The Scottish BAMS Award 2012 (The Scottish Blogger And Music Sites Award)

Regular visitors to this site will more than likely already know all about the BAMS, but for any newbies out there I'll you a quick intro. For the past 4 years I have been running an annual poll entitled the Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites Award or Scottish BAMS for short, in which I ask an array of bloggers, DJs and folk who run music web sites to vote for their albums of the year. I then take all these votes and tally them up to see what the most popular of the last 12 months has been. Past winners of the BAMS have included The Phantom Band, The National and Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat, who later went on to win the inaugural SAY Awards.

This year we had a whopping 41 entries, which included votes from the following bloggers, music sites and DJs:
Scots Whay Hae!,  Jim Gellatly, Detour, Jock N Roll, Houdidontblog, Rave Child, Fusion New Music, Fish In A Sub, Manic Pop Thrills, Kowalskiy, 17 Seconds, Net Sounds, The Steinberg Principle, Songs Heard On Fast Trains, Peenko, Hercules Moments, Dauphin Mag, JockRock, Play That Song For Me, The Spill, The Tidal Wave of Indifference, HP, Inverness Gigs, Elba Sessions, Fresh Air, Scottish Fiction, Tenement TV, Marion Scott MFR, Last Years Girl, Dear Scotland, Blues Bunny, The Pop Cop, Vic Galloway, Ally McCrae, Glasgow PodcART, I Hate Fun, Avalanche, Edinburgh Man, Everything Flows, Nicola Meighan, Aye Tunes and Song, by Toad.

Anyway, without further ado here's a selection of the top Scottish BAMS albums of 2012...

Joint 9-12th

Chris Devotion and The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital 

Paul Buchanan - Mid Air 

The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know

 

We Are The Physics - Your Friend, The Atom

8th

Admiral Fallow - Tree Bursts In Snow

7th 

 

Sharon Van Etten – Tramp

6th 

Miaoux Miaoux - Light Of The North

5th

Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

4th

RM Hubbert - Thirteen Lost & Found

3rd

PAWS - Cokefloat!

2nd

Django Django - Django Django

And the winner is...

1st Place

Meursault - Something for the Weakened

I managed to catch up with Neil from Meursault at Kid Canaveral's Baubles III event yesterday, where I also got to present him with the much coveted BAMS Buckie!

Pic by Mike from MPT

Congratulations Neil, you are this years' winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel?        

I feel like the chubby lad at school after being picked first for the football team. I fear that any minute now I'm going to be told it's all a joke and you're going to burn my shoes and flush my head down the toilet.        

It seems to have been a pretty exciting year for the band, what with European tours supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to headlining the Queen's Hall back in July, aside from winning this years BAMS, what's been your personal highlight of 2012?   

My highlight is probably the QH gig. I've wanted to play that venue since I was 18. Feels nice to have ticked that one off.             

Last years the BAMS was won by Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells, who later went on to win the SAY Awards. Have you allowed yourself the thought that you might potentially be in with a shout at next years SAY Awards?   

What? I thought this was the SAY awards? You ARE still giving me £10000 though right?  (whip round anyone? - Peenko)          

I noted that once again you've decided not to head over to Austin for next years SXSW, is not something that interests you or are you just keeping our friends on the other side of the pond waiting?   

It's not something that appeals to me to be honest. I get really tired of the competitive aspect of playing music and do my best to avoid it. I've no interest in travelling halfway round the world (at great expense) to peddle my music to pissed up strangers in laminates  . Playing in the states is something that I'm keen to pursue but not that way.      

       

How important do you feel that the support of music blogs has been to the band?   

It's been hugely important for us. After all it was a blogger (song, by toad) who put out our first 3 records.              

Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of the last 12 months?        

I've not sure if all of these came out this year but I'm going with them anyway...  

Chad Vangaalen- Diaper Island 

Youth Lagoon- The Year of Hibernation 

Charles Latham- Fast Loans 

Grouper- alien observer 

Paws- Cokefloat   

Cheers!

Pic by Mike from MPT

Thanks to Neil for taking the time to do that for me and for producing my favourite album of 2012. 

"Something For The Weakened" is out now on Song By Toad Records

Thanks to all of the music sites, blogs and DJs who took part in this years BAMS, I don't know about you guys but I am already pretty damn excited about what 2013 has in store for us.

The Scottish BAMS Award 2011 (The Scottish Blogger And Music Sites Award)

logo designed by Bob Rafferty

Three years ago I decided that it might be fun to run a poll amongst my fellow bloggers and folk who run music sites in Scotland, to try and find out what the definitive album of that year really was. In its inaugural year The Phantom Band pipped Animal Collective to claim top spot, then last year I did it all again with The National topping that list. This year I managed to rope in a whopping 47 folk to take part in choosing their albums of the year. The following sites all contributed their favourite albums of 2011: The Pop Cop, Jim Gellatly, The Steinberg Principle, Blueback Hotrod, Scots Whay Hae, Dauphin, The Daily Dose, Blues Bunny, Rave Child, Glasgow PodcArt, 17 Seconds, Net Sounds, The Tidal Wave of Indifference, edRock.net, Dear Scotland, Vic Galloway, Manic Pop Thrills, Edinburgh Man, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Aye Tunes, Song, By Toad, Elba Sessions, Listen Before You Buy, Detour Scotland, Jock Rock, Found in Sound, Phuturelabs, The Daily Growl, Favourite Son, The 'Spill, Scottish Fiction, Nicola Meighan, Jenny Soep, Rokbun, Curious Joe, Radar Scotsman Music Blog and of course Peenko.

Initially it didn't look like there was any sort of clear leader, then as the votes started to trickle in our eventual winner(s) absolutely ran away with it. So without further ado here's The Scottish BAMS top ten albums of 2011...

8-10. The Moth & The Mirror - Honestly, This World /PJ Harvey - Let England Shake / FOUND - factorycraft

6-7. Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel / The Son(s) - The Son(s)

5. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine

3-4. Mike Nisbet - Vagrant / Bon Iver - Bon Iver

2. Adam Stafford - Build A Harbour Immediately

And the winner is...

1. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – Everything’s Getting Older

Ahead of tonights show at the Arches in Glasgow, I caught up with Bill and Aidan to present them with their very own BAMS Buckie!

a couple of BAMS

Congratulations Bill and Aidan, you are this years' winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how do you feel? Does this rate as a career highlight then?

Aidan - I think it might be the first award I've ever been presented with, with the exception of the joint 4th Year English Prize at Falkirk High in 1989, so it's very exciting indeed. Not sure about a career highlight – that accolade is always reserved for the work itself, and Everything's Getting Older is certainly one of my favourites, yes.

Bill - Feels good - though when it dawned on me, obviously quite some time ago, that awards are only ever decided upon by other people, not by some almighty, all knowing, arbiter of taste and quality looking down from the clouds, I thought it always best to never get too excited about any of them coming my way, not that there's been much occasion to, right enough.

How did you end up collaborating together in the first place?

Aidan - Bill says we found ourselves at the same table in a pub and I immediately asked him to play on some Arab Strap songs. I have no recollection of this at all, but at the time I was very much in love with his Also In White album so I've no reason to doubt him. After he played on the Monday At The Hug And Pint album, we did one song together and then took years to book a studio to do some more. We always seemed to have other things to do, but I'm glad we waited because I can't imagine the album any other way. It would've had an entirely different theme and tone if we'd finished it in 2005, and I really don't think it would have been as good from my side.

Bill - Indeed this is what happened - I was very surprised and flattered actually because although I was a huge Arab Strap fan, and though we were all from Falkirk, or, more likely, because, it never occurred to me that we'd ever all be in a studio together, so it did, for me at least, even at the time, feel like quite an occasion, and looking back, even more so now.

I am guessing that you've spent a lot of time in each others' pockets this year; has this bonded your love for each other, or are you sick of the sight of each other?

Aidan - We haven't really spent that much time together at all, to be honest. We haven't done a lot of touring, although what we did do was quite hard work. There's more gigs being planned for next year, so hopefully we'll have more to do, but it's not as though we're a young rock band out on the road and in the NME every week, there's not a lot of fuss or constant attention to deal with; there's been a minimum of upheaval, thankfully.

Bill - Yeh, sorry, you're guessing wrong.

If the love is still there, are there any plans to work together again in the future?

Aidan - We've just started talking about our second album now, so it will happen but we're not sure when. Certainly not next year, we've both got a couple of albums each planned for 2012, so we might try and have it ready for 2013. There's no rush though, it'll be ready when it's ready; the last thing i want to do is dive into it and force it out, that's why a lot of second albums these days are a bit shit. Bands and labels are desperate to hold onto any momentum and profile a new band has, but we're lucky in that respect because we're not really a new, young band; we've both been making records for ages and there's no pressure on us at all. So 2014 at the earliest!

Bill - Just to add that I'm really looking forward to this, the musical ideas for first album were pretty much all on one cdr I gave Aidan ages ago, then the EP happened pretty quickly this year so, personally, I'm more hopeful for the 2013 result but, whatever and whenever, it'll be great to get working together in the studio again.

Seeing as we are on the subject of albums of the year, what have been your personal favourites of 2012?

Aidan - I would've said Slow Club's Paradise a couple of weeks ago (which I still love) but it's been pipped at the post by the last-minute release of Josh T. Pearson's limited live LP, The King Is Dead, which I think is far superior to his studio album. There's been a lot of very good music this year though, but my memory can never work when it's put on the spot, sorry!

Bill - I look at these end of year lists and realize I haven't heard so many of these records, so it feels like a very uninformed opinion. The last time I was asked I said the re - release of Annette Peacock's 'I'm The One' which is truly one of the greatest records ever made. However after writing that I realized that "That's Reality' by Yumbo, which is Koji Shibuya's (bass player in Maher Shalal Hash Baz) Pop masterpiece, came out in Japan in early 2011.

'Everything’s Getting Older' is out now on Chemikal Underground and it comes with the Scottish BAMS seal of approval. You can order yourself a copy on CD, download or on triple vinyl (which also includes two Bonus 12" featuring 14 exclusive tracks of new material, remixes and demos/ a 12x12 16-page booklet featuring lyrics and sheet music for Bill's compositions/ a data disc with hi-spec audio files of all vinyl tracks plus a recording of Bill & Aidan's first ever concert at Glasgow's Triptych Festival in 2008, here.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The Copper Top

The Scottish Blogger and Music Sites Award (The Scottish BAMS) 2010

It's that time of year again where it seems as if every other day there's another album of the year list being announced. Well kids, here's the list you've all forgotten about, it's the return of the BAMS. For those of you who don't already know, the Scottish BAMS Award was a wee idea I devised last year to poll all of the bloggers and music sites that I could find, to find the 'definitive' album of the year. Last year I had around 30 entrants take part, this year I have nearly doubled that total with almost 60 entrants submitting their lists. Here's a roll call of all of the different sites that took part in this years vote...

Timothy London, Jock N Roll, The Daily Dose, Resound Scotland, The Steinberg Principle, Dauphin, Hercules Moments, Argos Barks, The Web Is Not A Cold Dead Place, The Tidal Wave Indifference, Ed Rock, Off the Beaten Tracks, Found In Sound, Elba Sessions, Kowalskiy, Have Fun At Dinner, Ayetunes, Edinburgh Man, 17 Seconds, Scots Whay Hae, Open Till Midnight, Products of a Gaseous Brain, The Spill, Last Years Girl, Is This Music, JockRock, Dear Scotland, Manic Pop Thrills, Favourite Son, Peenko, Jim Gellatly, My Portis Wasp says, Never Make Friends, Detour, Jenny Soep, Net Sounds Unsigned, Listen Before You Buy, Song By Toad, The Daily Growl, Earz Mag, Glasgow Podcart, Rokbun, The Pop Cop, Pin Up Nights, Traffic Cone Music, Radar and Blueback Hotrod.

A fine array of sites if ever I saw one, almost as impressive as the list of albums below. In 2009, things went right down to the wire with the Phantom Band pipping Animal Collective at the last. This year we had a clear winner, which I am sure will surprise few. The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites album of the year is none other than The National with High Violet. A deserved winner I am sure you'll agree.

Having pestered the bands PR and management, I managed to get word to the band that they had been voted as this years BAMS. They're men of few words, but here's what they had to say

"That's great news. Thanks for the support!"

Next year I think I'll get a trophy made up, that way the winner will be forced to talk to me... They will talk to me, right?!? Anyway, as I am sure you'd prefer it if I stopped talking, here's the Top 30 albums in full

1. The National - High Violet
2. Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face
3. Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry
4. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
5. Kid Canaveral - Shouting at Wildlife
6. The Phantom Band - The Wants
7. The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
8. The Last Battle - Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea
9. Broken Records - Let Me Come Home
10. Bronto Skylift - The White Crow
11. Beach House - Teen Dream
12. The Fire & I - Stampede Finale
13. Sufjan Stevens - Age Of Adz
14. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
15. Best Coast - Crazy For You
16. Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service
17. Teenage Fanclub - Shadows
18. The Scottish Enlightenment - St Thomas
19. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
20. Jonsi - go do
21. RM Hubbert - First & Last
22. Errors - Come Down With Me
23. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
24. Sleigh Bells - Treats
25. The Boy Who Trapped The Sun - Fireplace
26. Micah P Hinson and the Pioneer Saboteurs
27. Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
28. How To Swim - Retina (Or More Fun Than A Vat Of Love)
29. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
30. Silver Columns - Yes and Dance

Ian from the Have Fun At Dinner blog has taken the time to knock up this week Spotify playlist featuring the majority of the albums on this list. So if you're looking for a cracking wee soundtrack to your day, then look no further.
Lastly, I would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone who took part in this years poll. Special thanks go out to Struan Teague for designing that sexy looking BAMS logo at the top of the page. He was kind enough to do that for us all for nowt, I am sure you'll agree that he's done us proud. Check out his website for more of his amazing work.

The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites Awards (The Scottish BAMS Awards) 2009

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.