite songs by local bands that came out this year, and your favorite local shows of 2018. This is open to all Springfield local music of any genre! And not just Black Sheep shows of course! We compiled a list of 64 local releases this year (wow, that’s a lot)! You can view them all and find links to listen to most of them on our Springfield release guide right here. At the end of our poll usually we put in a suggestion box for Black Sheep / Dumb Records – we are doing that again this year, but instead it’s a suggestion box on the types of things you would like to see with a new space we are opening up downtown in 2019.

>>>VOTE IN THE BEST OF SPRINGFIELD MUSIC 2018 POLL HERE.<<<

If there are any local albums that we don’t have listed, there is a box at the bottom of the first portion you can still write-in your votes – we would also like to hear about anything we’ve missed! You can email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com and we can always add releases to the poll.

The poll will be open now for the next ten days until December 13th! We know that for the shows portion of the poll, there are a LOT of HUGE shows lined up after that deadline happening as The Black Sheep’s final shows!! Maybe you can enter in shows that haven’t happened yet if you want? IDK!

We will be posting results of the poll at the end of this month or the beginning of next month along with physical copies of the January issue of Activator!

It’s that time of year again! It’s time for us to start gearing up for our annual best of Springfield music poll – the seventh year we have ran the poll and results looking back on the year in Springfield music if you can believe it or not. This year we’ve got something special up our sleeves – we are going to be conjoining forces with Activator Magazine to help create their January 2019 publication as a look back in Springfield music for 2018 and feature the poll results along with write-ups! Our poll (not active yet), will ask for your favorite albums and songs from Springfield bands released in the past year, as well as your favorite local shows you attended *not limited to any genres or specific venues!

The poll will be running on our site from December 3rd through the 13th.

Before we kick off the poll though we need your help in making sure we are listing off all of the Springfield music that came out this year! Here is our list of what we have so far (total of 45):

Adam Maletich – Over The Edge
Arlin Peelbes – When You Need Me
boon – Social Anxylophone
Dixie Narcos – Neurotic Static
Deep Hollow – Weary Traveler
Demons on Wheels – Unleashed
Devin Hayes – The Mind’s Diary
Eggman – Cube Zero
Eyes From Above – Principium EP
Foam Fangers – Foam Fangers EP
Foot – Big
Forest Saints – Nocturne
Glower – Glower EP
Graveswitcher – Graveswitcher
Go! Tsunami – A Day At The Beach
Hospital Job – Haze Like Me
Imaginary Colours – Blank Slate
Imaginary Colours – Dream WAV
Imaginary Colours – Tangled Up In Blue
Kenyon DeShasier – Together
Kenyon Deshasier – Wondrous Lover
The Little Death – Way Happier
Los Injectors – Rock Apocalypto
MAC – No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
Master Bastard – Mouth Breather
MLR – Abandoned Evening
MLR – I’ll Be In This
No Cash Value – No Cash Value
Pryss – Alogia
Rather Dashing – Rather Dashing
Resistance To Reason – First Year
Rockford – Briarcliff EP
Sorry Charlie – Sorry Charlie
Stater Jacket – Decisions
Timothy Donavan Russell – Best of Ambient 2003-2018
Timothy Donavan Russell – Best of Experimental 2003-2018
Timothy Donavan Russell – Fibonacci
Timothy Donavan Russell – Golden Age
Timothy Donavan Russell – Knot
Timothy Donavan Russell – Microtonal Ambient
Timothy Donavan Russell – Rain Tree
Timothy Donavan Russell – The Sound of Cosmology
Timothy Donavan Russell – Sugarchurch
This Is A Stick Up! – The Dumpster Punk E.P.
Uncle Sam’s Mutagenic Children – Right Answers To The Wrong Questions
Wolf Crick Boys – War & Peace

There you have it. If you know of any other releases from Springfield bands or musicians from this past year, let us know so we can include it in our poll! A release consists of two or more songs of original music – also we are opening this up to nearby towns Decatur, Jacksonville, Taylorville, etc. Comment below or email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com if you have any additions.