Discovering the Best Releases by Local Bands nominated in the 2018 Best of the Bay poll

Creative Loafing’s annual Best of the Bay is here for the 2018 season. I won’t tell you what to vote for and all that jazz (I’m not a nominee, nor is this blog. Not like that would have happened anyway). What I would like to provide here is a little tool of hyperlinks for specifically one voting list.

The Best of the Bay Arts and Entertainment section has quite a few music related categories and voting opportunities. There’s general band listings, rock, hip-hop, country, bluegrass, blues, etc. The category that’s leading to this post is “Best Release By A Local Band”.

Now, call me inexperienced, small-time, or just a normal citizen who wouldn’t, but I don’t know any or the listed artists in that section. Never heard of them. Also what doesn’t seem to be consistent in the category is if these releases are full albums, singles, or single-songs off albums. What also isn’t clear is the music itself. Unless you know the artists, you’re likely not going to know the songs (with a few exceptions if the artist is bigger than I know and they get national exposure).

There are 17 listings in alphabetical order of the artists on the list. What this blog post is trying to accomplish is to actually let you know about the nomination – a link to the artist, a link to the song/album, listing the genre and actually telling you if it’s a song or an album. Information is a nice thing to be given, especially when it’s music.

Not all the nominees are timely. While a wider array of time beyond the last calendar year makes sense (it takes time for music to get out there), some of these songs / albums date back as far as 2016.

Just consider this an opportunity to learn before you vote. And remember, you can only vote on a Best of the Bay section once. After that, you’re locked out from the section you’ve voted in.

Anyway, here are the songs/albums of the nominees of the Best New Releases by a Tampa Bay band/musical artist.

Author note: One listed item, “Inform the Masses” is not included as no performing artist was linked to it. It’s also a commonly used musical phrase that did not aid finding the performer.

For the sake of saying so: There are more songs or albums released by artists in the Tampa Bay area that were released within the last calendar year that were not nominated. That’s not because their music sucked, it’s because their listeners or the artists themselves aren’t necessarily Creative Loafing readers, let alone Best of the Bay participants in nominations or voting.

You’re only going to have until early September to vote, so don’t hesitate too long to do so. If you really don’t know a category or have little knowledge of those within it, it’s probably best to skip it. There’s so much to vote on in Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, Goods and Services  and People, Places & Politics.