Last night, the PLUG Independent Music Awards–the only awards show in town where having categories honoring “Album Of The Year” and “Indie Rock Album Of The Year” seems both indulgent and redundant–were presented at Terminal 5, in a ceremony that was hosted by Patton Oswalt, apparently ditched last year’s dumb skits, and culminated in a Nick Cave show. While there weren’t many surprises in the list of honorees (apparently, many people who vote in Internet music polls like the Arcade Fire and live in New York City), I’d like to give a special shout-out to Online Record Store Of The Year iTunes, who proved that the right combination of canny song placement and driving the labels crazy with your success can give you bucketloads of cred among the indie cognoscenti. Full list of winners after the jump.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
INDIE ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam
AMERICANA ALBUM OF THE YEAR; Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog
METAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ire Works
HIP-HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass
PUNK ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!
ELECTRONIC/DANCE ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Justice, †
DJ ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Hot Chip, DJ Kicks
AVANT ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Liars
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Radiohead
FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: St. Vincent
MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Andrew Bird
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Justice
SONG OF THE YEAR: The National - “Fake Empire”
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Battles - “Atlas”
ALBUM ART PACKAGING OF THE YEAR: Menomena - Friend And Foe
RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR: Merge
LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR: Arcade Fire
LIVE MUSIC VENUE OF THE YEAR: Bowery Ballroom
MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR: Coachella
MUSIC WEBSITE OF THE YEAR: Pitchfork Media
MUSIC BLOG OF THE YEAR: Stereogum
MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR: Paste
ZINE OF THE YEAR: Wax Poetics
RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR: Other Music
ONLINE RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR: iTunes
ONLINE RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR: KCRW
COLLEGE/NON-COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR: KEXP
SPECIALTY SHOW OF THE YEAR: Sirius: Left Of Center - Blog Radio
PLUG Awards [Official site]
MUSIC BLOG OF THE YEAR: Stereogum
Idolator wuz robbed!
Nick Cave was, as ever, fucking awesome — however Terminal 5 is the worst venue ever. Surprisingly, Patton Oswalt didn’t make me want to murder people. That’s a first.
As much as I loath the PLUG Awards, I always end up going. Damn them!
My favorite part was Patton Oswalt’s throwaway line about Iron & Wine “So bearded, so sad.” Also Michael Showalter? Never funny. Also, I like how Nick Cave’s scary fans unknowingly intimidated all the indie rock kids. It made my black old heart beat with joy.
True, there were so many geriatric goths there — I felt so warm and comfy!
ALSO, WHAT ABOUT THAT WONDERFUL MOHAWK!?!?
@the rich girls are weeping: Was it a proper mohawk or did somebody fall asleep in a pool of aquanet? I was too high up to tell - hell I couldn’t even tell if it was a dude or a chick.
It was like a pomo oh-my-gawth mohawk. Or, a Platinum Robert Smith to the 1 billionth power. Very cool.
I believe the owner was a very, very pretty and delicate young man, based on the quick shot of him on the monitors. I was pretty high up too (and also kind of weirded out by the monitors).
You reffed Alex in NYC!