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The 2008 Plug Awards

Mar 10, 2008, 08:00 AM | by Gretchen Hansen

Categories: Music

Dizzeerascal_l The Plug Awards has good intentions. A way to celebrate independent, lesser-known artists, the annual event draws attention to performers like acoustic troubadour Jose Gonzalez, London rapper Dizzee Rascal (pictured), and quirky female singer-songwriter St. Vincent. Fans pick the winners via online ballot, which makes for some unexpected trumps (Album of the Year went to Arcade Fire, who beat out the likes of the National, Spoon, and Radiohead. Only at the Plug Awards, folks.)

The problem with Plug isn't its mission to celebrate the artists on the fringe, or last Thursday night's lineup of undoubtedly talented performers. Plug instead suffers from a lack of organization and execution. Comedian Patton Oswalt hosted the event, with misplaced riffs on everything from There Will Be Blood (note to Oswalt: Plug isn't the Grammys or the Oscars), to the ironic T-shirts and dramatic eye rolls of unenthusiastic, underweight hipsters. The show featured prerecorded clips of Michael Showalter's documentary on mixtapes, which, granted, were funny, but were barely audible and available online in advance. Bat for Lashes kicked off the event to a crowd of almost no one an hour before the show was scheduled to begin, and the first two artists to receive awards -- Arcade Fire for Live Act of the Year, and Radiohead for Artist of the Year -- weren't on hand to receive them. Cue Patton joke that Radiohead will be thrilled to hear they won a Plug Award when they find out what a Plug Award is. Ouch.

It wasn't all bad. St. Vincent gave an inspired performance from her album Marry Me, and the National picked up the Song of the Year award for their brilliant "Fake Empire." But I wished Plug would invent a better way to plug their nominated artists. Any publicity helps, I guess, though I wouldn't have been devastated if the winners were posted in the lobby, and Jose Gonzalez was given a two-hour-long set.

So, any PopWatchers check out the Plug Awards this year? Did you vote online for your favorite artists? Can you think of a better way to give independent artists the recognition they deserve?

Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 07:31 PM EST

Did anyone else notice all the Macs in the "Dell" Lounge blogger pit? Way to go, Dell!

AD Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 09:34 AM EST

Yes, I too cannot belive you did not mention the amazing Nick Cave performance, which made the entire night (and in some ways was the cause of some of the earlier problems you mentioned). It is true that it was too loud to hear the docs, and also much of the crowd was chatting during Gonzales and others. But that was because most people were really there for a cheap Cave show, and it was an astounding performance. As for the awards themselves, yes a bit disorganized, and Oswalt was surprisingly not funny, but all the opening bands were solid, and it moved along at a brisk pace, and for 10 bucks it was a fantastic show with 5 bands playing short sets and a 9 song concert by Cave. So a great night.

Robert Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 08:45 AM EST

Why no mention of Nick Cave's incredible performance? Best set performed in NYC so far in 2008.

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