The 2nd Annual Toasties!

Holy cow! It's that time of the year again - the time we music bloggers get on our pedastals and tell the world just how it did this year. It's time for lists galore and endless mentions of how Earth-shattering that damn Panda Bear release was...

Save for a few missteps, 2007 is turning out to be a pretty damn good year in the music folder anyway. So, without further ado, I give you this year's Toasties, the music world's barely coveted superlatives. (There will be no mp3 posts this week.)

Toaster Odds and Ends Awards 2007

Best Band Name: I’m From Barcelona

Worst Band Name: Shout Out Out Out Out

Best Album Name: A Hawk and a Handsaw, A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble

Best Song Title: Des Ark, "If by 'Gay' You Mean 'Totally Freaking Awesome,' Then Yeah, I Guess It's Pretty Gay"

Best Comeback From Oblivion: Dinosaur, Jr.

Biggest Let-Down: Rilo Kiley (bailing out a sadly mediocre Voxtrot)

Best Follow-Up to Greatness: Band of Horses

Biggest Surprise Love: Of Montreal

Best Summer Song: Spoon, “The Underdog”

Best Winter Song: The Shins, “A Comet Appears”

Best Attempt at Bringing Despair Down All Around Us: Of Montreal, “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal”

Best Album to Get Blotto To: LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

Worst Moment by a Great Band: The first and second halves of Under the Blacklight

Best Opening Act: The Bowerbirds, for The Mountain Goats

Artist That Yielded the Most Cases of Music Blogs Losing Our Respect: Seriously, still Lavender Diamond

Biggest What-the-Fuck?: Rilo Kiley

Biggest Where-the-Fuck-Have-They-Been? (or, They Released an Album in 2007?): Travis

Most Concise Song: Tegan and Sara, “Soil, Soil"

Most Imitated: Belle and Sebastian

Worst Release Date: July 7, 2007 - The Smashing Pumpkins

Best Release Date: July 10, 2007 – Interpol, Spoon, They Might Be Giants - like a normal American band, damn it

Most Anticipated Albums of 2007: The Mountain Goats, Nada Surf, Kathleen Edwards

Worst Lyrics: Rilo Kiley, “15”

Best Lyrics We're Not Sure We Understand: “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”

Best Live Show of 2007 (Witnessed by The Toaster Talks): The Swell Season, July 26, 9:30 Club

NEW TOASTIES:

Best Marketing Concept: Radiohead, obvs (thank God I didn’t have to pick Paul McCartney's teaming up with Sbux)

Worst Marketing Concept: The Eagles' release available exclusively at Wal-Mart

Best Soundtrack: Juno

Best Release from a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer: Bruce Springsteen, Magic

Best Song That Scares the Shit out of Me: M.I.A., “Paper Planes”

Biggest Tragedy: Indefinite hiatus of Let’s French

The Andrew Bird Eerie-but-Damn-Catchy Award: Patrick Wolf