Drum media End of Year Poll

This year, I was asked to do an end of year poll for Drum Media. Ridiculous as it sounds, it was a lifelong dream of mine. I am forever making such liss in my head. Here is a potted version of what I came up with:

TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns
2. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
3. David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise For the Trouble I’ve Caused
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones
5. Goyte - Like Drawing Blood
6. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
7. Micah P Hinson – Micah P Hinson and The Opera Circuit
8. Tom Waits – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
9. Kimya Dawson – Remember That I Love You
10. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

Album of the year. So says Bobby Six

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
1. Regina Spektor
2. Goyte
3. David Ford

BEST LOCAL ARTIST GIG
1. Bridezilla/The Ghosts/Mercy Arms, Candy’s Apartment
2. The Vines (who’d have thought?), Homebake
3. Sarah Blasko, @Newtown

BEST TV SHOW
1. Extras
2. Family Guy
3. Australian Idol(oh the shame)

BEST FILM
1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. Borat

BEST WEBSITE
1. Myspace
2. Youtube
3. Shesaidhesaid.org

HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR
Not The Ashes. Anything but The Ashes.

PREDICTION FOR 2007
Bridezilla to become massive. If you don’t fall in love with their music, then I’ll eat my laptop.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR
“Lachlan Marks, Rob Townsend and Andrew Street are a bit smug about getting in (to gigs) for free,” according to a disgruntled reader in the Drum letters page.

2006 IN REVIEW
My 2006 started in August, when I moved to Sydney from grey old England. While my knowledge of English and American alternative music is pretty comprehensive, my awareness of the Australian scene didn’t really stretch far beyond Wolfmother and Men at Work. I was therefore happy to discover a vibrant Sydney scene with a real sense of community that made London seem even more up its own arse than I already knew it was. With fantastic young bands and no end of kids willing to go to their gigs, this place holds its own against other cities. Take it from a foreigner. While the NME has spent this year meticulously constructing its own scenes (New Rave anyone?), over here people just allow great bands like Mercy Arms to grow organically, without feeling the need to pigeonhole or label them. Oh, and the weather is better over here too.

This is just a selection of what I wrote. For the full listing go here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=12792787&blogID=210142284&MyToken=863eed6a-2e88-4487-9257-e47414164618.