Playlist: Aye Tunes Presents

This was meant to have been a series of posts between Christmas and New Year, of my favourite songs of 2010 but it never quite worked out.

Anyway, for the Aye Tunes Presents gig just passed I whittled down the number of tracks from around 100 and knocked up a few CDs to dish out in exchange for a donation to charity. I didn't quite have time to supply a tracklist with the CDs though, so I promised everyone that picked one up I'd put the tracklist online.

For those of you that didn't come, or didn't pick up a rubbishy wee CDr (I have have some left, if anyone really wants one) I'll go better and stick up the songs too. Some are downloadable, others are just streaming, since I've violated copyright quite enough in the first place and don't want a kicking.

Since this will be pretty music embed heavy I'll stick in a cut here, so if you are reading the post of the main page click here for the rest of the post.

Readers' Poll Results

The polls have closed, the votes have been counted, and the winners according to the Aye Tunes readers have been worked out.

Not much chatter from me on the results, my head is still bursting from counting everything.

An elaborate points system was used to judge things, with 5 points for #1, 3 for #2 and 1 for #3, no ballot stuffing took place, hardly anyone voted for themselves and I didn't give myself a vote.

A surprising number of people took part, so I'd just like to quickly thank all of you that took a bit of time to join in.

Drum roll please, your winners are...

Best Band:

1. The Phantom Band

2. Kid Canaveral

3. Frightened Rabbit

=3. The National

5. Meursault

Best Solo Artist:

1. King Creosote

2. Emma Pollock

3. I Build Collapsible Mountains

4. RM Hubbert

5. Edwyn Collins

Best New Band/Solo Artist:

1. Admiral Fallow

2. The Last Battle

3. Kid Canaveral

4. Mitchell Museum

5. The Scottish Enlightenment

=5. The Burns Unit

Best Live Band:

1. The Phantom Band

2. Meursault

3. Frightened Rabbit

4. Kid Canaveral

5. The National

=5. Mogwai

Best Album:

1. The Phantom Band - The Wants

=1. Kid Canaveral - Shouting At Wildlife

3. Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry

4. The Scottish Enlightenment - St Thomas

5. The National - High Violet

6. Mitchell Museum - The Peters Port Memorial Service

7. Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face

8. Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep

9. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Best Single/EP:

1. Randolph's Leap - Battleships & Kettle Chips EP

=1. The Scottish Enlightenment - Little Sleep EP

3. Miaoux Miaoux - Blooms EP

4. eagleowl - Into The Fold EP

5. Trapped in Kansas/Yahweh - Split 7"

Best Music Blog/Website:

1. Song, by Toad

2. The Pop Cop

Despite me saying Aye Tunes wasn't eligible enough people ignored me that I'd have been in third place here. Woo.

3. Peenko

4. The Vinyl Villain

5. Glasgow Podcart

Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:

1. Vic Galloway (Radio 1/Radio Scotland votes were all counted together)

2. Glasgow PodcART

3. The Toadcast (Votes for The Toadcast & Song, by Toad on Fresh Air were counted together too)

4. Mark Riley

5. Jim Gellatly

Best Venue:

1. Glasgow Barrowlands

2. The Roxy, Edinburgh (Now dearly departed)

=2. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut

4. The Captain's Rest, Glasgow

=4. Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh

=4. Stereo, Glasgow

Despite fewer and fewer bands choosing to play there, we still love The Barras apparently. Even the Weegies loved The Roxy too.

Best Gig:

1. The National. O2 Academy, Glasgow, November.

2. Frightened Rabbit, Glasgow Barrowlands, 3rd December.

3. French Wives, The Seventeenth Century, Washington Irving, Rachel Sermanni. King Tut's, July.

=3. Aye Tunes Vs Peenko: Kid Canaveral, Mitchell Museum, Campfires in Winter. The Captain's Rest, April.

The hardest one to count, since practically every vote was for something different. Beyond the three above Homegame and Awaygame were the most popular, if they'd been counted together they would have made the top three.

I'm wishing I'd included the Smash Hits style Sexiest Male and Female questions, but I worried that if I had the blogging community would disown me. They still might.

Thanks again to everyone who voted, it was popular enough that we'll be doing it again next year.

Our Favourite Albums of 2010: The Final Three

Numbers 10 to 4 were published yesterday here, along with a few albums that flirted with being in the Top Ten but were eventually left out before I drove myself crazy. The Top Three were notable by their absence. There's a reason for that, other than me wanting to drag things out an extra day.

That reason? I can't decide. Three albums have stood out for me since each of them were released as favourites of the year and it has gotten to the point where I can't put them in order of 1-2-3, so I'm cheating. Or copping out, if you prefer.

It is a three way draw for favourite album. In joint first place, sharing the trophy (there isn't really a trophy, not yet anyway) are...

Kid Canaveral - Shouting At Wildlife

The Scottish Enlightenment - St Thomas

Mitchell Museum - The Peter's Port Memorial Service

Our Favourite Albums of 2010: #10 - 4

Five million drafts of lists later I'm forcing myself to publish this before I can change my mind again.

Favourite albums doesn't have the same ring to it as best I know, but makes me feel a bit more comfortable.

The Top Three will follow tomorrow. There's a reason why they are straggling which you'll find out then. In the meantime feel free to guess what they are based on what is missing.

Come back later in the week for a run down of some of my favourite singles and EPs, and another of my favourite songs.

#10: The Unwinding Hours - The Unwinding Hours (Review)

#9: Lamplighter - All Is Vanity (Review)

#8: Admiral Fallow - Boots Met My Face (Listen)

#7: Over The Wall - Treacherous

#6: The Phantom Band - The Wants

#5: Mammoeth - Nascent (Review)

#4: RM Hubbert - First & Last (Review)

All fine, fine albums.

Bubbling Under:

As the five million drafts suggest the list could, and has, change at any given time, so in addition to the top ten here's a few that are well worth investigating too, but didn't quite make the cut. I could have extended the list to twenty, but I don't know the difference between my 13th favourite and my 20th favourite, so in no particular order, with handy links to listen to most of them...

Endor - Endor

Super Adventure Club - Avoid Zombies

The Last Battle - Heart of the Land, Soul of the Sea

We See Lights - Ghosts and Monsters

Woodenbox With A Fistful of Fivers - Home and the Wild Hunt

A Band Called Quinn - The Beggars Opera

Bottle of Evil - Bottle of Evil

How To Swim - Retina (or More Fun Than a Vat of Love)

the John Knox Sex Club - Blud Rins Cauld

These two came just a little too late in the year. Both excellent albums that if I'd had a chance to spend a little more time with would certainly have fought their way into the top ten.

30 Pounds of Bone - Method

The Savings And Loan - Today I Need Light

Aye Tunes Readers' Poll 2010

We've come to that time of the year where a bunch of people obsess over lists of our favourite things of the year, while other people mock us for our obsessing over said lists.

In addition to putting together my own "Best of" lists I thought it might be fun (it may well not be fun, but let's see) to ask the people that read my blethering what they think too. That would be you, dear reader.

Quickie rules & regulations type things:

• Answer or skip whatever questions you want, but if a bunch of people answer one question with the same answer it'll be pretty obvious ballot stuffing.
• No ballot stuffing! If it isn't obvious I probably won't notice it though.
• You can choose up to three answers for each question, try and put them in order, 1 being best, 2 second best, blah blah blah.
• You can vote for bands, albums etc from anywhere, they don't have to be Scottish.
• Polls close on December 19th, after that I'll count up the results.
• This is meant to be a wee bit of fun, so don't moan about the results when posted!
• I won't keep your name/email address or any other info once the poll is done, unless you tell me to.

My attempt at putting together a fancy voting form failed miserably, so I'm afraid you'll have to do a wee bit of work. Copy/paste the stuff below and stick it in an email to poll@ayetunes.org.uk and I'll do the rest.

Aye Tunes Readers' Poll 2010

Best Band:

1.

2.

3.

Best Solo Artist:

1.

2.

3.

Best New Band/Solo Artist: (New is very subjective, if you first heard of them this year, that'll do)

1.

2.

3.

Best Live Band:

1.

2.

3.

Best Album:

1.

2.

3.

Best Single/EP: (Basically anything that isn't an album)

1.

2.

3.

Best Music Blog/Website: (Aye Tunes isn't eligible for this. Partly to avoid accusations, partly to stop me seeing how few would have said it anyway)

1.

2.

3.

Best Music Radio Show/Podcast:

1.

2.

3.

Best Venue:

1.

2.

3.

Best Gig: (as in, best one you've been at this year, just in case you were confused)

1.

2.

3.

Your Name:

Where You Are From:

That'll do I think. Feel free to tell your pals about the poll!