speed of dark

Near the end of last year I sent lists of my 2006 favorite songs upon request to several blogs (click the category link below to see my choices), not thinking that anything more would come of it, however one of those submissions has turned into a blogger awards event.

Your own Alt-Gramma was among over 35 music bloggers who submitted nominees in 14 different categories of Best Artist, Best Song, and Best Album. This is how my list of favorites became part of the nomination process for the Music Blogger Awards (MuBA for short).

Now the public gets to vote for the winners. Notice the blinking banner in the sidebar at the right (thanks, Indie Mom). Click there or here to go to the link for list of nominees that were gathered. You can also submit your own choice in each category.

EMusic has picked up the sponsorship for MuBA, so I need to do a little plug on their behalf. I don't mind because I have an EMusic subscription myself, and I often provide an EMusic link with an artist review. That's for YOUR convenience, not because I get anything for it. I think EMusic is an economical way to legally download music in MP3 format and know that the artist gets a cut, and when you collect as much music as I do, economics is important.

When you submit your votes, you'll get an opportunity to subscribe to Emusic and download an exclusive MuBA playlist, featuring tracks and artists from the MuBA nominee list. I am told that you'll get 40 free downloads instead of the usual 25 with a new subscription. I have also been informed that if you try out Emusic for a couple of weeks and don't like it, you can cancel your membership and keep the downloads.

If you're feeling a bit chicken about this and want to see an overview of the categories and nominations, check out the list at The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown blog.

Voting will end on June 15th, 2007, so don't wait too long. You are not required to join EMusic to vote, so do it just for fun, and let's see what happens. Vote link.

Here is what I did get out of this: all MuBA contributors were able to sumbit a playlist to EMusic that can be downloaded by EMusic subscribers. Here is the address for those bloggers and playlists: MuBA playlists, and here my personal selections: Speed of Dark playlist.

Some Speed of Dark 2006 favorites that made the final MuBA nominations for 2006:

TV On the Radio: Hours from Return to Cookie Mountain

Thom Yorke: Cymbal Rush from The Eraser (this version was performed live on KCRW)

We Are Scientists: Textbook from With Love and Squalor

Beirut: The Canals of Our City from Gulag Orkestar

Sunset Rubdown: They Took a Vote and Said No from Shut Up I Am Dreaming