As a bit of fun for the end of 2009 I decided to try and do a little 'Album of the Year' poll amongst all of the Scottish music websites and blogs that I could think of. This was then compiled into one big list to determine who really released the greatest album of 2009. In order to do this I got in touch with a fair few folk, surprisingly most of them got back in touch to say that they'd be up for taking part. Here's a list of the motley crew that agreed to take part 17 Seconds, AyeTunes, Dear Scotland, Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Pop Cop, Products of a Gaseous Brain, Song By Toad, The Blues Bunny, The Daily Growl, The Spill, The Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain and Under the Radar.
A massive thank you goes out to every single one of you for agreeing to take part, I couldn't have done it without you, but then again you already knew that. Anyway, enough of the dramatic build up, it gives me enormous pleasure to announce that the votes have all been counted and I can now announce that the winner of the inaugural Scottish BAMS Award is none other than Scotland's very own The Phantom Band with their debut album 'Checkmate Savage'.
I managed to get a quick word with the Andy from band which I was well chuffed with as they are "not usually big on lists". Here's what he had to say "This makes us feel very honoured because the opinion of people out there giving opinions is what matters most, rather than the financially influenced press. It always amazes me that people would take it upon themselves to go out and champion a band or an album or a band for no material gain, but it gives me faith in human nature. Blogs and reviews have been the only advertising we've ever had. Apart from all those people who got online and promoted us, we'd like to thank those little almost-stale doughnuts you get in big tubs from Sainsburys for keeping us fat during the recording. We obviously also have our Producer Paul Savage and the wonderful people at Chemikal Underground to thank for letting us do what we want. These guys are the quiet heroes of Scottish music for sure."
Anyway, I am sure you are all wondering how the final list looked....
1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. De Rosa - Prevention
4. King Creosote - Flick the V's
5. Withered Hand - Good News
6. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
8. Beerjacket - Animosity
9. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
11. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances
12. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
14. You Already Know - s/t
15. Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
16. The XX - s/t
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
19. And So I Watch You From Afar
20. Wilco - The Album
A mighty fine Top Twenty if I do say so myself, I really appreciate everyone taking the time out to put forward their votes, lets just say we had quite a wide spectrum of votes from Beyonce to Fuck Buttons, its great to see such diversity and to be honest I am over the fucking moon that the Phantom Band won. Now where's that tenner they promised me.....
Disclaimer
If you are a Scottish Music website/blogger and I missed you out, then please accept my apologies I try and ask everyone I could think of. If you would be interested in taking part next year (yes I am daft enough to carry all of this out again) then please get in touch.
A massive thank you goes out to every single one of you for agreeing to take part, I couldn't have done it without you, but then again you already knew that. Anyway, enough of the dramatic build up, it gives me enormous pleasure to announce that the votes have all been counted and I can now announce that the winner of the inaugural Scottish BAMS Award is none other than Scotland's very own The Phantom Band with their debut album 'Checkmate Savage'.
I managed to get a quick word with the Andy from band which I was well chuffed with as they are "not usually big on lists". Here's what he had to say "This makes us feel very honoured because the opinion of people out there giving opinions is what matters most, rather than the financially influenced press. It always amazes me that people would take it upon themselves to go out and champion a band or an album or a band for no material gain, but it gives me faith in human nature. Blogs and reviews have been the only advertising we've ever had. Apart from all those people who got online and promoted us, we'd like to thank those little almost-stale doughnuts you get in big tubs from Sainsburys for keeping us fat during the recording. We obviously also have our Producer Paul Savage and the wonderful people at Chemikal Underground to thank for letting us do what we want. These guys are the quiet heroes of Scottish music for sure."
Anyway, I am sure you are all wondering how the final list looked....
1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. De Rosa - Prevention
4. King Creosote - Flick the V's
5. Withered Hand - Good News
6. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
8. Beerjacket - Animosity
9. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
11. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances
12. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
14. You Already Know - s/t
15. Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to Part
16. The XX - s/t
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
19. And So I Watch You From Afar
20. Wilco - The Album
A mighty fine Top Twenty if I do say so myself, I really appreciate everyone taking the time out to put forward their votes, lets just say we had quite a wide spectrum of votes from Beyonce to Fuck Buttons, its great to see such diversity and to be honest I am over the fucking moon that the Phantom Band won. Now where's that tenner they promised me.....
Disclaimer
If you are a Scottish Music website/blogger and I missed you out, then please accept my apologies I try and ask everyone I could think of. If you would be interested in taking part next year (yes I am daft enough to carry all of this out again) then please get in touch.
Cheers for this Mr Peenko. Catching up on the ones I haven't heard yet should keep me busy for a few weeks!
ReplyDeleteLovely stuff, Peenkster! Judging by that list, it looks like it has been a pretty good year for Scottish albums.
ReplyDeleteYay, quite a few of mine got on there, and a few others that I loved too.
ReplyDeleteThankfully a few I hated didn't make the cut too, though I'm obviously too nice to name names.
a fine list indeed
ReplyDeleteyet to hear beerjacket, am i missing much?
Nice one.
ReplyDeleteYeah Beerjacket is pretty amazing. Only a fiver in Avalanche Records as well!
ReplyDeleteI'm quite surprised The Skinny aren't listed among your contributors, didn't they respond? That's some bad sport if so, their scottish albums of the decade list was great too.
ReplyDeleteI didn't ask the Skinny, I wanted to try and keep it to more independant bloggers and music websites. I know I asked Under the Radar, but I felt they were more blog orientated.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against the Skinny, I actually prefer it to the List. I just wanted to keep things ona much a smaller scale
3 piece suits is the best suit for me because of comortable to wear and presentable look.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where Hooli's hanging out these days? Miss his Lament...
ReplyDelete