BMAde Betterz
Hump Day News helps the 2023 Boston Music Awards do it better.
Didja see? The Boston Music Awards nominations started rolling out in September.
What are the BMAs? Well, the annual music awards ceremony is presented by the whiskey drink Jack Daniels. It’s held at Big Night Live on December 20th. Tickets are sold for seats you sit in. And the logo looks like Paul Revere on a horse, carrying a boombox?
BMA Nominating CommitteeThe website says the nominations were pinned down by September 18th.
Doesn’t that seem early to pin down 2023 awards?
It’s always a kind of curse to release a great album or have your breakthrough live performance too close to the start or end of the year. Time it right before the close of nominations and maybe you can benefit from recency bias? But wait too long and watch your beloved album wither on the critical vine while the journos are busy with year-end wrap ups and holiday shopping.
If you have the time and prolific output, do what Pile did this year: release a killer album (All Fiction) earlier in the year, reap the extra attention won in a relatively quiet time of the year for album announcements, then drop a short & sweet EP (Hot Air Balloon) in the last quarter to remind everyone that you’re still alive and you’re awesome.
Evil genius!
If you want to vote, vote here.
All the nominated artists in the virtual, not real, fake pages of Hump Day News for 2023.
We don’t endorse nominees, we report on them. Here’s who we reported on in 2023. Check it out.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominee is: Pile.
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are Astral Bitch and Cape Crush.
ALBUM/EP OF THE YEAR
(1 million+ streams)
Our nominee is: Pile - All Fiction.
ALBUM/EP OF THE YEAR
(not 1 million+ streams)
Our nominees are: Cape Crush - San Souci, Little Fuss - Girls At Parties, Winkler - For You, Now.
SONG OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Anjimile - The King, Little Fuss - She's a Liar, and Mallcops - To The Side ft Layzi.
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are Cakeswagg - Big Plays, Latrell James - MATH, and Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys - Keep My Head.
LIVE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominee is: Pile.
PileALT/INDIE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Little Fuss, Lost Film, Paper Lady, Winkler.
BLUES ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Dwight + Nicole at In Between Days 2023Our nominee is: Dwight + Nicole.
FOLK ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Izzy Heltai and Sweet Petunia.
Sweet Petunia at In Between Days 2023METAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominee is: Lesotho.
POP ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Layzi and Shallow Pools.
Layzi at The RockwellPUNK/HARDCORE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Nervous Eaters, Rebuilder, and Sapling.
ROCK ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Dino Gala, Paper Tigers, Pile, and The Endorphins.
SINGER-SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Anjimile, Senseless Optimism, Sidney Gish, Jill McCracken, and Maeko.
Senseless Optimism at Silhouette LoungeSPOKEN WORD ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Cliff Notez and Pink Navel.
Pink Navel at FuzzstivalVOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Jill McCracken and Walter Sickert.
Jill McCrackenMUSIC PROMOTER OF THE YEAR
Our nominee is: I Book Things.
TALENT BUYER OF THE YEAR
Our nominees are: Cody Rico (IBOOKTHINGS) and Heather Timmons (Tiny Oak Booking).