It’s time to cast your ballot in the annual PLUG Independent Music Awards – you can’t gripe about who won or lost if you weren’t even in the game to begin with.

Every year, the line separating indie music and mainstream music blur even more. It’s through no fault of indie music itself but a result of the sheer proliferation of the Internet – MySpace, MP3 blogs, musicblogs – and a growing number of film and television directors/writers/producers who are more aware of the vast amount of quality tunes outside of the mainstream. Until the the Grammys or the AMAs start sharing nominees with PLUG, I think the line will still exist, as blurry as it may get.

What follows below are the selections and some thoughts from the categories I voted in – some of these categories just don’t apply to my musical tastes or did not contain enough nominees I’d be able to choose from.

Music Categories (General)

• Album of the Year: The Hold Steady – Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
  Arguments could certainly be made for Band of Horses, Neko Case, Cat Power, and Beirut but, from start to finish, they have crafted one of the best albums in years.
• New Artist of the Year: Cold War Kids
  A toss-up between them and Beirut but on the strength of the three concerts of theirs I’ve attended, they get the nod.
• Female Artist of the Year: Chan Marshall
  This was one of the hardest choices for me – at one point I had Neko Case, then Chan, then Neko again. Ultimately, Chan’s selection was based not so much on her album – which was phenomenal – but rather her newly found comfort on stage.
• Male Artist of the Year: Beirut
  The man put out so much energy during his most recent tour that he had to cancel the backend of it.
• Indie Rock Album of the Year: Band of Horses – Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
  Because The Hold Steady can’t win every award? Really though, this is a great debut and shows a lot of promise for things to come.
• Americana Album of the Year: Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti-)
  Three horse race between Neko, Jenny Lewis, and Band of Horses but Neko’s voice and lyrics put her on top.

Music Categories (Obsessive)

• Artist of the Year: The Hold Steady
  They put out the best album of the year and their live shows are among the best there are. No debate on this one for me.
• Live Act of the Year: The Hold Steady
  It’s starting to become a broken record so how about I give some props to CSS and Art Brut – they put on some good shows too! The Hold Steady still win this one.
• Song of the Year: Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” (Domino)
  Bloggers began annointing these guys as the big thing for 2006 as early as last December. It clocks in at less than three minutes but it packs a lot of punch into a short amount of time.
• Album Art/Packaging of the Year Asobi Seksu – Citrus (Friendly Fire)
  With three different album cover designs for The Greatest, it’s tempting to vote for Cat Power. Asobi Seksu’s general sense of aesthetics make them the winners in my eyes.
• Live Music Venue of the Year: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
  It’s no secret that I love this place – just the perfect combination of size, sound systems, and sightlines.