Shanies: Rookie of the Year

Some may argue that after spending the past four months in blogernation (blog-hibernation? Anyone? Too much of a stretch?) that I have no right to dole out awards at my whim and fancy regarding the state of the music industry. I would argue that those people should learn their place and sit down in the corner before I seat them there.

Yes, it's that time of year again. No, not Christmas... no one cares about that. It's time for the 3rd annual installment of the Shanies.  Yes, these much coveted awards are given to the greatest in musical achievement for the past year and are based on a rigorous process of me sifting through my computer, listening to music from 2010 and deciding what I like; bollocks to what everyone else thinks.

The first Shanie to go this year is for the Rookie of the Year.  Apparently a re-occurring theme, this year's Shanie will be given to another supergroup: The Damned Things.  Formed from members of Every Time I die, Anthrax and Fallout Boy, this group sounds precisely what you would envision a fusion between those three bands to sound like... and it's fucking awesome.  Mixing southern blues riffs with metal drumming, catchy hooks, Keith Buckley's monster voice and harmonic backing vocals, TDT are one of the strangest combinations of styles I've heard in a while.

It also helps that these guys are bloody hilarious.  Let's just hope this doesn't end up being an ill-fated supergroup one-off.





-I'm not in the business of keeping you around