The PLUG Awards Give The Kids One More Chance To Honor The Arcade Fire

Last night, the PLUG Independent Music Awards–the only awards show in town where having categories honoring “Album Of The Year” and “Indie Rock Album Of The Year” seems both indulgent and redundant–were presented at Terminal 5, in a ceremony that was hosted by Patton Oswalt, apparently ditched last year’s dumb skits, and culminated in a Nick Cave show. While there weren’t many surprises in the list of honorees (apparently, many people who vote in Internet music polls like the Arcade Fire and live in New York City), I’d like to give a special shout-out to Online Record Store Of The Year iTunes, who proved that the right combination of canny song placement and driving the labels crazy with your success can give you bucketloads of cred among the indie cognoscenti. Full list of winners after the jump.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

INDIE ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam

AMERICANA ALBUM OF THE YEAR; Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog

METAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ire Works

HIP-HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Aesop Rock, None Shall Pass

PUNK ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!

ELECTRONIC/DANCE ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Justice, †

DJ ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Hot Chip, DJ Kicks

AVANT ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Liars

ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Radiohead

FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: St. Vincent

MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Andrew Bird

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Justice

SONG OF THE YEAR: The National – “Fake Empire”

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Battles – “Atlas”

ALBUM ART PACKAGING OF THE YEAR: Menomena – Friend And Foe

RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR: Merge

LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR: Arcade Fire

LIVE MUSIC VENUE OF THE YEAR: Bowery Ballroom

MUSIC FESTIVAL OF THE YEAR: Coachella

MUSIC WEBSITE OF THE YEAR: Pitchfork Media

MUSIC BLOG OF THE YEAR: Stereogum

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR: Paste

ZINE OF THE YEAR: Wax Poetics

RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR: Other Music

ONLINE RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR: iTunes

ONLINE RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR: KCRW

COLLEGE/NON-COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION OF THE YEAR: KEXP

SPECIALTY SHOW OF THE YEAR: Sirius: Left Of Center – Blog Radio

PLUG Awards [Official site]