Best In Springfield Local Music 2020 Poll

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Happy Monday everyone! We are finally ready to launch our big annual Best of Springfield Music poll, once again teaming up with Activator Magazine here in the year 2020! Now’s the time of the year where we want to hear about your favorite local songs and releases that have recently came out.

This year the poll is slightly different than years past – of course the “shows” section has taken a cut. There were a few shows at the start of the year up until March, but we are just focusing on songs and releases this time around. Since the local hip hop scene continues to explode, we decided to put local hip hop releases in it’s own separate poll. There will be a top 10 or 20 in both non-hip hop and hip hop categories. There were a total of 87 local releases that we kept track of so far this year. There’s also a write-in box for any that we may have missed. We will also include that list at the bottom of this post with links to listen to most of the releases.

Find the poll online right here!

The poll will run from now until 11:59pm the night of December 15th (we will be gathering results for one week)! Then the results will be featured along with different write-ups in the January issue of Activator Magazine, and we will also post results on our site.

In addition to asking for you favorite songs and albums of 2020, we also have a category this year for you to tell us about any other favorite Central Illinois releases that may have came out this year outside of Springfield. There is also a suggestion box for both Dumb Records and Activator Magazine. Find the results from last year (2019) right here and right here.

Attic Salt – Get Wise
Baby Ocho – Demo EP 
Blushe – MAD
Bonards – Mask To Protect
Bottom Bracket – I Don’t Care Enough To Stay
Demons on Wheels – Souvenirs
Demons on Wheels – Still Left Standing
Forest Saints – Backyard Twilight Symphony
Forest Saints – The Pensive Innocents 
Gargantuan – Upon The Golgothan Plains
Headbug – Pain Pill
Hospital Job – Covers
Imaginary Colours – HEAD_SPACE
Jeff Cowhick – Tempered
Kenyon DeShasier – My Dream Girl
Mark Schwartz – The Way It Falls Apart In Numbers
Mark Schwartz – Suite Adian
Mark Schwartz – The Atomic Trilogy
Mark Schwartz – Landscape Elements
Mark Schartz – Le Nuit Noire
Mark Schwartz – Mark Schwartz On Guitar
Mark Schwartz – The Boy/Girl/Woman Who
Mark Schwartz – Vesak EP
Marble Teeth – Park
Musical Realists – Go Bananas!!
Ricki Marvel – The Prisoner
Solar Chariot – II
Starter Jackets / Raging Nathans – Split 7″
Stick People – Mondoduke 
The Telephone Junkies – Dress It Up & Call It Living
Thabo – Places Are People Too
Tilt Shift – Game Over EP
Timothy Donavan Russell – Got 2 Rock
Timothy Donavan Russell – Rest
Timothy Donavan Russell – Steps
Timothy Donavan Russell – Storment Drome
Tin Ghost – Galleons of Time
Vector Noise – Spilling A White Claw
Vector Noise – Vec Vec Vec

BG Tune – IL Lusion
Big Homie Hom – Big Homie Season 
Chase Baby & Haze Carbajal – Call It A Day
CHRxS – BLK HRT EP
Church The Voice – Social Distancing EP
Church The Voice – Cloud Mine EP
Cornbread – Negro’s & Jazz
Cornbread – Quarantine EP
Danny J – Young Dumb Idiot
Dirty Da Don – Project Legendary 5 Built 4 This
Doe Doe – Bad Blood 
DreTheGuy – “The Fall”ow Up
DSavInDaCut – Goat Mode
FBH Jay I – Pain Don’t Last
Fly G – Bottom Lock Shawty
Gambino Indacut – Mob Ties
Jav NoCap – NoCap Season 2
JunioR Pasáre & Papa Luke – Birdie
JunioR Pasare / Meezy Killafield – Byrds In The Killafield
Kdoe2x – 2x
KD ABM – 2 Hot The Mixtape
Meezy Killafield – Killafield Kronicles 2
MME (JGotDaJuice, Six 0 Da Goat, and Whitney L) – Money Makin’ Empire
Nykeyla Henderson / Keyng – Keyng The Tape
Offwhyte “Propel Exact”
Papa Luke – Drinking By Myself 
Prince Cash – Heart 2 Froze
Prince Cash – Quarantined
Reco And Kai – Applying Pressure
Reina 217 – Pretty Mess 
Satisfy – Anomaly EP
SaveYourSelf – Silent Suicide Chapter 1
Sensai Doog “Sincerely Yourz”
Spiff – Fall For You EP
Spiff – Fire
Ty Witty – Embers
Vinal Luciano – Growing Pains 2
Wage Slave – Eco Anarchy EP
WeirdMarc 300 – Halloween on Latte Street 
WeirdMarc 300 – Liz 2.0
Weird Marc 300 – A Very Pandemic Christmas
Weird Marc 300 / Cornbread – Welcome To The Zu
Xtortion Da Don – The Eargasm
Zach Moad & Young Frost – High Definition
Zach Moad / V.G.E. – High Definition 2
Zippir Collective – Zippir Vol. 1
36 N Brimstone – Anaxphobia Chapter 1: Roadshow
36 N Brimstone – Anaxphobia Chapter 2: War Zone

Jared Grabb: “Returning To The Fold” (The Thermals) Music Video

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Here’s some new music from Peoria-based musician Jared Grabb – a whole new release of recreated cover songs and also a new music video! Normally we keep it to what’s going on in Springfield on our site but this one is being presented by “First Try Sessions“, the newly created organization by Jess and Brandon Carnes of Looming aimed at curating music lessons for 7-17 year olds in the area.

Jared Grabb (Scouts Honor, Angry Gods, The Forecast) is a singer-songwriter hailing from the mid-sized Midwestern city of Peoria, Illinois. Grabb has been performing under his own name since 2001. ‘First Try Sessions Presents: Rest On Us All’ is the sixth full-length album under Grabb’s own name and his first consisting of cover songs. The album’s most recent predecessor was ‘Among Thieves,’ which was released by Jared Grabb Among Thieves (full band) back in June of 2020. 

‘…Rest On Us All’ is an acoustic affair with all instruments and recording performed by Jared Grabb himself. Most songs are made up of acoustic guitars with accordion and vocals, while banjo, electric guitar, and piano appear for occasional added flavor. The original performers covered on this album are disparate, including country artist Miranda Lambert, blues pianist Ray Charles, indie rockers The Thermals, electronic artists Sylvan Esso, and 1940s folk singer Woody Guthrie among others. 

Donations taken in from downloads of the album through bandcamp go directly towards supporting First Try Sessions and their mission.

‘The Body, the Blood, the Machine’ by The Thermals is a classic 2000s indie/punk record about fascism and theocracy. Unfortunately, I missed opportunities to see this band live, but this album has been in my headphones for around a decade now. In 2015, I released an extremely limited run of lathe-cut LPs with live solo recordings of both “A Pillar of Salt” and “Returning to the Fold.” It felt good to record a proper multi-tracked version “Returning to the Fold” for this release. As for the video, it was inspired by my daughter’s recent obsession with the ‘Among Us’ video game. She formed the characters out of clay and then my wife, Becca Taylor, went on to animate them using stop motion. It’s intended to be rough and fun. I get a kick out of it, and I hope you will too.

Check out Jared Grabb’s video for “Returning To The Fold” below!

Forest Saints: “The Pensive Innocents”

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Good morning everyone! Yes, today we have yet another release from Mark Schwartz recording project, “Forest Saints.” This is the second release under the project of that name of this year for Mark, and it is called The Pensive Innocents. You can stream all 24 tracks of this album on the player below. Also head over to the Forest Saints bandcamp page where you can purchase the digital download of the album and hear more music.

Mark has remained very active putting out music under his own name, and also projects Demons On Wheels, Forest Saints, and Tin Ghost throughout the year. We’ve also included this one in our Springfield album archive as we gear up for our Best of Springfield Music 2020 poll which will be kicking off very soon!

DreTheGuy: “The FALLow Up”

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Happy Friday everybody, T.G.I.F., and here’s a dose of local hip hop for you to get ready for the weekend! This is a new new album from local artist DreTheGuy, who may have recently re-located for a job in Oklahoma involved with studio recording. This new album of his is entitled The FALLow Up, and it is the follow up to last year’s Lapis Effect. You can stream all of The FALLow Up on the player embedded below. Also find links to listen to the album on many many other online streaming services right here.

We have added this one to our Springfield album archive page as we are getting ready to launch our big end of the year music poll, this one bringing us to 67 local releases we have kept track up so far this year.

We Need Your Help Listing Local Releases of 2020!

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It’s December! We’ve been fairly quiet on our site here because we have been so slammed getting out so many orders from a successful Black Friday / Record Store Day weekend here at Dumb Records. As soon as we’re done being busy with one thing, it’s on to the next! And now is time of the year to once again team up with Activator Magazine to present our annual Best of Springfield Music 2020 polls. Even though the show and live music aspect has been missing from much of this year, we are moving forward still highlighting the songs and local releases that came from local groups this year (which there were still a lot of, maybe even more-so than ever!).

The local hip hop scene continued to explode this year, so we are including the poll for best hip hop release as it’s own separate category. We will likely be featuring a top 10 list for local hip hop releases, and then a top 10 or 20 for everything else.

Before we dive into the polls, we need your help in making sure we have kept track of all local releases that came out this year! Currently we have a list of 69 releases – split into two categories (hip hop and everything else). If you know of anything we are missing, please let us know in the comments, or send us an email to dumbrecs@gmail.com! If you include links to the music as well, that would be super helpful! We are keeping this to Springfield releases only. Mayyybe some of Decatur, Taylorville, or Jacksonville as well.

We are planning on launching our poll to go from December 5th through the 15th. The results will be posted right at the start of January, as well as with the January issue of Activator Magazine along with write-ups of each release.

NOT HIP HOP
Attic Salt – Get Wise
Baby Ocho – Demo EP 
Blushe – MAD
Bonards – Mask To Protect
Bottom Bracket – I Don’t Care Enough To Stay
Demons on Wheels – Souvenirs
Demons on Wheels – Still Left Standing
Forest Saints – Backyard Twilight Symphony
Forest Saints – The Pensive Innocents 
Gargantuan – Upon The Golgothan Plains
Headbug – Pain Pill
Hospital Job – Covers
Imaginary Colours – HEAD_SPACE
Jeff Cowhick – Tempered
Kenyon DeShasier – My Dream Girl
Mark Schwartz – The Way It Falls Apart In Numbers
Mark Schwartz – Suite Adian
Mark Schwartz – The Atomic Trilogy
Mark Schwartz – Landscape Elements
Mark Schartz – Le Nuit Noire
Mark Schwartz – Mark Schwartz On Guitar
Mark Schwartz – The Boy/Girl/Woman Who
Mark Schwartz – Vesak EP
Marble Teeth – Park
Musical Realists – Go Bananas!!
Ricki Marvel – The Prisoner
Solar Chariot – II
Starter Jackets / Raging Nathans – Split 7″
Stick People – Mondoduke 
The Telephone Junkies – Dress It Up & Call It Living
Thabo – Places Are People Too
Tilt Shift – Game Over EP
Timothy Donavan Russell – Got 2 Rock
Timothy Donavan Russell – Rest
Timothy Donavan Russell – Steps
Timothy Donavan Russell – Storment Drome
Tin Ghost – Galleons of Time
Vector Noise – Spilling A White Claw…
Vector Noise – Vec Vec Vec

HIP HOP
Chase Baby & Haze Carbajal – Call It A Day
CHRxS – BLK HRT EP
Church The Voice – Social Distancing EP
Church The Voice – Cloud Mine EP
Cornbread – Negro’s & Jazz
Cornbread – Quarantine EP
Danny J – Young Dumb Idiot
Dirty Da Don – Project Legendary 5 Built 4 This
DreTheGuy – The “Fall”ow Up
JunioR Pasáre & Papa Luke – Birdie
JunioR Pasare / Meezy Killafield – Byrds In The Killafield
Kdoe2x – 2x
Meezy Killafield – Killafield Kronicles 2
Nykeyla Henderson / Keyng – Keyng The Tape
Offwhyte “Propel Exact”
Prince Cash – Heart 2 Froze
Satisfy – Anomaly EP
SaveYourSelf – Silent Suicide Chapter 1
Sensai Doog “Sincerely Yourz”
Spiff – Fall For You EP
Spiff – Fire 
Ty Witty – Embers
Vinal Luciano – Growing Pains 2
WeirdMarc 300 – Liz 2.0 500
Xtortion Da Don – The Eargasm
Zach Moad & Young Frost – High Definition
Zach Moad – High Definition 2
Zippir Collective – Zippir Vol. 1
36 N Brimstone – Anaxphobia Chapter 1: Roadshow
36 N Brimstone – Anaxphobia Chapter 2: War Zone

Jeff Cowhick: “Tempered”

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Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all sure are thankful for… things. We are thankful for you. We are thankful for music. And… we are thankful for… pinball. But back to the music, today we are bringing you a brand new album from local solo artist Jeff Cowhick. This is Jeff’s third musical album under his own name, called Tempered. You can stream it on Spotify right here, or also on Apple music right here. No streaming services that we are able to embed below, sorry.

We do still have physical copies of Jeff’s first album, Firebrand in our store! We are closed now, but will actually be open tomorrow just for Black Friday. We are also adding this one to our Springfield album archive page… bringing us to 58 local releases we have kept track of so far this year!

Bonards: “Mask To Protect”

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Here’s a wild and wacky new local release – it’s actually been out for a while – we picked up copies on CD for our store somewhere around the 1st or 2nd wave of the pandemic even. Here we are in the third wave telling you about Mask To Protect by The Bonards. What a wonderful gift we have here. This is an 18-track album by this duo which features members of some other long running Springfield punk bands you may or may not be familiar with. Check out that album streaming on the youtube player below. Mask To Protect can be found on Apple Music, Deezer, or Youtube Music.

We have also added this one to our Springfield album archive page, bringing us to 57 local releases we have kept track of so far this year.

New Arrivals This Week at Dumb Records

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Hello! As you know, our store is still closed. But we are pushing our online stores – along with shipping, local delivery, and local pickup options harder than ever! Find our online stores below:

STORENVY (ALL DUMB MERCHANDISE + NEW NEW VINYL)

DISCOGS (OVER 5,000 NEW AND USED RECORDS AND CDS, WOW)

With those types of options that we offer, what more could you possibly need? Do you really need to even come to our physical store ever again? 🤷

So our store is closed right now (we’ll reopen some day), and we WILL be open for Black Friday this upcoming Friday. Our store WILL be open from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm all day for that day, limited to 5 customers in the store at a time. There will be many many Record Store Day exclusives available. We will be running some big sales on Dumb Records merch on our storenvy site as well for the whole weekend. Aside from all of those Black Friday exclusives, here is a pile of stuff that’s recently hit our shelves (most of which you can find online):

New LPs
Albert Ayler – The First Recordings, Vol. 1
Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Ghost Key – The Things I Am Not
La Dispute – Wildlife
Lights – Siberia Acoustic
Mary J Blige – My Life
Public Enemy – What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down
Sleater-Kinney – Call The Doctor
Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind
Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche
Thin Lizzy – Fighting
Yusuf / Cat Stevens – Tea For The Tillerman 2

Used LPs
Depeche Mode – Some Great Reward
Desmond Dekker – Compas Point
The Isley Brothers – Go All The WayJackie Gleason – Love Embers And Flame
James Brown – Plays New Breed
Johnnie Bachemin Trio – Plays For You
Kid Stuff – Space Shuttle: A True Space Adventure
King Crimson – Lizard
The Living Strings & Living Voices – White Christmas
Lynn Anderson – Greatest Hits Vol. 1
Lynn Anderson – Top Of The World
Michael Franks – Burchfield Nines
Mike Oldfield – Hergest Ridge
Muddy Waters – Live
Neil Diamond – Beautiful Noise
Neil Diamond – The Best Years of Our Lives
Nina Simone – Pastel Blues
Peggy Lee – Then Was Then Now Is Now
REO Speedwagon – Nine Lives
RUSH – Caress of Steel
Skeeter Davis – I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know
T-Bone Walker – Funky Town
Tedd Smith – Time To Run (Soundtrack)
Tom Loncaric – I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby
Various – Country Classics
Various – The Kings of New Orleans

12” Singles
Count Bass-D – Sandwiches (I, Got A Feeling)
DJ Quik – Quik Is The Name
Herb Alpert – Rise
Milliat $ – Groove On
Twisted Black – Throw It Up

New / Used CDs
America – Silent Letter
Art Garfunkel – Watermark
Branford Marsalis Quartet – Crazy People Music
Echo And The Bunnymen – Flowers
Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy
Eminem – Encore
Eminem – The Slim Shady LP
Emmylou Harris – Profile
Emmylou Harris – Pieces of the Sky
Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw & The Cooked
Garbage – Beautiful Garbage
Guttermouth – Musical Monkey
(Hed) Pe – (Hed) Pe
Holly Dunn – Milestones
Holly Dunn – Getting It Dunn
Indigo Girls – All That We Let In
Information Society – Peace And Love, Inc
Jay Z / Linkin Park – Collision Course
Jay-Z – The Dynasty Roc La Familia
Joe Diffie – Third Rock From The Sun
Kathy Mattea – A Collection of Hits
Lonestar – Crazy Nights
Nanci Griffith – Flier
The Neville Brothers – Uptown Rulin’
NWA – Straight Outta Compton
Ol’ Dirty Bastard – N***a Please
Paul Anka – The Most of Paul Anka
Pleasure Forever – Pleasure Forever
PJ Harvey – Stories From The City
The Pogues – Pogue Mahone
Primus – Pork Soda
The Proclaimers – Persevere
The Romantics – Rhythm Romance
Roxy Music – Manifesto
Roy Orbison – In Dreams: The Greatest Hits
Sixer – Busted Knuckles & Heartbreak
Soul Asylum – And The Horse They Rode In On
Soulfly – Primitive
Various – Punk O Rama Vol. 2

Church The Voice: “Cloud Mine EP”

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Here’s another local release that came out about a month or so ago! This is “Church The Voice,” local hip hop artist, and one of those featured in the recent “Freshman Class 2020 Cypher Series” put together by Reco Hill and his series “Reco On The Move” which was shot earlier this pandemic in our venue space. Church The Voice has released a new six-track EP entitled Cloud Mine, and you can check that out on the youtube player embedded below.

For more Church The Voice, check out his youtube channel. We have added this one to our Springfield Album Archive, bringing us to 56 local releases we have kept track of so far this year.

Mark Schwartz “Le Nuit Noire”

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Okay, back to the music. Here is yet another album by local recording artist Mark Schwartz. The album is entitled Le Nuit Noire and it is a “soundtrack for an imaginary French film.” You can check out the 19-track instrumental release on the player embedded below. Head on over to Mark’s bandcamp page where you can find more music and also purchase the download of this album.

As far as we can tell this is Mark’s ninth release this year under his own name – not to count a few more by his other projects Demons on Wheels, Forest Saints, and Tin Ghost. We have also added this one to our Springfield album archive page, bringing us to 55 releases we have kept track of so far this year.