Last week my colleagues over at City Arts Magazine released a list of the city’s best new bands.
It’s a list that reflects the diversity and depth of the local music scene and interestingly enough it is a list that doesn’t exclusively include City Arts’ voice. To compile the list the City Arts editors asked 42 bloggers, publicists, bookers, directors and label owners the simple question “What were the greatest local bands you discovered in 2010?” I was thrilled and flattered to be asked to contribute my thoughts for the list and I was even more thrilled when I found out two of my choices (Curtains For You and My Goodness) made the overall top 10. It’s always nice and validating to see my peers recognize the same level of talent in some of my favorite local bands that I do.
It was definitely a difficult task to choose only five “new” local bands especially since the definition of “new” was left open for interpretation which made choosing artists even more difficult. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Head and the Heart topped the list of best new bands and deservingly so since they had a massive year in 2010 and are poised to have an equally impressive 2011. You can view all 42 ballots here and my top 5 ranked list is below.
As with most every list I compile, there wasn’t an exact science to how I chose what bands to include but if you’ve been reading Guerrilla Candy for the past few months my selections shouldn’t be shocking. My initial impulse was to send along Guerrilla Candy’s list of Seattle’s 2010 breakout acts but I decided to give things a bit more thought and made my decision based off what new local artists resonated the the most with me in 2010 both musically and in a live setting.
The rankings in parenthesis is how the editors at City Arts ranked the bands I ranked, which I think is sort of cute since their rankings are the exact opposite of my rankings are the points scored in the overall poll for each band. Five points for a first place vote, four for second place and so on.
1. Hobosexual (5)
2. Sol (4)
3. Curtains for You (3)
4. My Goodness (2)
5. Viper Creek Club (1)
