New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ PLUG Awards) - The sold-out PLUG Awards ceremony last night at Terminal 5 here in NYC was like a hipster-palooza. The ironic hipster jokes were aplenty, provided by comedian Patton Oswal (the voice of the rat who dared to dream), who did a stellar job of keeping the show flowing (a major complaint in past years). In tune with the times, Dell provided a Blogger pit, where music bloggers provided up-to-the-minute reports on ironic t-shirt sightings.
The show was interspersed with live performances by performances by Bat for Lashes (featuring a dulcimer- neato!), St. Vincent, Dizzee Rascal, Jose Gonzalez, The Forms, DiVinci, guest DJ Sally Shapiro and PLUG Impact Artist of the Year: Nick Cave, who performed with his band The Bad Seeds. Their performance was preceded by a video montage of Nick Cave's greatest hits, which truly illustrated his breadth of work and contributions to the music scene. An award that was well-deserved.
The awards were announced without much fanfare on a big projection screen, mainly because the majority of winners were not present. In the event that they were, a formal presentation on stage ensued. Brooklyn fave, The National were on hand to accept their David Cronenberg-inspired butt PLUG award, for Best Song of The Year- 'Fake Empire.'
The two categories we were most interested in were for Best DJ Album and Best Electronic/Dance Album of the Year. This ain't the GRAMMYS, but it should have been interesting to see how the indie-public would vote. It wasn't. The winners were actually obvious because out of all the "DJs" who were nominated, the indie rockers voted for the one band, Hot Chip (whose name was the probably the only one they recognized).
Electronic/Dance Album of the Year went to Justice, who accepted via a taped-video with a bit of incoherent rambling and apologies saying "sorrreeee we dont speak en-glish too well. this is a nice way to start the tour." (You can catch them on their MySpace music tour at the WaMu MSG Theater this Tuesday, March 11th). It should have been Gui Boratto - Chromophobia, but hey Robots can't vote.
All in all it was an impressive show and in the end, the hipsters have become the new mainstream and now they speak for the independent scene. How ironic.
DJ Album Of The Year
A-Trak - Dirty South Dance (Obey)
Booka Shade - DJ-Kicks (!K7)
DJ Rekha - Basement Bhangra (Koch)
Ewan Pearson - Fabric 35 (Fabric)
Henrik Schwarz - Live (!K7)
Hot Chip - DJ-Kicks (!K7) - WINNER
Justine D - Rvng Prsnts MX5 (Rvng Intl.)
Lee Burridge - Balance 012 (E.Q.)
Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3 (self-released
M.A.N.D.Y. - 12 Great Remixes For 11 Great Artists (Get Physical)
Prins Thomas - Cosmo Galactic Prism (Eskimo)
Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36 (Fabric)
Electronic/Dance Album of the Year
!!! - Myth Takes (Warp)
Caribou - Andorra (Merge)
Chromeo - Fancy Footwork (Vice)
Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings (Carpark)
Digitalism - Idealism (Astralwerks)
Gui Boratto - Chromophobia (Kompakt)
Justice - † (Downtown / Vice / Ed Banger) - WINNER
Matthew Dear - Asa Breed (Ghostly)
Modeselektor - Happy Birthday! (Bpitch Control)
Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance (Paper Bag)
The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)
Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye (Domino)
The Complete List of PLUG Award Winners:
Live Act - Arcade Fire
Artist Of The Year - Radiohead
Male Artist - Andrew Bird
Female Artist - St. Vincent
Media Award Announcements
Live Music Venue - Bowery Ballroom (NYC)
Music Festival - Coachella
Record Store - Other Music (NYC)
DJ Album - Hot Chip Dj-Kicks
Album Art/Packaging - Menomena Friend And Foe
Avant Album - Liars Liars
Song Of The Year - The National "Fake Empire"
Magazine - Paste Magazine
Online Record Store - iTunes
Zine of the Year - Wax Poetics
Metal Album - The Dilinger Escape Plan Ire Works
Hip-Hop Album - Aesop Rock None Shall Pass
Punk Album - Gogol Bordello Super Taranta!
Electronic/Dance Album - Justice Cross
Blog of the Year - BrooklynVegan.com
Website of the Year - Pitchforkmedia.com
Record Label - Merge
Music Video - Battles "Atlas"
Americana Album - Iron & Wine The Shepherd's Dog
New Artist - Justice
Album Of The Year - Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Indie Rock Album - Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
College/Non-Comm Radio - KEXP
Online Radio Station - KCRW
Specialty Show - Sirius Satellite Blog Radio
