And here you thought all the electorializing was over, didn't you? Well, no such luck -- and no, I'm not talking, surprisingly, about Chris Bell's impending runoff for that pesky Texas Senate seat, or even about the Al Franken/Norm Coleman thing still going on up north, nuh-uh.

No, I'm talking about The Sammies, which is when local scene-blog/site/etc. The Skyline Network gathers together the faithful in the indie-ish music scene here in town & has 'em vote for fairly arbitrary (but still cool, mind you) categories of awards. It's like a totally un-serious, satirical music-award deal, except that, um, the bands nominated are actually really, really good. And people kinda-sorta care about the outcome. (I think...)

If you don't already know how it works (and yeah, if you're a card-carrying scenester already, then you probably do), here's the deal, straight from Ryan, he of the hipster lingo, over at Skyline:

THE SKYLINE NETWORK, Houston's MOST EXTREME PARTY CALL ME online outlet for local music news, reviews, gossip, rumor and real talk announces that the ballot for the 2008 SAMMY AWARDS is now online. The Sammies, as they are affectionately called, are given out each year to the at-the-moment favorites of readers of The Skyline Network and Houston as a whole.

For 2008, 21 awards are up for grabs, ranging from "Favorite Live Band" to "Favorite Happy Hour Bar" to "Favorite 7"." Amazing. Voting runs in the narrowest of windows, starting today, December 10th and closing Friday, December 19th. Awards will be announced at the MOST EXTREME NON-AWARDS SHOW LIKE AWARDS PARTY to be held the following day, December 20th, at the Big Star Bar in the Heights. The evening will feature no live performances, no DJs and no actual handing-out of awards, but it will be a chance to rub shoulders with some of the city's most glittery glitterati and get an exclusive listen of our pick of the year's top tracks. HORRAH.

There it is -- go to the site, vote the hell out of it, and then show up on 12/20 to see who won & hang with, um, some of the people you voted for, most likely. It'll apparently be a bit of a low-key affair, but hey, there's nothing wrong with that; it sucks ass trying to chat with folks while some band you probably know is up onstage trying to rock out over your chatting. The no-band, no-DJ, just-folks option is probably best for both sides.

I have to say, btw, that I had to make some hard, hard choices with my votes. I mean, how can you smack down one deserving band in favor of another like that, just kick 'em to the curb? Like so: "Teenage Kicks, I love y'all, but -- smack! -- sorry, I had to vote for Something Fierce for 'Best Punk.' No offense..."

See? It breaks my heart, folks. Must we compete? Can't we all just love one another equally in a just-friends kind of way?

Labels: H-Town News, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Things To Do, Things To Read

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