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Well, as promised, I am back from my long break one last time for 2017 to announce the 2017 Artists and Bands of the Year.
A brief history (you can skip this part if your read/heard this before - but there may be some new nugget of information).
E2TG officially started in May 2011. Before that, I had been posting my morning shuffles on Facebook (and sometimes Twitter) for about two years. With encouragement, I decided to turn that into a blog. In the very early days, my shuffles were mostly older songs from my collection along with some more recent "discoveries" - mostly somewhat mainstream indie music. I knew I wanted E2TG to be more that that, but I wasn't sure where to begin. When you start a new music blog - artists and bands typically don't start sending you music right away.
I began to notice that bands that I had never heard of started following me on Twitter. I decided to give some of them a listen, and lo and behold, some of them were good. So, I came up with the idea of posting about a band every week and calling it the Twitter Band of the Week - this eventually was shortened to Band of the Week to reflect the different ways I got music.
When I got to the end of 2011, I realized a had named thirty something "Bands of the Week" (in those early days it seemed to be mostly bands and even when it was a solo artist - I just stuck with the generic name). Anyway, on a lark, I decided to have a Band of the Year Readers Poll (it was half tongue in cheek - because I didn't have a huge readership by that point - a few loyal readers). It turned out to be great fun and did draw a lot of people to the site. In the end, a band from England called The Mobbs attracted a large late turnout and won the crown. Ubiquity Machine came in second (Howard Rabach of UM was probably my first reader that I didn't already know).
The poll was so much fun that I decided to start a Band of the Month Poll. All of the Bands of the Week would compete, The first few months were fun. I think it was January or February of 2012, there was an epic battle between The End Men and MAKAR that was especially fun. At the end of 2012, I had twelve Bands of the Month - I added a few "Wild Card" selections and the second Band of the Year was held in December of 2012. Skeletons in the Piano from Upstate New York won that,
By 2013, the monthly polls stopped being so much fun, and I started realizing that it drew attention away from the music a little. Also, the number of artists I started find grew so that featuring just one per week was not enough. So I moved to Featured Artists of the Month (usually ten per month).
When I reached the end of 2013, I decided to forgo the year end poll, and just name my Band of the Year. Brooklyn's The End Men were the obvious and deserving choice. They were, at the time, the most tagged artist on my blog (they are still second), and I loved and love their music.
In 2014, my life turned upside down, and in the midst of that I met Darrin Bradbury and subsequently began to get more connected to Nashville's music community which was undergoing a major renaissance. I don't think anyone who read E2TG back then was a bit surprised when I named Darrin Artist of the Year. (It didn't make sense to call him a "Band of the Year" - because he was mostly playing solo at that point).
Darrin introduced me to Jon Latham, and by the spring of 2015, I was pretty well set on naming Jon the Artist of the Year (in fact Darrin recommended him for the award), Then, he released his debut album Real Bad News and that sealed the deal.
By 2016, I was fully entrenched in the Nashville music community and was getting a ton more great music from all over the country. I was having a hard time deciding upon a Band or Artist of the Year (so many worthy choices). In the end, I got the idea of having a Band and an Artist of the Year, and furthermore I picked two Artists of the Year - one from Nashville and one not from Nashville. I tried to be clear about the fact that this was not intended to be seen a local vs. national/international distinction. It merely reflected that while Nashville had begun to kind of dominate E2TG - I wasn't nor did I intend to be just a "Nashville Music Blog". I named Valued Customer Band of the Year - I had been following them for years and their Hugecup album was a remarkable achievement. Jason P. Krug was named Artist of the Year - non-Nashville. Following the demise of Grimm Generation - a long-time E2TG fave, he released his masterpiece - a meditation on loss called Zen of Losing. Brian Wright was named Artist of the Year - Nashville. He made great music - both solo and backing ALT - Live, and he co-founded a new record company - Cafe Rooster Records.
Which brings us to 2017. For E2TG - 2017 was a year of growth, and I think that is reflected in the list of close to 100 Earie Awards that I handed out - a list that included some well-known national and international acts which I was able to feature - along with the lesser known but awesome bands and artists who continue to be the primary focus of E2TG.
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You can start reading again if you skipped the history lesson
Without further ado, here are the 2017 E2TG Bands and Artists of the Year!
In the Non-Nashville Category, both winners are long-time E2TG Favorites.
Band of the Year: THE FORESTERS
When I first started writing about this band from Connecticut, the band was comprised of three brothers whose average age was under 11. Since then, the have added a fourth member, and the oldest member is now 18 years old. They have also evolved from their pop punk origins toward a more sophisticated power pop/indie sound - but as evidenced by the show I saw in August in Athens - they still rock live. In 2017, they released House Stories which continues their musical evolution. The also created their own record label - Dord Music Group - which is modeled on the Elephant Six Collective. Through that label they have released music of various side projects and friends. Including E2TG favorites like Flavored Cardboard, Batkhi Dahn, and 2017 Earie winners Discount Ravioli. Speaking on Elephant 6, at this year's Athens Pop Fest, the band got to join Apples in Stereo on the stage of the Georgia Theater. When a band starts really young, it can be a challenge to grow up musically. At some point, being "good for your age" is not nearly enough. The Foresters have successfully passed that hurdle. I am interested in seeing where they go from here.
Artist of the Year: UGGGY
Honestly, if you have been following E2TG this year, this one should not be a surprised. Ugggy (aka Justus Sustus aka his real name which he rarely uses so I won't use it here) is part of 2016 Band of the Year Valued Customer who I have been following since I stumbled upon their song called Frank Ocean. On March 1st of 2017 Ugggy released The Divided Tape - a hip hop mixtape that features 3 tracks produced by his Valued Customer bandmate Patrick Power. Since then, Ugggy has released new music on the 1st of every month. (He is set to release his 11th in a row on January 1). The releases have ranged from two tracks to several, from mixtapes to beat tapes. They are all digital only releases - a pay what you want. Ugggy is an incredibly talented artist who has a remarkable commitment to the art of what he is doing. I am honored to know him, and I have been blown away by the quality and quantity of his music in 2017. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award this year.
Now for the Nashville category of E2TG Band and Artist of the year!
Band of the Year: LADIES GUN CLUB
So, I first heard about Ladies Gun Club in 2016, but stupidly, it took me a few months to get around to listening. Which explains why they are winning in 2017 and not 2016 when they released Take My Love Away. Better late than never, I always say. When I finally heard this album, I was blown away, and then I saw Sally Jaye and Sarah Roberts live! Ladies Gun Club formed in Los Angeles, but both Sally and Sarah are from Georgia. They call their music psychedelic hillbilly music - which seems both accurate and inadequate. They make powerful music with a twang. Before I saw Ladies Gun Club live - I heard Sally Jaye doing one of the band's songs solo (including at the E2TG Anniversary Residency - Cafe Rooster Night. Sally Jays is a co-founder of Cafe Rooster Records, and with this award, the entire current Cafe Rooster line-up are E2TG Bands/Artists of the Year winners. I would not have it any other way. Sarah Roberts has relocated back to the South, so I am hoping to see and hear a lot more from Ladies Gun Club in the years to come.
Artist of the Year: RAYVON PETTIS
So, Darrin Bradbury has been lobbying for this for well over a year now, but first I had not actually heard any of Pettis' music and then the timing just wasn't right. Well, the time is now! Rayvon Pettis just releases his long anticipated new album Dying Light - which has been worth the wait. Expect to hear much of this album in E2TG in 2018. Live he has surrounded himself with one of the best bands in Nashville - Earie award winners - The Big Dumb. Their performance at the Dying Light release show was mind-blowingly good. Like every artist who has won this award, Rayvon is a remarkable human being and a phenomenal songwriter. He tells stories and creates poetry. He evokes emotion and with The Big Dumb - he grooves hard. When I saw them at Dee's earlier this month for the CD release, I was reminded of John Mellencamp's band at their peak (for clarification - the Lonesome Jubilee tour show that I saw was one of my favorite live shows ever).
One of the hallmarks of the E2TG Band/Artist of the Year - is that it reflects both past achievements and potential. Over the years, I have seen these artists and bands live up to that potential, and I expect nothing less from this year's class.
See you in 2018!
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