Such was the hustle and bustle in ANBAD towers at the turn of the year – with the relaunch of the website causing both sleep and hair loss – that the fine array of ace new bands almost got forgotten. Well, almost – they nearly became overlooked but the day’s fiftieth cup of coffee brought them back into sharp, lovely focus.

So here’s January’s Top Five New Bands in handy radio-show format, complete with song clips and gushing praise in between. Revel in its wonky, shambling glory:

ANBAD RADIO SHOW // January’s Top Five New Bands

And, if that whetted …

Statement of Fact: November was the best month of bands that have featured on ANBAD ever.

In fairness, this is what I conclude every month, and so is either indicative of:

1. the ever increasing quality of featured new bands (a good thing)
2. the ever increasing distance between reality and my grasp onto it (not so good)

Here’s hoping for the former, eh, readers? However you look at it, there were a bundle of brilliant bands in November, with a possibly record number given the coveted ‘ANBAD Actual Brilliance’ tag.

So, without further ado, here’s:

November’s Top Five New Bands:…

Ah, October, the month that plays merry sartorial havoc with outergarment selection. On the first day of the year that pulling on the goose-down lined half-coat/half-duvet for the first time seems like the correct, mother-pleasing thing to do, warmth and sun inevitably follow.

Likewise, after donning a flimsy cagoule the next day, the wind and rain lash cruelly. October, you cannot compensate for such mischievousness with mere orange leaves, you know.

Luckily for us, October’s new bands actually tried to cheer us up – a typically motley crew of the good, the weird and the grouchy (see # 1 …

I received a moderately angry email from a reader, haranguing me along these lines:

“Joe, I was prepared to ignore your lack of organisation over the summer while you were living in a tent, but you’ve now been back over a month, so there’s no excuse for the absence of the round-up of September’s Top Five Bands. Sort it out, idiot; chop chop.“

OK, it wasn’t an email at all, but the shrieking sound of my guilty conscience. So, belatedly, here are September’s best bands in no particular order:

Robert George Saull & The Purgatory Players – …

In a month where the world has apparently readjusted it’s collective taste-barometer to read ‘Crazy’ and decided that SuBo is actually Elvis, Billie Holliday and Jesus all rolled into one big, hairy, overwhelmed package, perhaps listing May’s Top Five Bands is a moot point. Listing Susan Boyle in places 1-5 would not be the most inexplicable thing to do right now.

However, it’s been a corker of a month on ANBAD, with as dizzying and bewildering an array of great new bands as there’s ever been. So we’re bravely going to avoid placing any frumpy Scottish singers and list the …

April, according to Disney, should have been full of drip-drip-dripping showers. Not here in grim old Manchester, which defied type and, in what was clearly a crazed moment of weakness, allowed 100%-genuine, Vitamin-B-giving, skin-frazzling sunshine through the usually oppressive grey skies.

Inevitably, the shedding of clothes, optimism and a sunny disposition followed, and this feeling was reflected in another ace month of great new bands here on ANBAD.

If the following reviews seem a trifle breathless and joyful, it wasn’t just the weather - this month we dug up a surprising number of exciting, uplifting and inventive bands. So …

There was no ‘Best Of’ list for February. No, we can’t work out why either. It’s safest to lie and brag that here at ANBAD, we don’t play by your insignificant ‘rules’, but truthfully, I think it just got forgotten. Sorry, February’s bands.

Still, March was a typical mind-boggling mix of bands – though if anything, they were almost all left-field to the point of alienation. It’s, like, just where we’re at right now, man. Left-field sounds are risky, pleasing fewer people, but when it’s done right, everyone’s a winner. And these following five bands can all consider themselves winners. …

Good grief. I hope you recovered from the shock of all those bands on Tuesday. Assuming you did, here’s Part Two of the snappily-titled Great A New Band A Day Bands Stockpile Clearout! (See Tuesday’s post if you’re none the wiser)

And today, in semi-reference to the South By South West festival taking place, all the bands are from the USA! Thematic-tastic! Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!

The Steps - Not the hellish late-90′s novelty disco-pop-gone-bad multi-million selling quintet, but the gusty rock behemoth-to-be from Austin, Texas. They grind out dinosaur-wrestlin’ rawk songs that will punch you in the face, …

Yesterday was the start of the Great A New Band A Day Band Stockpile Clearout – where the list of great bands that had backed up gets a good sluice out. If you missed it, check it RIGHT OUT below – there’s four great bands that’ll melt your mind, mop it up, wring it out into a glass, and drink it.

Time is needed for all those bands to be digested properly. So here’s something to read whilst you do it: The ANBAD eBook – 2! It’s chock-packed with the best writing, the best bands and the best* puns that …

We’ve decided to elope on holiday for a few days, taking a well-earned* break somewhere in continental Europe where the weather isn’t so determinedly grey and lifeless. Super. I’ll bring you back a straw donkey and a foul-tasting obscure foreign liquor.

*barely deserved

It also gives us an opportunity to demolish the ANBAD New Bands Stockpile – the depository of bands that are on the list to be featured on the website, but haven’t yet. This is due to the fact that we find more new bands we’re desperate to feature than we have days to write about them. And …