D.C. musicians had a busy year. They released music that made waves both inside the Beltway and beyond. They toured throughout the United States and Europe. They organized festivals here at home. They sold-out venues of all sizes. They surprised us with their innovations and their energy.

This was one of the more exciting years in recent memory for local music, and luckily the folks that created these moments also documented many of them for posterity. We asked several local musicians to go back through their Instagram feeds and share their favorite snapshots from the past year. (Bonus! Look at the photo gallery above for some of the best shots from DCist photographers in 2014).

Brendan Polmer (Tereu Tereu) @zeekarone

Anthony Pirog trio at The Fridge, December 2014: Palo Colorado Dream is probably my favorite record of 2014. Seriously, I can’t stop listening to it. I was so excited to see Anthony, accompanied by bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Ches Smith play at this small back-alley art gallery.

Death from Above 1979 at 9:30 Club: Just an all around, excellent rock show. Brilliant. Took advantage of the ole’ pour-water-on-your-drums trick to make it look awesome when the lights hit the skins.

Maureen Andary (The Sweater Set) @maureenandary

The two I chose are from house concerts in D.C. The first one features D.C. based band The Bumper Jacksons performing at a house concert in Brookland. The second is a touring band from NYC/NOLA performing at my old group house in Takoma on Fourth of July. Half of my concert photos were from DIY spaces, and I think that’s indicative of the shift musicians are making from commercial spaces to intimate, creative, created space. Space where it’s about the art only and almost never about making money for anyone BESIDES the musicians. The photo of Bumper Jacksons was a private house concert being filmed and webcast live for fans across the globe of the local touring Americana group. I shared this photo because this band is really blossoming and touring and working and gigging at dances across the region, and it’s a group the D.C. area should be very proud of. I love them. Also, what they are doing here with a live webcast is becoming an Increasingly popular way for folk musicians to share their art.

In the second photo at Fourth of July, it’s important to note the touring band made $500 at the party. That’s much more than most club spaces would ever be able to share a touring band of little name recognition. And these guys (Izzy and the Catastrophics) were INCREDIBLE — psychobilly, Chuck Berry, annihilators. Incredible music to dance and laugh to. They deserved more than $500.

Jason Barnett (Troll Tax, Coup Sauvage & The Snips) @jasonpbarnett @coupsauvage

The Haus of Sauvage blessed the public in early 2015 with our debut single, “Sneaks,” backed with (Don’t Touch My) Hair. As part of our intense promotional regimen, we played a series of winter concerts including a triumphant performance at Comet Ping Pong with JD Samson & Men. We became great pals with JD and recently played a New York show with her new project the Soft Batch. She will be doing a remix of (Don’t Touch My) Hair set to drop in 2015.

This random assemblage of freaks was photographed by Laurie Spector outside the Black Cat this past March and features some of my favorite area musicians. Anna Nxsty moved to D.C. this year, which meant that Olivia Neutron John and Neonates became local acts. MJ Regalado (pictured flossing), also of Neonates, helped form the stoner-hardcore outfit Peoples Drug who wins band name of the year. Also pictured are Richard Howard and Evan Napala of Cigarette, who continued to be one of the District’s best live bands. I continue to cause trouble as a member of Coup Sauvage & the Snips, and this year I helped form two new bands, Cool People and FLAMERS.

Ray Brown (The Black Sparks) @raydbro

This is from Waste Management’s set at Damaged City Fest [in April], which was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in recent memory (The Flex, Infest, Priests, and Rival Mob were all highlights). Nicktape and Chris Moore are national treasures, and they’re both huge parts of what makes D.C. great. They put everything they have into making cool things happen, whether it be making music with Coke Bust/Red Death, putting on shows like Damaged City, Nick putting out awesome records on Flophouse, Chris letting bands practice in his basement, etc. FYI, expect to see me at Damaged City this year losing my mind to Government Warning. Related, here is a screenshot from one of my favorite bands right now, Pure Disgust, canceling a “cool” show in Brooklyn because of its age restriction. It’s beyond amazing to see such great bands with such a great message and an urgency manifest those through not only awesome songs, but actual actions.

I originally posted this as a typical album-of-the-year type post, but I realized that it was a testament to something much bigger. While I love D.C. and I love music from all over the map (literally), Philly has the best scene in the country-by far. Alex G put out the best album of the year, in my opinion. Clique put out the second best and most underrated release of the year (just trust me on this one). Modern Baseball went from playing the AU Kay Life Spiritual Center for about 100 people in January to selling out Baltimore Soundstage in December and even bigger venues across the country. Sam Cook-Parrott from Radiator Hospital might be the best songwriter in the country right now, as evidenced by his latest album. Pinkwash is one of the coolest bands on the planet. Sheer Mag somehow sound exactly like the ’70s and somehow I actually enjoy it (a lot). As they say these days, “real recognize real”, meaning that D.C. better acknowledge soon that Philly’s on top of the game.

John Masters (Harness Flux) @johnnymetro

Over the Summer of 2014, I was quite excited when my solo project Harness Flux landed an opening slot for Spider Bags at DC9. I’ve been a fan for several years of Dan and company, after seeing them at numerous places at numerous times such as SXSW and Hopscotch. The Bags had a great 2014 with the release of a full-length on Merge Records and I expect even greater things to come.

Several times in 2014 I got to see and play with D.C.’s Andrew Aylward & Golden Triangle and I really dig their style. These guys have a nice laid back Feelies/Real Estate vibe to them, that wonderful ’90s guitar warmth that gives me that fuzzy feeling. Featuring members of Greenland and other D.C. heroes, go see ’em when you can.

Daniele Daniele (Priests) @danielewithonel

I would say the year in music for me was defined by Good Throb and the LP they released this year called Fuck Off!. Although, to be honest, I may be a bit biased since I toured with them and am totally head over heals in love with every single member of that band (and Ollie and Ben) and all of the other amazing bands the members of Good Throb are in (Frau, Snob, No and the list goes on). The picture above is of my bandmates Taylor and Katie with Ash (bassist of GT) and Ollie (roadie/total sweetheart) from the night we played in Detroit and introduced the Brits to brass monkeys.

The other record that really blew me (and a lot of other people too) that came out this year was Protomartyr’s Under Color of Official Right. It’s just so damn good from every angle. This picture is from a show Priests played with them in Richmond. Our bands hung out after in a mutual friend’s backyard, and talking to them I realized that they are super intelligent, down to earth guys, which is, really, just such a winning combo.

Mark Cisneros (Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkey Birds) @markcisneros

This one is of Amsterdam in the spring. I was on tour in Europe with Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. Our hotel shared an alleyway with an adult business with women in the front windows. My window faced the alley so all night I could hear ridiculous negotiations being made by foreign tourists who would say things to the ladies in the most hilarious broken English like, “How much for you to enjoy? How much for the ENJOYMENT?”

Again on tour with Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. This photo is from downtown Edinburgh. I really love Scotland. The folks we know and those who come out to our shows are so wonderful. The people are something special. I think my favorite place to be so far, next to San Sebastian, Basque Country.

Ben Usie (Br’er/Pree) @preemusic @brerruinseverything

Here’s a gem from an impromptu Instax photo shoot they did for Br’er in June. We got obsessed with Fujifilm Instax thanks to them!

And here’s a behind-the-scenes instax of a Pree video shoot that we shot in their practice space in September. Paige of Sleepy Kitty co-stars in the video with May [Tabol]. Both of these photos were shot in the same big warehouse room, which is the same room where Stronger Sex rehearsed their new song before recording in Minneapolis with Br’er’s great friend and collaborator, Ali at Ecstattic Attic Studios.

Jimmy Rhodes (Black Clouds) @jimmyrhodes

Secret Foo Fighters show at 9:30 Club. This picture is blurry, but I think everyone in that room was blurry that night, so it’s kind of fitting. It was almost like a dream. Amazing show.

Tiny Desk continues to bring amazing musicians to NPR for intimate performances, and we are so lucky to have that going on here in D.C. So many great shows in 2014, just like The Pixies small three-song set at NPR. Some people didn’t even know certain shows were even going on while they were happening (like this one).