Best New Bands Announces 2014 Newbie Awards Nominees

TBD FEST

New York – BestNewBands.com, a top destination for reviews, interviews and news about the world’s best emerging recording artists, has announced the nominees of its 2014 Newbie Awards honoring the year’s best new band, male artist, female artist and album—plus one new category (Breakthrough Artist), as determined by a poll of the site’s editorial staff.  Best New Bands established the Newbie Awards in 2012 to honor the year’s top new artists in a variety of categories.

Three acts from overseas—Irish singer-songwriter Hozier (two), British soul singer Sam Smith (three) and English singer-songwriter fka Twigs (born Tahliah Barnett) (two)—earned multiple nominations.

This year’s nominees (listed alphabetically):

Best New Band: The Lone Bellow, Royal Blood, San Fermin, Temples, The Wild Feathers

Best New Male Artist: Benjamin Booker, Hozier, Vance Joy, Sam Smith

Best New Female Artist: Banks, Courtney Barnett, fka Twigs, , Sharon van Etten

Best New Album: Gary Clark Jr. Gary Clark Jr. Live, fka Twigs LP1, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Days Of Abandon, Sam Smith In The Lonely Hour, The War On Drugs Lost In The Dream

Breakthrough Artist: Alt-J, Bastille, Chance The Rapper, Hozier, Kongos, Sam Smith

BestNewBands.com’s Newbie Awards winners will be announced in early December by the site’s editorial staff, based on feedback from our readers and the artists’ recording and touring activity from November 1, 2013 – October 31, 2014.

In making the announcement, BestNewBands.com’s Los Angeles-based Founder and Publisher, Tom Crosthwaite said: “When we look back each year, it never fails to amaze me how remarkable a year it was for new music.  This diverse list of exceptional talent shows that 2014 was no exception.”

Greg Brodsky, BestNewBands.com’s New York-based Chief Marketing Officer, and creator of the site’s Newbie Awards said: “We strive every day to become a must-visit content aggregator for new music fans while offering marketers a great destination to reach our target audience of 18-34 year-olds.”

BestNewBands.com’s previous Newbie Awards winners include Chvrches, Tame Impala, Shakey Graves, Gary Clark Jr., Lorde, Ellie Goulding, Lucius, Frank Ocean, and Passion Pit.

BestNewBands.com is currently active in many key music markets (including Los Angeles, New York/Brooklyn, London, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco and Nashville) with plans for continued expansion, both in the U.S. and abroad, in the near future.  Since 2011, the site has published more than 4,000 original album and concert reviews and interviews and has writers on the ground covering most of the major U.S. music festivals.