I had wondered if the shakeup in the music staff at the Village Voice would mean the end of the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, but according to a story in today’s New York Times about an upstart rival poll, the Voice plans to go ahead with the poll.

For those not paying attention earlier this year, after New Times Media purchased the Voice, it let go several staffers, including Music Editor Chuck Eddy and critic Robert Christgau. Because Christgau had overseen the poll, it seemed likely that it would go by the wayside. Instead, there now will be two polls: Pazz & Jop and the new Jackin’ Pop poll from Idolator.com, a music blog that is part of the Gawker Media family.

The more the merrier, of course, though I wonder if, in this age of bloggers and Metacritic and other instant-criticism outlets, there is still a need for these polls. Oh, who am I kidding. Of course there is. No matter now many lists there are out there, I’ll always read one more. Music obsessives are always after two things: Confirmation of their own good taste and news about new things that might possibly conform to that taste. There is nothing better than a year-end list to supply plenty of fodder for both.

Stay tuned here in the next couple of weeks for my own list. For an idea of what’s to come, last year’s list can be found here.

The end of the year is imminent, and that means the inevitable flood of “best-of” lists is about to begin. I’ll post at least one, if not more, in this space come December, but until then, there will be plenty of linking to do.

The first comes from Information Leafblower, which posted its fourth annual list of the Top 40 Bands in America. As you can guess, that leaves out anyone who isn’t American, which thins the list somewhat. Kyle compiled the list by asking several music bloggers to weigh in.

TV on the Radio tops the list on the strength of the band’s Return to Cookie Mountain disc. The group didn’t make last year’s list, so it’s quite a feat. The Hold Steady, the Decemberists, Ghostface Killah and My Morning Jacket round out the top 5.

As with any list, there is plenty of discussion/argument fodder about why certain bands did or didn’t make it, but overall it’s a fairly solid list that reaffirms just as many of my opinions as it challenges. I was glad to see Shearwater, Midlake and Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos on the list, and intrigued by the presence of Bishop Allen, Man Man and Lavender Diamond. And, as is always the case, it adds to the ever-growing list of bands I want to check out.

Voting for this year’s Plug Independent Music Awards is open, and at first glance, it seems to indicate that things were a bit off this year. Perhaps you can chalk it up to the fact that 2005 music has had an extra year to burrow its way into my consciousness, but the nominees for last year’s awards seem to be a stronger bunch than those for this year.

Take a look at the Album of the Year nominees for 2006 (for albums issued in 2005):
Animal Collective – Feels (FatCat)
Antony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (Vice)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Self-released)
Dangerdoom – The Mouse And The Mask (Adult Swim/Epitaph)
Devendra Banahrt – Cripple Crow (XL)
The National – Alligator (Beggars)
The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (Matador)
Sleater-Kinney – The Woods (Sub Pop)
Spoon – Gimme Fiction (Merge)
Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
Wolf Parade – Apologies To The Queen Mary (Sub Pop)

And the nominees for 2007:
Band Of Horses – Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
Beirut – Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing)
Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (Matador)
Cat Power – The Greatest (Matador)
Girl Talk – Night Ripper (Illegal Art)
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House (Warp)
J Dilla – Donuts (Stones Throw)
Joanna Newsom – Ys (Drag City)
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti-)
Silversun Pickups – Carnavas (Dangerbird)
The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
The Knife – Silent Shout (Mute)

Maybe it’s a matter of personal taste, but beyond Band of Horses, Belle & Sebastian and Grizzly Bear, I’m not pulling these out for a listen much any more. Some, like Newsom, I just don’t get, and others, like the Silversun Pickups, seem hopelessly bland at best. Contrast that with last year, where those last six nominees alone still garner significant spins around chez TIRBD.

Then again, perhaps it’s more a matter of nominations than overall quality. Yo La Tengo, Midlake, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Califone, etc., all were nominated in other categories. Add them to the Album of the Year list, drop a few over-hyped entries, and you’d have the makings for a pretty good year.

The folks at the Power Pop Lovers blog have unearthed some amazing vinyl-only finds over the past several months, presenting them in all their crackle-pop mp3 glory. Lately, however, they’ve turned to the printed word, offering PDF scans of old BOMP! magazines. One in particular from 1979 caught my eye thanks to its cover story on Nick Lowe. In addition to his prodigious songwriting talent, Nick is also quite the wit, and here he weighs in on the Sex Pistols, the Beach Boys and New Wave.

Some of his views are dated, such as this nugget about Elvis Costello’s appeal: “Elvis’ audience, for instance, consists not only of people who are music enthusiasts, but also a lot of young girls who really get off on him like they do with Gary Glitter or did with Marc Bolan.” Oh, how times change! Elvis would likely be horrified to be mentioned in the same sentence with Glitter today, and one wonders about his appeal to young girls even in his heyday.

Lowe is presciently on target with other observations, such as his take on the Beach Boys’ Mike Love — “Is he the one that wears that hat all the time? What a wanker that bloke is!” — which seems as timely today as ever. He singles out Cheap Trick for praise in part for the band’s sense of humor. He says he’d like to work with them someday, a thought that, even 25 years later, produces a shiver over what might have been.

He even, oddly enough, takes a swipe at jazz pianist Chick Corea: “There’s a bloke called Chick Corea who I think is diabolical. I think he’s soaked up. I cannot believe that so many people think he’s hot. I mean, I can’t play the piano, but I can play the piano.” With all due respect Nick, you should stick to pop music and leave the jazz criticism to someone else.

The entire issue is an interesting time capsule for power pop fans, and is one of two posted on the site thus far.

In completely unrelated news, the Monday Interview returns to TIRBD on, fittingly enough, this coming Monday. After what you could consider a beta test with interviews with Robert Pollard and Carrie Yury over the past few months, I’m ready to make this a bonafied weekly feature. Watch for my Q&A with crime novelist George Pelecanos on Monday, where we discuss the use of music in his work and his forays into lyric writing.

R.E.M. would seem to be a lock for induction into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame early next year. The band, which is eligible now that 25 years have passed (!) since its first release (1982′s Chronic Town EP), ought to sail into the hall with little difficulty. Oddly, Patti Smith, a hero and mentor to R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, is on this year’s ballot. Without bothering to look it up (I’m on vacation this week), I seem to recall that she had been passed over before. It would make for an interesting induction to have these two acts go in this year. And, one assumes, that it will offer yet another chance for the retired Bill Berry to step behind the kit.

Also on the ballot are Van Halen, the Stooges, the Dave Clark Five, Chic, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Joe Tex and the Ronettes. Hard to pick, though I’d guess Grandmaster Flash, the Ronettes and the Stooges will join R.E.M. and Smith in this year’s class.

The selections will be announced in January and the ceremony will be held March 12 in New York.

Alejandro Escovedo showed last night that he hasn’t lost a step despite the bout with Hepatitis C that kept him off the stage for more than a year. His show here in Iowa City last night was a triumphant return, mixing old favorites, inspired covers and energetic takes on his new material that made me reconsider my lukewarm appraisal.

Fronting a six-piece band that included longtime drummer Hector Munoz and hired gun violinist Susan Voelz, Escovedo came out rocking with an authoritative take on With These Hands’ “Put You Down.” He then dove into his new disc, The Boxing Mirror, playing a handful of those tracks. While there was a keyboard present throughout, it was much more muted (or rather, drowned out by the twin guitar attack) than on the disc. John Cale produced the album, and the echo-laden sound and many synth lines make it sound like some lost mid-80s nugget. Live, the songs were tougher, sounding more of a piece with the rest of Escovedo’s catalog.

Later in the set he pulled out a few tracks from Bourbonitis Blues and “Baby’s Got New Plans” from Thirteen Years. As usual, he offered a few covers, including the Gun Club’s “Sex Beat” and, in the encore, a curious string that included David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” and Oasis’ “Supersonic.” He closed with Ian Hunter’s “I Wish I Was Your Mother.”

The close of the main set was perhaps the best sign that Escovedo is feeling well. He and his band roared through “Castanets,” a fast, heavy, riff-laden tune that has been a live favorite. He prefaced it by saying that it had been dropped from the set for a while after he read in the New York Times that it was on President Bush’s iPod, something, he said, that embarassed him. He obviously got over it, perhaps channeling that frustration through the song itself. As it came crashing to a close, Escovedo attacked his guitar with a series of arm windmills that would have left Pete Townshend gasping for breath.