It occurred to me yesterday that I’ve been running ANBAD for exactly five years now.

I’m not sure what to celebrate the most: the fact that I managed to stick to the premise of writing (hyperbole) about a new(-ish) band (almost) every (working) day (except weekends and holidays) or the fact that I haven’t gone clinically insane whilst doing it.

A minor landmark moment like this always induces some soul-searching, or at least simple head-scratching.

And five years is a long time online: Myspace was still the main online music resource, hashtags were a minority interest, and The Hype Machine …

Is Record Store Day about record shops or mainly an opportunity for a load of empty vessels to tell us all how much they love record shops?

My thoughts on Record Store Day are pretty much entirely recorded elsewhere on ANBAD; and as RSD sweeps around again, amongst a flurry of BBC 6 Music ads and a glut of PR emails, my position hasn’t changed too much from the fairly ruthless one I occupied in the above article.

I still don’t want record shops to disappear, but I sure as hell don’t want record shops to become shorthand for …

The last time I lived in a home with an internet connection was 12 months ago. When I tell people this, eyebrows involuntarily rise and the phrase, “but… how do you cope?” often pops out of their slack, incredulous jaws.

Truth is, it’s pretty easy to live a life without the internet at home. And in regards to listening to music, it’s – I feel odd typing this – preferable.

Maybe it’s probably important to point out that I haven’t voluntarily chosen to live without the internet as some sort of tiresome experiment with an eye on a magazine …

Aside from the meta-irony of a blog called A New Band A Day going to SXSW and not blogging for the entire duration, what else have we gleaned from this year’s visit to a scorching hot Austin, Texas?

Last year, ANBAD emerged from SXSW dazed, confused and slightly scarred for life. And yet, it was all kind-of worth it to catch first glimpses of Mujuice, Mmoths, et al.

This year, SXSW was busier and more ludicrous than ever. There’s not much point me ‘tipping’ any bands that I saw, because there were so many that they …

January was a RED HOT month for new bands, and this little lot represent the best of a great bunch – including, in Painted Zeros – a band I went a bit mental about.

Listen and boggle as the superlatives pour from my flapping lips:

A New Band A Day’s Best New Bands Of January 2013 by Joesparrow on Mixcloud

Comebacks have, in a very short period of time, transmogrified from delightful surprises to ho-hum cynicism-hackle-raisers. And it’s the fault of the very last person you’d expect.

Prior to last weekend, Kevin Shields had become a figure of fun in many quarters (or, at least, in my household) simply because here was a man slogging away at sonically revolutionary, near-spiritual and idealogical perfectionism in an age when people knock out echo-laden dream-pop on their MacBooks in their lunch breaks.

And it all seemed rather brilliant, rather worthy and rather un-now.

And it all seemed worth waiting for, and worth …

A New Band A Day’s Best New Bands Of 2012 by Joesparrow on Mixcloud

ANBAD doesn’t exist in a vacuum, you know.

I mean, yes, it kind of does, as evidenced by all the thrusting up-and-comers that make up ANBAD’s Bands Of The Year.

But the point I’m making is that ANBAD has to be aware of the outside world to sniff out the new bands – so here’s ANBAD’s look back at 2012: chiefly the bands, albums and news too big to feature on ANBAD but ultimately too big to ignore.

THE DEATH OF ADAM YAUCH

The Beastie Boys, in the mainstream UK viewpoint at least, are still regarded as …

ANBAD is running through the best new bands of the year. For explanation of why and how, click here. For the Top Ten, try here (10-6) and here (5-3) and for the great bands that just missed out, here (15-11).

And so, for the second time in three years, ANBAD’s New Band of the Year is from the Iberian peninsula: after Youthless won me over with their pristine clatter-pop in 2010, here, from the stridently different city of Barcelona comes Seward, defiantly obtuse, thrillingly inventive and stubbornly odd.

And here’s an equally odd disclaimer: You may not love Seward …

ANBAD is running through the best new bands of the year. For explanation of why and how, click here.

For the Top Ten, try here (10-6) and here (5-3) and for the great bands that just missed out, here (15-11).

One of the (many) things that keeps me mentally writhing in pain when picking the year’s Best New Bands is that often, one of them is a band I blogged about recently.

I worry that the only reason I’m singling them out as being especially good is that they are still pinging the synapses of my very short …