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• Best Video From an MC This Year

  My Volvo

  Just ask Fatboy Slim, Soundgarden, or OK Go: A great video can make your song better. The video for Grynch's "My Volvo," an ode to his 1986 ride—featuring cameos from a slew of other rappers who don't even appear on the song—is the sweetest thing we've seen all year. "I've laughed in that car/I've cried in that car/And knock on… More >>

• Best New-Music Midwife

  Steve Peters

  After three years, it looks like the seemingly quixotic experiment set up at Wallingford's Chapel Performance Space—a venue for music at its least commercial—has put down solid roots. Steve Peters, who with his nonprofit organization Nonsequitur rents the airy, paneled space from Historic Seattle and makes it available to musicians for next to nothing, oversees a packed performance schedule (if… More >>

• Best Reason to Stop Liking Band of Horses

  Band of Horses started in Seattle, and even after they moved back to South Carolina a few years ago, we've continued to feel a sense of hometown pride for them, thanks to their first two albums, 2006's stellar Everything All the Time and 2007's not-as-great-but-still-solid Cease to Begin. But this year brought a couple of changes: Band of Horses left… More >>

• Best French Music Since Serge Gainsbourg

  Phoenix

  When we think of French pop, we usually go back to the '60s—Bardot, Jacques Brel, Françoise Hardy. But today we've got Phoenix, France's finest musical export since Gainsbourg. The pop-rock quartet hit the Showbox SoDo on January 23 for a sold-out concert, and put on a flawless performance. Thomas Mars is the ultimate frontman: Charismatic yet humble, intrepid but not… More >>

• Best Equilibrist

  Elena Borodina

  Best what? Yeah, we didn't know what one was, either—until we saw the latest Teatro ZinZanni production, Maestro's Menagerie. Now we know that an equilibrist performs difficult feats of balancing, and we're confident that nobody in town does it more beautifully than Elena Borodina. For most of the show, this Russian gymnast plays an arch sidekick to the Maestro himself,… More >>

• Best Comedian We Wish Was Still Living in Seattle

  Lauren Weedman

  Why, oh why, did Lauren Weedman leave us? She of all people should know that Seattle desperately needs more laughs—especially at the city's own expense. Weedman, for those who don't know, specializes in one-person shows that re-enact moments in her (purported) life, relentlessly exposing her own foibles in the process. She exposes everybody else's, too, as she mimics friends, relatives,… More >>

• Best Warehouse for Taxidermy Goats to Gather

  Western Bridge

  The cavernous main gallery at Western Bridge makes possible some of the most impressive shows in Seattle. Back in February, for instance, Euan Macdonald constructed an entire fake mountain peak, two stories tall and adorned with goats and snow. It was one of the weirdest, most memorable exhibits of the year, in a 10,000-square-foot space established six years ago by… More >>

• Best Reason to Keep Liking Neko Case

  It doesn't matter that she now lives on a farm in rural Vermont—we'll always lay claim to Tacoma girl Neko Case as a Northwest artist. Plus, she still makes sure to perform at least one of our big festivals each year: She'll show up at Bumbershoot in September and played Sasquatch! in May with her band the New Pornographers. It… More >>

• Best Place to Introduce Your Music to the Universe

  Gas Works Park

  The lake in the background with the downtown skyline, perennially green hills, kids with kites, quirky old machinery, and the good ol' Burke-Gilman Trail: There are a lot of reasons to love Gas Works Park, but it's also the perfect place to massage a guitar and sing out into the sky. Tourists come by, meaning lots of excited oohs and… More >>

• Best Person to Teach You to Sing Smooth Soprano

  Nancy Zylstra

  Nancy Zylstra never caught the opera bug. While majoring in bassoon at the University of Washington, she discovered a love for singing—just not in the opera style favored by the school. "I couldn't stand all that vibrato," she says. So she sold her bassoon and moved to Paris to study with a voice instructor there. And over the next several… More >>

• Best Place to Stand at a Club Show

  Tall people at shows are eternally conscious that they're obstructing short people's views. But that one wall at the Sunset, next to the bathrooms and right in front of the stage, is a win-win for everyone. Stand there, and not only do you not block anyone's view, nobody ever really stands in front of you. You do have to contend… More >>

• Best Way to Overcome Big-Apple Hunger

  Northwest Film Forum

  If anything, the economy is still worse in New York than in Seattle. Add to that the cost of housing (even in Brooklyn), and moving to NYC can seem like a pipe dream. But what about all the culture we're supposedly missing? Not so much in the film arena, thanks to Northwest Film Forum, which imports just about every art-house… More >>

• Best Barsuk Release of the Year

  Phantogram's "Eyelid Movies"

  Seattle's other hometown label had an impressive year, introducing lots of fresh and exciting music from bands like Maps & Atlases, Menomena, and Blunt Mechanic. But Barsuk's best and brightest 2010 release came from a boy/girl electronic duo from upstate New York. Phantogram's Eyelid Movies is a study in smooth, sexy dream-pop—hazy and sensual, but also intensely energetic, at times… More >>

• Best Commercial Featuring a Local Musician

  Tree Top apple juice

  Today's independent musicians often count on commercials and soundtracks for exposure that radio no longer offers. That'll not likely be the effect of Michael Vermillion's appearance on a 15-second animated ad for Tree Top apple juice, though—a simple whistle, followed by a handful of down-home, bluesy, workday chords. It's part of a campaign called Real People From Real People, and… More >>

• Best Unsanctioned Installation

  Building on Airport Way South

  It's not really open to the public ("trespassing" would be the official term here), but if you're willing to crawl under a chain-link fence and brave some pigeon poop, that yellow, vine-covered building on Airport Way South is an urban spelunking site worth seeking out on a Sunday afternoon. Three street artists have taken over the space—NKO, No Touching Ground,… More >>

• Best Showcase for Youthful Vision

  National Film Festival for Talented Youth

  While his friends were filling out college applications and daydreaming about a cushy life in the dorms, 17-year-old Jesse Harris was using his college savings to write, direct, and produce a feature film, Living Life, that was later screened at festivals and distributed on DVD by Vivendi. As if that weren't already cooler than soccer practice or marching-band drills, Harris… More >>

• Best Show-Poster Artist

  Frida Clements

  By day, Frida Clements is the senior graphic designer for Seattle Theatre Group, doing concert posters, among other duties, for the Moore and the Paramount. She spends her spare time the same way, supporting the musicians she loves most. This year the lucky artists benefitting from her work included The Tallest Man on Earth (aka Kristian Matsson), whom she portrayed… More >>

• Best Song/Film Fusion of 2010

  ODDSAC

  Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion was the cool kids' favorite album of 2009. The Baltimore band followed up that hit with what they called a "visual album"—their soundtrack to a 52-minute horror film called ODDSAC, which screened at the Egyptian on March 30. The music booms, reverbs, and howls along with the action in the nightmarish film, which recalls the… More >>

• Best Rural Movie Theater

  Vashon Theatre

  Vashon Island dances to its own beat. Unlike the Bainbridge, Bremerton, or even Kingston ferries, if you walk onto the one departing Fauntleroy for the southwesterly isle, you're sort of stranded. Even if you bring a bike, the hill you're confronted with at the onset of the three-mile ride to Vashon's tiny commercial strip is so daunting that you'll be… More >>

• Best Teeny Tacoma Art Space

  The Telephone Room

  Small is good, when you can get to it. At 12.5 square feet, The Telephone Room occupies a closet-sized space in a Dutch Colonial home that since 1930 had been occupied by nothing more than a black rotary-dial telephone. But in May 2009, this tiny room began housing artist-led installations by the likes of Blake Haygood, Ben Hirschkoff, Nicholas Nyland,… More >>

• Best Reason to Buy the Full Pass for Bumbershoot

  Reduced-Price Ticket

  Somewhere along the line, Bumbershoot's mainstage lost its way. Everybody understands the need to fill the seats. But Jason Mraz? Mercy! And sadly there was no opt-out option; everything at the festival was packed into a single ticket price. This spring, One Reel, the parent of the annual Labor Day fest, revealed the glorious news: This year, attendees will be… More >>

• Best Source for a Cassette Tape of Your Favorite Band

  GGNZLA Records

  My car—a mid-'90s Camry with 197,000 miles on it (God love her)—was broken into recently. Every item of value was stolen: my leather jacket, my...OK, that was it. What was left not-so-neatly in place was my collection of cassette tapes, the crown jewel being an Elvis Costello compendium. I explained this recently to t.v. Coahran, owner of the underground label… More >>

• Best Display of Goodwill Toward a Red State

  "Messin' With Texas: Seattle Bands Sing Songs of the Lone Star State"

  Texas has unleashed a lot of shit on the rest of the country, Like Karl Rove, Jessica Simpson, and Anna Nicole Smith—there's an unholy trio for you. But it's impossible to overlook the great musical artists who've also come out of there—Janis Joplin, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Beyoncé, to name just a few. That legacy was celebrated in April… More >>

• Best Place to Relive the '80s

  Chateau Ste. Michelle

  The last time you saw the B-52s, Chris Isaak, and Crowded House listed together, it was probably on a Billboard chart circa 1986. But this month, all of the above are playing outdoor concerts at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Unless the weather trips you up, shows at the Chateau are a guaranteed good time—essentially you show up, buy a couple bottles… More >>

• Best Multipurpose Comedy Club

  The Parlor Live Comedy Club

  With a 16-channel digital sound system, intelligent stage lighting, and national headliners most weekends (Rob Schneider, Hal Sparks, Michael Winslow, etc.), The Parlor Live Comedy Club often outdoes its peers. True, it's upscale and located in the high-toned Lincoln Square in downtown Bellevue, but it's far from pretentious. (And really, how pretentious could a comedy club be?) A round of… More >>

• Best Cradle of Theatrical Success

  Village Theatre

  Issaquah's Village Theatre could teach many a Seattle performing-arts group about how to cultivate new work. Million Dollar Quartet, first offered as part of the theater's Festival of New Musicals in 2006, then given a mainstage production in 2007, went on to earn a Tony on Broadway (and was nominated for two more). Even more impressive was the path of… More >>

• Best Cassette to Buy From Coahran

  The Dutchess & the Duke's "Sunset/Sunrise"

  Among the Hardly Art music Coahran has issued on cassette, the one from The Dutchess & the Duke is special. On side one, their debut full-length She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke; on side two, their second release, Sunset/Sunrise. Everyone says D&D is all retro Rolling Stones, which may be kinda true when listening digitally. But the slightly distorted warble… More >>

• Best Free EP to Light Up Your Summer

  The physics' "Three Piece"

  Between last year's High Society EP and this spring's Three Piece, The Physics are becoming as synonymous with Seattle summers as socks and sandals, rain on the Fourth, and hydroplanes. Laid-back but not sloppy, irreverent without being glib, Three Piece is as easy to listen to and forget as it is to take in slowly with—as the first track implores… More >>

• Best Reason to Drop $200 on a $50 Ticket

  Lady Gaga's Monster Ball

  Yeah, Justin Bieber was at the Everett Events Center in July, but the greatest pop extravaganza to overtake the Pacific Northwest this year will be Lady Gaga's Monster Ball, coming to the Tacoma Dome on August 21. Once upon a time, GaGa would drop by Neighbours, the Showbox, and even Nathan Hale High School. No longer. Tickets to the Monster… More >>

• Best Way to Unleash Your Inner Diva

  Pop-Culture Dance Classes at The Century Ballroom

  Channel your inner Sasha Fierce with the Seattle performance troupe Dance Belt. Waxie Moon, Inga Ingenue, and Lou Henry Hoover teach a range of pop-culture dance classes at the Century Ballroom. In intensive 90-minute sessions, you'll learn to appropriate the choreography from your favorite artists' most epic music videos, including Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance," and a medley… More >>

• Best Reason to Leave a 26-Year Job

  When I heard Gerard Schwarz's beautiful, richly brooding piece for cello and strings, In Memoriam, which Music of Remembrance premiered in 2005, I conjectured—and hoped—that shifting his focus to composition would make an ideal "out" whenever he decided to step down from leading the Seattle Symphony. He made the announcement in September 2008, and, yes indeed, his musical output has… More >>

• Best Percussion Face-Off

  Caribou

  As a preview to their first-ever Sasquatch! set, Canadian experimentalists Caribou played to a sold-out crowd at Neumos on May 27. During the set, the band's mastermind, Dan Snaith, moved among vox (with two microphones), guitar, synth, a little white flute, and, most epically, drums. With his kit set face-to-face against that of his touring drummer, Brad Weber, the two… More >>

• Best New Venue for Free Shows

  Columbia City Theater

  Columbia City lacked a solid, midsized live-music venue, so when earlier this year CB Shamah and Rob Hillman purchased and reopened the defunct Columbia City Theater—which, in past lives, had hosted the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi Hendrix—they filled a need, and did it generously. For their official grand opening in July, CCT hosted free shows from bands you'd… More >>

• Best Happy Ending

  Velocity Dance Center

  When Oddfellows Hall was bought by a new developer and rents were jacked up, a shudder went through the arts community, especially the dance world. Velocity Dance Center, a hub of Seattle's dance action since its 1996 founding, couldn't afford to stay in its beautiful home. Led by the always-able Kara O'Toole, the group began to scour the city for… More >>

• Best Guitarist

  Jerry Battista

  Jerry Battista plays guitar in the Dusty 45s, the Davanos, the Lazyboys, the Jer-Kels, the Battista Brothers, the Two Fifths, and Suicide Jack. By the time you read this, he’ll likely have formed another band so that the Tuesday night off that’s been keeping his fingers all too idle is filled up. Battista will happily play any venue, from a… More >>

• Best "General Utility Man"

  Greg McCormick Allen

  It's a term they used back in the late 1800s to describe an all-purpose stage entertainer: a little music, a little hoofing, comedy, character roles, the guy who propped up the leading man and ingenue, the engine that kept a show moving. And in the past couple of years, Greg McCormick Allen has been the best local example of one—as… More >>

• Best Kids to Press Your First Vinyl Record

  Single Piece Slate

  We all know that making a "record" has never been easier. If you've got a computer and a slightly sober head about you, you have a better home studio than the first million or so artists did when they cut their first tracks. But the kids at Single Piece Slate really are cutting records. Vinyl records (mostly singles/45s). In their… More >>

• Best T-Shirt From a Local Rapper

  Macklemore

  Macklemore is one of our favorite personalities in Seattle's lively hip-hop scene. He even won a Best of the Web award from us this year as the city's best Tweeter. (Although he recently stated, "I'm taking a break from Twitter/Facebook for a while. Music needs to be made and real life needs to be lived in order to do that.")… More >>

• Best Contract Renewal

  Peter Boal

  Forget the fuss over the Sounders losing Freddie Ljungberg—this spring Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal signed on for another five-year term! In his first five, Boal managed to take over gracefully from longtime leaders Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, and then amplify what they'd established. He's added new choreographers to the roster (Morris, Tharp, and Wheeldon among them),… More >>

• Best Place to Admire the Room as Well as the Art

  Suyama Space

  A former auto body shop, Suyama Space is sited smack in the middle of the architectural offices of Suyama Peterson Deguchi. And those guys know good bones. Beth Sellars curates this space, which has housed some of the most gorgeous art installations in the city. The best exhibitions here, however, make you look at the floor and the ceiling, forcing… More >>