2007 PLUG Awards
The night before the mainstream music industry self-fellated on worldwide television, the indie scene had a little backslapping of its own at Irving Plaza for the PLUG Awards show which, despite being rough around the edges, was a decent time. We went for the great lineup (Tokyo Police Club, El-P, Deerhoof, Silversun Pickups, Stephen "Josephius" Malkmus and The Jicks), but we stayed for the iPod battles. David Cross killed it and brought the crowd in on the "sheer panic" backstage, whether he was pulling fans on stage to quiz them on the meaning of "acronym" ("I need that answer ASAP ... does that help?"), roasting their fashion sense ("you'll probably lose for Best Fan tonight, but that hat lost a looong time ago"), or donning a beard ala Lipton to play Inside The Rockers Studio with Stephen "Jedediah" Malkmus ("ahh, technologize ... how true").
Big congrats to all the winners! Full list below.
Album Of The Year
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
New Artist Of The Year
Arctic Monkeys
Female Artist Of The Year
Neko Case
Male Artist Of The Year
Sufjan Stevens
Indie Rock Album Of The Year
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador)
Metal
The Melvins - (A) Senile Animal (Ipecac)
Hip-Hop Album of the Year
Spank Rock - Yoyoyoyoyo (Big Dada)
Americana Album Of The Year
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
Punk Album of the Year
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy (Sub Pop)
Electronic/Dance Album Of The Year
Thom Yorke - The Eraser (XL)
DJ Album Of The Year
Girl Talk - Night Ripper (Illegal Art)
Avant Album Of The Year
Xiu Xiu - The Air Force (5RC)
Artist Of The Year
J Dilla
Live Act Of The Year
Broken Social Scene
Song Of The Year
Band Of Horses - "The Funeral" (Sub Pop)
Record Producer of the Year
J Dilla
Music Video Of The Year
Wolf Parade - "I'll Believe In Anything" (Sub Pop)
Album Art/Packaging of the Year
Hot Chip - The Warning (Astralwerks)
Record Label Of The Year
Sub Pop
Live Music Venue of the Year
Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
Music Festival Of The Year
South By Southwest
Music Website Of The Year
Pitchforkmedia.com
Music Blog of the Year
Brooklynvegan.com
Magazine Of The Year
Paste
College/Non-Comm Radio Station Of The Year
KEXP, Seattle, WA
Record Store of the Year
Amoeba Music, Hollywood, CA
Best Music DVD of the Year
The Pixies - loudQUIETloud: A Film About The Pixies
Zine of the Year
Wax Poetics
Specialty Show Of The Year (Commercial Radio)
SIRIUS Left Of Center - Blog Radio (New York, NY)
Podcast Of The Year
WOXY.com’s Lounge Acts
Internet Radio Station of the Year
woxy.com
Online Radio Station Of The Year (w/terrestrial counterpart)
KEXP, Seattle, WA (kexp.org / 90.3)
Online Record Store Of The Year
amazon.com
Posted at 10:34 AM
Tags: Arctic Monkeys | Band Of Horses | David Cross | Neko Case | Stephen Malkmus | Sufjan Stevens | Yo La Tengo
congrats to J Dilla as artist of the year (RIP).
did anyone else travel to hoboken/maxwell's for sm + jicks? he rocked it with about 6 new tracks (including a shredding dragonfly pie) but, alas, his voice was hoarse all show due to a "flu bug"
Posted by: tobias at February 12, 2007 10:59 AM | ReplyScore = 0
i went to maxwell's.. gotta say i was a little bored with SM last night. new stuff sounds good but its all very jammy and i was getting pretty sleepy by the end of it. not a bad time, and always wonderful to see janet weiss on drums! but a bit heavy on the new stuff for my taste
Posted by: fred at February 12, 2007 11:16 AM | ReplyScore = 0
big up to WOXY!!
Posted by: omg at February 12, 2007 11:17 AM | ReplyScore = 0
woxy, represent.
Posted by: oh. at February 12, 2007 11:56 AM | ReplyScore = 0
Why was Larry Fishburne at the Plug awards, and why was he wearing that goofy hat?
Posted by: me at February 12, 2007 12:03 PM | ReplyScore = 0
god, these awards are kind of ridiculous.
spank rock for best hip hop album?
thom yorke for best electronic/dance album?
clearly, these are awards made by indie rockers who know very little about other genres of music.
Posted by: richard at February 12, 2007 1:31 PM | ReplyScore = 0
I was at the Malkmus show lst night. Yup, he jammed out a bit, but it was rockin, and sounded really good.
Posted by: Kurt C. at February 12, 2007 4:09 PM | ReplyI have some pics from the show up on my blog.
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Music Website Of The Year
Pitchforkmedia.com
Posted by: Elliot at February 12, 2007 6:55 PM | ReplyYeah, like any other website would win with a jury of hipsters.
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The Only good thing about the plug awards was David Cross.
I guess it was worth the $14...and it was funny to see the white rapper get pissed the crowd wasn't "throwin ya hands up in tha air" and then walk off the stage.
Posted by: jim at February 13, 2007 1:29 AM | ReplyScore = 0
yeah, this award show, its winners, and its hosts are so insular, it kind of makes my skin crawl.
Posted by: stephen at February 13, 2007 10:57 AM | ReplyScore = 0
is that the sweater he wears in the Rattled by the Rush video?
Posted by: Alec at February 13, 2007 11:20 PM | ReplyScore = 0
i loved how every single bit they tried to do completely failed. but whatever, david cross was still hilarious and the music was great. sadly, i had to leave three songs into sm's set to catch a train.
Posted by: charlotte at February 14, 2007 4:25 PM | ReplyScore = 0
If you are really interested in new music that is cutting edge, vibrant and off the major label radar–don't turn to PLUG.
They are a "me-too" organization at best who regurgitates what all the other indie fans, radio stations, blogs, websites, venues all ready know. Look at the nominees and winners–see any surprises? No.
Just below the skin, PLUG is no better than the Grammy's that they profess to disdain–what indie fan needs an awards show to tell them who's hot and who's not? No thanks.
Posted by: Who needs PLUG? at February 15, 2007 2:22 AM | ReplyScore = 0