Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Shanies: Artist of the Year

No, I am not shooting my proverbial blog-load to early (man, the word blog does nothing to help that sentence) by announcing the Shanie for Artist of the year.  Let me explain: still to come are award for song of the year, album of the year, etc.  However, Artist of the year is an award I wanted to give to a group who I saw make a remarkable leap into the mainstream this year and help define what music was for the past 12 months... not necessarily by having the best song, album or video... but simply be being EVERYWHERE.

And this year, that group is The Black Keys.  Besides being one of my favorite bands in the world for the past decade, the keys have had an astounding year.  After finishing up 2009 with their Blakroc project, the twosome just decided that they would continue to define cool.  They are popping up on just about everyone's top 10 list for the end of the year, Brothers has been heralded as a masterpiece, it seems like every second commercial on TV this days is a keys song, and their music is being played, and loved by everyone... seemingly regardless of what scene they're into.  All in all... these guys have found a formula that is heroin to the masses and I for one say, "don't hold out on me man... just one more hit... you know I'm good for the cash... COME ON I NEED THIS!"

All the same, there is no denying that The Black Keys have been on every radar known to man for the past year and as such, they easily walk away with the Shanie for Artist of the year.  Keep it bluesy, boys.



-Keep my head above the water, but never let me climb too high