As dictated by The Music Blogger’s Handbook (we’re all issued with one when we sign up to inflict our views on an indifferent world), there are three things that ANBAD must be doing right now.

Firstly, this post needs to be appearing after the mandatory Two Week Christmas Recovery Period, where all email is automatically deleted, and any mentions of a trudge through Soundcloud or Bandcamp is deflected with a nervous laugh and the tinkle of another gin and tonic being poured.

Secondly, the ‘site’ (no-one has a blog any more) is spruced up to be slightly cleaner,…

Well. This is awkward. Didn’t Lissi Dancefloor Disaster feature on ANBAD last year? What are they doing astride the top of the Best Of 2011 List? Have I lost my mind?

Well, in answer to the first question: yes, they were on ANBAD in 2010 – I saw them play a short, brilliant gig to an empty room underneath Oldham Street in Manchester and simply had to tell someone about it.

In answer to he second and most important question: they are #1 because, simply, LDD’s Pop Musiiic wheedled its way into my brain from the instant I heard it …

Nearly there now… don’t forget to check out the runners up (Parts One and Two), as well as the bands who are ranked from 10 to 6, and 5 to 3.

How did Trwbador sneak into the number two slot? They’re just so unassuming. Look at them. They wouldn’t even bruise a fly, let alone hurt one.

Well, bluntly, it’s because Sun In Winter has been buzzing around my brain like one of The Numskulls ever since I first marvelled at the breathtakingly clear-cut splicing of folk ‘n’ beatz that makes up this marvel of a …

As we trundle imperceptibly closer to the frothing climax of ANBAD’s 2011 Top Ten, the bands are getting weirder, more coiling, and more devious in nature.

Just like capitalism, the closer you get to that top 5%, the more sly and crafty it’s inhibitors are.

ANBAD: you’ll come for the bands, but stay for the politics.

Don’t forget to check out the runners up (Parts One and, indeed, Two), as well as the bands who are ranked from 10-6.

#5 – Tech Coast/Tours: So many bands present themselves anonymously these days, that soon all bands will be faceless, …

If you missed them, here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of the list of bands who didn’t quite make the Top Ten…

Sifting through the hundreds of bands who were splurged all over ANBAD is a task which is part edifying pleasure and part brutal exposure of this writer’s foibles at any one period throughout the year.

Not many bands have ‘aged’ badly in the months since they were first exposed in breathless terms (though some are there, if you’re inclined to find them). If anything, revisiting them has been affirmative: their songs still prickle the same nerve-endings as they did when first …

Here’s Part Two of ANBAD’s Best Bands of 2011 Runner’s-Up List. Cast a beady eye over Part One here.

Next week, a rarity: decisiveness in action, and I’ll be picking the Top Ten new bands featured on ANBAD this year.

All the bands that will be featured over the next week or so have quite definitely not been carefully judged, weighed and balanced against one another: you’ll find no pretence here that this will be anything other than the mysterious blue fluff nestling in the belly button that is ANBAD.

But first, here’s a bunch of bands that didn’t …

So. Why pick the ANBAD End O’ Year List, which starts in earnest next week, over any other music blogs’?

Well, there is no real reason, though if you’ve had the determination to read past the first paragraph, maybe you have a modicum of interest in slip-sliding into the grubby, ragged, and frequently ludicrous world of new bands from a slightly different, dubious angle.

Still, while you’re deciding whether it’s worth the plunge or not (HINT: it actually is – there were some genuinely terrific bands on ANBAD this year), here’s Part One of the patronising pat-on-the-head for the bands that …

I love Spotify. If you like listening to music, I know that you love Spotify too.

Because what is there not to love? And I do mean love - I can vividly recall the dizzying, bewildering, heart-racing feelings when I first downloaded it a few years ago, and lots days discovering and rediscovering amazing music.

I became Spotify’s loudest, most rabid, most insistent acolyte, forcing family and friends to download it. (I still recommend you do, by the way)

Try it yourself – just say to your nearest and dearest, “Imagine your iTunes collection suddenly bloats and distends to include almost all …

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Whoah. It’s almost Christmas. No really, it is. Check the calendar. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

See? Crazy isn’t it. And just when the season of moderate goodwill has swept by, do you know what’ll whip around just as fast? The Brit Awards.

Yep, the massive UK music jamboree, habitually sponsored by MasterCard, will zoom back into all of our lives, and bombard us with the usual flurry of award-scattering, tales of drunken behaviour, and endless reminiscances of that time when Jarvis Cocker waved his bottom towards Michael Jackson.

If you dare, cast …

**This is a Sponsored Post.**