2009 Rawky Awards: Winners & Losers

Boys and girls, welcome to the 2nd Annual Rawky Awards, indie rock’s most discerning user-voted poll party. Hundreds of you voted on the album of the year, the best new band, the worst hipster drivel we pretended to like and more — all the winners and losers after the jump. B.Y.O.B.!

Album of the Year: TIE! Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective.
This one went down to the wire, but as 2009 winds to a close, you couldn’t quite choose between AnCo and the Grizz. (No tie-breaker from me — I voted for Dirty Projectors.) Wish Ed Droste was still on Twitter for this one. Phoenix came in third; bizarrely, Bill Callahan’s 95th best album of the 2000s didn’t get a single vote. Too baritone-y?

Song of the Year: Phoenix – “1901”
Crushed it. You guys officially have better taste than Pitchfork: “Two Weeks” was second, “My Girls” third.

Favorite Ryan Schreiber Tweet: “if you’ve never had a chicken cutlet + melted pepperjack sandwich from jesse’s deli on atlantic, you haven’t lived every day of my life.”
Miraculously, this one beat the one about DJing with Beyonce’s sister. Team chicken cutlets?

Best Name For Chillwave: Gorillavsbearcore.
Sorry, Chris. Actually calling it chillwave ran second.

Wavves
Photo by David Greenwald

Worst Hipster Band We Pretended To Like This Year: Wavves
Nathan Williams’ terrible mess of a shitgaze “band” annihilated this category with 41% of the vote (the widest margin for anything on the list), and while I’m glad dude’s been tossed aside as quickly as yesterday’s RSS feeds, I can’t help but have a little sympathy for the guy: His fall from Hype Machine grace came after he played a drug-plagued set at the Primavera Sound Festival on a stage sponsored by Pitchfork, which was then reviewed by Pitchfork’s boss (presumably on an all-expenses paid trip to Spain for “work” between DJ sessions with Solange) to embarrass ol’ Nathan (the festival was not otherwise reviewed on Pitchfork, which would’ve been a conflict of interest — because somehow this wasn’t), who then did an interview with Pitchfork where he was basically forced to apologize for being a big, terrible fuck-up. At a stage sponsored by Pitchfork. Look, I don’t know what money changed hands with who on this, but I can’t imagine this situation not involving a naive stoner guitarist getting fucked in the ass by a corrupt media conglomerate. That said: Wavves really suck, and we all knew that back in January.

Most Overlooked Band: Division Day
Actually, you voted for “Other” with a healthy range of choices, but none had as many votes as the L.A. locals. I’m glad to see the D-Day fans out and about — but, uh, we should probably start buying their albums now.


Photo by David Greenwald

Best New Band: Harlem Shakes
Phew! They beat Girls by a nose, though I was surprised to see a lack of passion for Cymbals Eat Guitars — they should’ve been this year’s Wolf Parade. Great record, incendiary live show. But the Shakes, as you know, were greater.

Most Anticipated Album: The National
Another huge victory (33%), with Spoon the only act in spitting distance. Seriously though, guys, get excited for the Radio Dept. If it ever comes out.

Thanks for voting — my picks for the year’s best stuff in the coming days.

Previously: 2008 Rawky Awards