Arcade Fire, Spoon, Battles get indie award noms
Take your music cues from the Grammys, and you miss out on a whole world of underground and experimental music. That's where the Plug Independent Music Awards come in.
The Plug's technically began in 2001, but it wasn't until 2004 when the awards, which are driven by management/marketing firm/label World's Fair, started to become a serious player. You probably won't see many of this year's nominees for Album of the Year represented in the same category at the Grammys, but there's plenty here worth hearing.
Among the albums recognized are Battles' captivating electronic/prog effort "Mirrored," the National's tension-filled adult rock of "Boxer" and Justice's playfully dance-y "+," among others. Those lesser-known titles will battle indie-heroes such as the Arcade Fire and Spoon in the field.
There's 12 Album of the Year nominees in all (whew), and it's worth playing around on the Plug Web site, as there are music samples from each nominated artist, a useful tool that the Grammys, AMAs and CMAs should all steal.
Other categories include New Artist of the Year -- listen to spacey hard rock of Deerhunter, if you haven't already -- Female and Male Artist of the Year, Indie Album of the Year and then a host of genre categories (hip-hop, metal, electronic, etc.). It's a good way to get quickly familiar with a lot of what wowed the indie set this year.
In fact, as much as the Plug's are a much-needed complement to the Grammys, I sometimes worry they're too indie for their own good. While they split genres up into punk and metal, it's all more or less indie rock.
One of the most interesting punk albums released in 2007 was Tiger Army's "Music From the Regions Beyond," but the Warped Tour vets tread toward the more mainstream section of the punk community, and won't be getting a Plug Award. The album experiments with melody in way they've never done before, and furiously races through styles, but wasn't embraced by the indie rock set in the same way the Black Lips were, an absolutely blah band that's aping a style rather than creating its own identity.
In that sense, the Plug's are essentially preaching to the choir, informing the readers of indie-focused Web zine Pitchforkmedia that yes, their music choices have been validated.
Hey, I love metal labels Hydra Head and Relapse as much as the next music snob, but really, did 7 of the genre's 12 must-hear albums in 2007 come from only two labels?
But when all is said and done, if the Plug's inspire some folks to check out some new bands -- and again, kudos to them for giving us audio clips -- then they will have done a good thing.
Start with El-P's trippy "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," a ferocious psychedelic hip-hop record.
Online voting for the Plug's is happening now, and winners will be announced March 6, 2008, at an event in New York.
(EL-P photo courtesy Timothy Saccenti)
