Plugging Into the Underground

Award ceremonies are double-edged swords. Take the Academy Awards, which dutifully reward those working behind the scenes — be they producers, set decorators, or sound editors — as well as the stars out front. Of course, Oscar night makes an even bigger spectacle out of patting its own back and reveling in its self-importance, not to mention correcting its past mistakes.

But at least the Oscars recognize foreign contributions, short films, and independent features. Music award ceremonies, be they the American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, or the Grammys, shine their spotlight exclusively on major label product and rarely on foreign shores. It was one year while watching the inanity that the lead editor of independent music bellwether, the College Music Journal (CMJ), Gerry Hart, and a few of his friends had a revelation

"Kid Rock was at all of them! And it just struck us like 'This is crazy!'" he said. After an extensive armchair discussion, Mr. Hart and a clutch of friends — "people running college radio shows, buyers at indie record stores … none of us very important" — decided to do their own awards ceremony, heralding albums they liked, basically to "create a big mixtape for the year."

Enter the PLUG Awards. When they first appeared online in 2000, there was no grand design to the proceedings. "We've never been big awards fans, so its not like we have great respect for the format anyway," Mr. Hart said. "But it just occurred to us how much there was no umbrella under which the independent music community gathered. Instead, it was more of a forum where people could basically say, 'this was a great year and here's all the stuff that we were really excited about.'"

In that first year, the PLUGs were excited about underground groups like At the Drive-In and a curious brother-sister garage-pop band called the White Stripes. Now in their third year of celebrating with a live show, which will take over Irving Plaza tomorrow night, this year's entertainers include Brooklyn indie hip-hop noisenik producer El-P and the tangled avant-pop of Deerhoof, capped off with a performance by ex-Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus and his current band, the Jicks. In a nod to the ubiquitous lifetime achievement awards peddled at other shows, Mr. Malkmus will receive the PLUG's Impact Award for his nearly two decades of service. It's an honor he'll share with past recipients such as the Flaming Lips and Cat Power's Chan Marshall.

Such excitement about little bands isn't limited just to Mr. Hart and a cabal of freelance writers, label heads, and music bloggers. Unlike more mainstream counterparts, the PLUG Awards are decided solely by online voting from fans and other members of the independent music community. While in its first year the plan was to just keep the link among selected friends, music fans soon unearthed the link and cast their votes. Beyond the initial invitations to 100 people, some 10,000 voters wound up double-clicking that first year. This year continues the trend.

"We saw as many votes in the first two weeks that we saw the previous year combined," Mr. Hart said. "The voting has really exploded. There's a lot more fan interest. It looks like PLUG is more ubiquitous… not just a flash in the pan. We'll be doing this for a while."

If you do make it out to tomorrow's ceremonies, don't expect to wiggle uncomfortably through polite applause, stale presenter jokes, longwinded acceptance speeches, or statuettes. This awards ceremony presents no awards. Instead, bring a good set of earplugs for the bands on the bill. In past years, artists as diverse as Matisyahu, Laura Cantrell, TV on the Radio, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Sufjan Stevens have all performed. Simply put, Mr. Hart said, "It's a big concert with David Cross hosting." And this year ups the ante. "We've got marching bands, 12-foot tall puppets, and some other crazy stuff." The dearth of speeches and commercials allows the bands to play 20–30 minute sets, reveling in the lifeblood of the independent music scene — the live show.

"With the bottom dropping out of physical sales and digital not really make up the difference yet, live performance is still a big deal for these artists," Mr. Hart said.

Such championing of the little guy — the under-appreciated artist with the devout if modest fan base and the grueling tour in an Econoline van — has always been independent/underground music's cause celebré. So while bigger profile artists like Mr. Malkmus and Deerhoof will draw out the most fans, it's the chance for these fans to hear smaller bands like Tokyo Police Club and Silversun Pickups that distinguishes the PLUG Awards.

"We hope those acts will get a bit of shine from light cast on bigger guys," Mr. Hart said. Or, referencing the home recording project of guitarist Ben Chasney to illustrate his point: "Six Organs of Admittance isn't the household name we want it to be."