EWB's Top 99 Artists of 2011

[GoGo Yubari]

Okay, so we're in the clusterfuck stage of this thing now and I'm in finals season so I'm starting to get scatterbrained with stuff like this. Here, have all of the 80s!

88. Enter Shikari (17 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

88. Frank Sinatra (17 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

82. James Blake (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

82. Disturbed (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #34)

82. Them Crooked Vultures (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

82. Owl City (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

82. Devin Townsend (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

82. Neil Young (18 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

81. Anthrax (18 pts, appeared on three ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

Next Time, on Two People Voted For These Bands: No one here gets out alive.

[Sousa]

I love how EWB's collection of metalheads always makes this list come out. A Wilhelm Scream! Sigur Ros! Slayer!

[SRN]

Yes, metal is bad. No metal on the list in future please, only They Might Be Giants.

That was a weird update; Enter Shikari, Frank Sinatra, Disturbed, James Blake and Devin Townsend. Fantastic.

[Colly]

Feel like I'm asking a silly question, but what have Elvis and Sinatra done this year?

[Matt]

It's probably more of a case of there not being many bands who have done a lot this year (to some people), so more "all time favourites" have made their way in above "flavour of the week" bands.

[Sousa]

It's always been an all-time favorites list.

[Matt]

Yeah I know, but it's not really, is it? It's always influenced by the artists you've been listening to in the last month or two prior to the voting thread.

Edit: And if it wasn't then we'd have pretty much the same list each year.

[gunnar hendershow]

Yeah I usually vote on who I'm listening to a lot lately with a couple all-time favorites who will never, ever leave.

[Sousa]

Everybody's taste changes from year to year. To wit:

1. Cowboy Junkies

2. They Might Be Giants

3. Ben Folds

4. Rilo Kiley

5. Elvis Costello

6. Leonard Cohen

7. The Flaming Lips

8. The Tallest Man on Earth

9. Howlin' Wolf

10. Dinosaur Jr.

11. that dog.

12. Guided By Voices

13. The Velvet Underground

14. The Presidents of the United States of America

15. Mazzy Star

vs.

1. Elvis Costello

2. They Might Be Giants

3. Counting Crows

4. The Flaming Lips

5. Cowboy Junkies

6. Leonard Cohen

7. Yo La Tengo

8. Regina Spektor

9. Ben Folds

10. Gorillaz

11. Atmosphere

12. that dog.

13. Sufjan Stevens

14. Dinosaur Jr.

15. The New Pornographers

People discover older things that they weren't listening to before all the time, become interested in things they were interested in before but ahd gotten out of for whatever reason, etc. It's affected by a lot more than just new albums coming out.

[Sousa]

And yes, to quote GoGo,

Cowboy Junkies?

[Dingle]

AWS are for metalheads only? How bizarre. I love those guys.

Enter Shikari are absolutely terrible, but the update got better with Sinatra and Neil Young. Love 'They Might Be Giants' from the previous update.

[GoGo Yubari]

I bet I've just missed at least two of the bands from this section of the clusterfuck's positions on last year's list . Oh well!

74. Skindred (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

74. Rise Against (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #11)

74. Type O Negative (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

74. Faith No More (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #112)

74. Coldplay (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

74. The Kinks (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

74. The Doors (19 points, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

Next Time on GoGo Posts Three More Bands: She's got a black belt in karate.

[Quom]

Are Type O Negative a comedy metal band? No way that's a photo of a legit band people take seriously, right?

[GoGo Yubari]

My favorite is the guy on the right. NATHAN EXPLOOOOOOSIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[Quom]

Nothing screams goth metal quite like a digital watch on your wrist.

[GoGo Yubari]

Mini-update to balance out the last one. Next two will be much more even.

73. Flaming Lips (19 pts, appeared on three ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

71. Machine Head (20 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

71. The Pogues (20 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #120)

Next Time on EWB's Top 99 Artists of 2011: This world is forcing me to hold your hand.

[gunnar hendershow]

Machine Head? I mean, there's metalheads around and everything but you guys landed on Machine Head?

[SRN]

Are Type O Negative a comedy metal band? No way that's a photo of a legit band people take seriously, right?

Type O Negative did go out of their way to look dumb, though. I mean, the image and reputation they wanted when they first started out was to be the ugliest band in the world that everyone hated. Fun how Primus and Type O became real popular at almost the same time. And christ, there have been some horrible metal bands on this list, it is really sad to see.

[Skummy]

I can't remember who I voted for (I voted, right? I must have done.), but here's some ill thought out opinions.

Sigur Ros are lovely and all, but not very exciting. I don't really go out of my way to listen to them ever.

Elliott Smith is great, haven't listened to him in years, though. Might do that today.

Elvis is Elvis. And great. I actually love Fat Vegas Ballad Singing Elvis. And he's got some absolute forgotten gems as well as all the classics - I love "Adam & Evil", in particular.

Megadeth are a bag of wank. Silly voice. And he's got freckles.

Alice In Chains are alright, though. Jerry Cantrell's a hero.

My Chemical Romance are shit.

Iced Earth are hilarious. I don't think that's what they were going for.

Never heard A Wilhelm Scream that I can remember.

Slayer are really boring.

They Might Be Giants are awesome.

Enter Shikara are pretty dull. They had this one song I liked, though.

Frank Sinatra is a fucking hero. "...Sings For Only The Lonely" is one of the most phenomenal albums you will ever hear. I don't like some of his schmaltzier stuff, and actually don't think much of his voice, but when he's playing the downtrodden drunk singing away his sorrows, there's no one better.

I don't know who James Blake is.

I fucking hate Disturbed. So, so much.

Never listened to Them Crooked Vultures.

Only heard one Owl City song. It was nice enough Radio 2 music.

Bloody love Devin Townsend.

Bloody love Neil Young. Last couple of albums have been AMAZE.

Don't care for Anthrax.

I once saw Skindred in a tiny, tiny pub in Guernsey. They were shit. They're not all that bad on record, though.

Never listened to Rise Against.

Type O Negative have a couple of really good songs, but were mostly naff goth rock.

Faith No More are pretty great, though Mike Patton's least interesting band - not to mention that he gets far too much credit for their success.

Coldplay are fucking dire.

The Kinks are brilliant.

The Doors are pretentious fat fucks. Couple of good songs.

Flaming Lips are pretty fucking cool.

Machine Head aren't.

The Pogues are fucking awesome. Seriously one of my all-time favourite bands, and Shane MacGowan is one of the all-time best lyricists.

[GoGo Yubari]

70. Motorhead (20 pts, appeared on three ballots) (Last Year: #92)

66. Mew (21 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #88)

66. Oasis (21 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: #13)

66. No Doubt (21 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

66. The Black Keys(21 pts, appeared on two ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

Next Time, on EWB's Top 99 Artists of 2011: I used to think/If I could realize I'd die/Then I would be a lot nicer.