The 2012 RFT Music Awards Nominees

WOW. the same bands who never go anywhere nationally yet the RFT keeps nominating them. this is why this magazine is a joke.

when and how do you vote

who the fuck is it!???????????

www.facebook.com/itstlitmusic.bandcamp.comwww.soundcloud.com/moveintothe...

What happened to best dance party category?!?   That sucks :?

You USED to have two other categories - best cover band & best tribute band... what the hell happened to them?  They were the only ones I really cared about.

I think Ded Bugs need to be on the Hall-O-Fame list! I've been a fan since I was in middle school! 

 I, Andrew from it!, was never angry. All your comments are hilarious. I posted two comments to get people riled up and it obviously worked. Funny how everyone perceived it and put words in my mouth.it! doesn't need a nomination or an award for making music. We do it to make people dance and party.Come one, come allwww.facebook.com/itstl

how do i pick between troubadour dali and magic city?

Oh, god, I want to vote soooo bad!

I like the nominees I wish FLK. Ent made the the collective hip hop group

when can you start to vote

Why isn't Gravity Kills on the Hall Of Fame???

Just kidding. I know why.

if you're going to disqualify MSIF for one guy living out of town, then you need to disqualify water liars since only half the band lives in st. louis. duh. keep yer stuff straight.

 Thanks RFT for putting us (Midwest Avengers) in the Music Hall of Fame. We are very honored to be inducted. & I know we already have 8 RFT music awards, but we want to thank you for recognizing our 20 years of music history on the St. Louis music scene. And to our fans, thanks for supporting us & making this possible!

We were nominated because we gave Kiernan a check for 500 dollars. If you don't have 500 bucks then don't complain about not being on this list.

Kenny (Fister)

Congrats to the deserving hip hop acts and DJ's. Great feeling to have so many friends make this list! 

My ass hurt.

 I wanted to share this link with all my fellow St. Louisfriends...We all deserve a great weekend and a great St. Patrick's DayCelebration! Money shouldn't be an issue so give it a try! It worked forme...have a great Thursday!  http://on.fb.me/Aon5YF

Yeah, I would have liked to see the Mhurs on here too.

Congrats to all of the bands nominated!  Now go check out The Basement.....they'll be on the list next year!

I love the diversity of this list. I love seeing more new names than old ones. I love the lack of repeats. I love all of it. Seriously. Kiernan and committee- y'all did such a great job. This is the best set of nominations I have seen since 2007. No joke. And I'm super honoured to be a part of it, mostly for that reason.

I want to vote for the Funky Butt Brass Band  They are great and we love watching them play....

As one of the people asked to be a nominating committee member, I feel that I should weigh in on some things.

At first, I was genuinely surprised that I was asked by RFT Music to be on the nominating committee.  Later, I realized why I was selected: I go to A LOT of local music shows at A LOT of different venues around town.  I'm also a musician in a local band, but I think that the former reason is more the reason why the RFT Music asked me to be on the committee.

Each committee member was asked to submit ten bands/artists for nomination.  It was really really difficult for me to name only ten!  I wish that I could have submitted at least twenty!  Sincerely, it took me a week to decide whom to leave off my list of ten and whom to include in my list of ten.

I would say that roughly half of the bands whom I nominated are "popular," e.g. consistently draw well.  Roughly the other half of the bands whom I nominated aren't as "popular."  What it came down for me in my selections was not "popularity."  What it came down for me in my selections was basically this criterion:  How often do I tell people something like "Hey, have you heard [band/artist] yet?  Really good and interesting stuff!  You should check 'em out!"  This seemed for me to be the most fitting basic criterion for whom I selected for nomination - what bands do I find most interesting and exciting, what bands do I tell people are "must see and hear?"

And that's basically how I look at these awards.  It's one of several ways of spreading the good word about what's going on in town music-wise.  Obviously, I don't know everything that's going ... who does?  But ... the fact that as I look over the big list of nominees and don't recognize a larger portion of names than I do recognize suggests to me that RFT Music did a pretty good job of asking people to be on the nominating committee that are well outside of a supposed "bubble of friends," "cool clique" or "scene."  I'm looking forward to checking out so many of these bands/artists of whom I've never heard until now.  I would likely have missed the boat on a lot of great stuff it weren't for this event.

Anyway, my $.02.

How do you vote?

I support IT! I don't necessarily agree with the comment made earlier but they are amazingly creative musicians and I believe that will be recognized in the future. When I hear their music I can't help but dance all night and judging from their past shows other people can't either. Keep it up IT! Don't let this get you down!

Editor's Note: We have been informed that one of our original DJ nominees no longer lives in St. Louis -- the category has since been corrected. Gone 2+ Years. Way to keep your ear to the pavement. 

Just to clear up some misinformation here....I don't work for the RFT, but I do work for a local venue.  Kiernan asked me to submit 10 local bands to be considered for the nominations based on the fact that I work with local bands quite often.  He asked multiple people around the city who have extensive knowledge of the local scene.  They then take these suggestions and compile what you see in this post.  It's not a popularity (or non-popularity?) contest like some people below have suggested. 

Sooooo.....if your band didn't get picked, don't take it personally.  Because when you come into a public forum and make an uneducated rant, and mention the band you are in, it reflects very negatively on yourself and your band mates.  Additionally, it probably means you're someone that I don't want to work with.