An impressive array of new bands is ready for the 1992 HOA election.

You may want to check out the top 100 eligible candidates. For a reminder of who's already been inducted, see the results thread.

Submit a ranked list of your ten most deserving artists.

For your top FIVE artists (at least), you must explain why they deserve to be in the HOA. You may recycle your comments from past elections if you wish, but I want us to have a context for WHY we're selecting these artists. Ballots without comments for the top five will NOT be counted!

In addition, you have the option to nominate up to three people for the Backstage Wing. This isn't required.

Deadline for ballots is Sunday, April 26, at 6:00 pm US Central time (midnight GMT).

Voting is now open. Go get 'em!

1. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS - A lot of you know songs like Birdhouse in Your Soul and Ana Ng, but there's so much more to TMBG. Every album, even their new ones, are packed with great pop gems. Check them out.
2. NIRVANA - They changed rock, and fronted a genre with a lot of crap. But they were great, and still sound great.
3. LOVE - Didn't change a lot, but I like them anyway. Crisp voice.
4. DEPECHE MODE - Scariest synthpop band in the world.
5. VIOLENT FEMMES - Blister in the Sun was the soundtrack when I was Russ (check it up on wikipedia).
6. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
7. THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
8. ERIC B. & RAKIM
9. NICK CAVE
10. ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN

01. NIRVANA: 1991. The year the punk broke into mainstream. 15 years after the debuts of the Pistols and Ramones the alternative rock is no longer a matter only of college radios, small record stores and fanzines. A trio from Seattle is the responsible of bringing the indie rock where it always should have been. And it's here to stay.
My favourite album: Nevermind (1991).
My Top 5 Songs: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991), Polly (1991), Come as You Are (1991), About a Girl (1989), In Bloom (1991).

02. MASSIVE ATTACK: the debut album by this Bristol collective is a tasty delicacy cooked using a lot of juicy ingredients (dub, house, hip-hop, deep reggae, soul), a new flavour for the 90s
My favourite album: Blue Lines (1991).
My Top 3 Songs: Unfinished Sympathy (1991), Safe From Harm (1991), One Love (1991).

03. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS: amazing.

04. PRIMAL SCREAM: their last album, "Screamadelica", includes any style that can get you thru the night, neo-psychedelic, deep house, Stonesy classic rock, electro, dub or indie pop. Just like Lennon said, whatever gets you thru the night, it's alright. It's alright.
My favourite album: Screamadelica (1991).
My Top 3 Songs: Higher Than the Sun (1991), Movin’ on Up (1991), Velocity Girl (1986).

05. TALK TALK: "Laughing Stock" goes even further than "Spirit of Eden".

06. DEPECHE MODE.
07. DE LA SOUL.
08. THE KLF.
09. TEENAGE FANCLUB.
10. MANO NEGRA.

And at the backstage:
01. ANDY WARHOL.
02. IVO WATTS-RUSSELL.
03. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE.

1. George Jones - sooo close. paul, don't bail on us now. (thanks, greg r.!)
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - only a matter of time
3. The Blue Nile - not prolific, but they've delivered every time. the dreyer of music!
4. Warren Zevon - hey snusmurik, how bout some help here?
5. Jackson Browne - eagles, ronstadt, etc. - browne was the best of '70s cali soft rock
6. Dwight Yoakam
7. John Cale
8. Prefab Sprout
9. Todd Rundgren
10. Hall & Oates

backstage

1. Marley Marl - hip-hop's best producer...until next year
2. Mutt Lange - produced several unique, commercially and critically successful albums
3. Tom Moulton - a crucial figure in DJ culture

1. NIRVANA. The Beatles to Black Francis' Buddy Holly.
2. MY BLOODY VALENTINE. The short list of acts who most profoundly influenced the evolution of rock guitar starts with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Hendrix. These guys are on that list. And they are not only influential, but intensely enjoyable.
3. BUZZCOCKS. Anyone?
4. TALK TALK. If they'd come along ten years later, they might have been Radiohead. Instead, I think they carried a "New Wave" stigma that prevented them from becoming the Next Big Thing--especially once Mr. Cobain was anointed.
5. JESUS AND MARY CHAIN. Originally, I had them at #4, but Talk Talk really belongs above the Mary Chain. Still think they deserve more love.
6. VAN HALEN
7. B-52'S
8. BILLY BRAGG
9. LL COOL J
10. CROWDED HOUSE. This might be another nostalgia pick (like TMBG)...around this time I was dating a girl who would play nothing but Woodface...

Backstage: BRUCE PAVITT.

I don't think I'll jump on the Crowded House bandwagon, like I did with TMBG.

1. Nirvana - These guys had a really good album and a really good song and some good songs and they were really good. I don't love Kurt's voice, and it's well known that he wasn't a top notch guitarist. His song writing was nothing short of incredible though. And Grohl is a supreme drummer.

2. My Bloody Valentine - On the strength of Loveless alone, which while is overrated by pitchfork, is underrated by everyone else.

3. Massive Attack - Again, on the strength of one great album and a great song.

4. Screamadelica - See above.

5. The Eagles - I can't help but think that these guys should be in the hall. Maybe one day in the late 90s when popular music became terrible.
6. De La Soul
7. Jefferson Airplane
8. Van Halen
9. The Jesus and Mary Chain
10. John Cale - Scrapping the barrel

1. Nirvana – NEVERMIND is one of the all-time “before and after” benchmarks in the history of rock music. No further explanation required, presumably.

2. My Bloody Valentine – See #1, but change the first word to LOVELESS.

3. New York Dolls – They only made two albums, but they’re one of the all-time great bands, and their influence is huge.

4. Ornette Coleman – The music he was making in the late eighties STILL sounded like The Shape of Jazz to Come (the concept, not the album). A true visionary who, unlike far too many of his contemporaries, lasted long enough to become a living legend.

5. Pearl Jam – An argument can be made that they never really topped their ’91 debut, but their longevity and consistency over almost 20 years have more than earned them a place here.

6. Love
7. Aerosmith
8. Peter Gabriel
9. Wire
10. Can

BACKSTAGE WING
1. Nicky Hopkins
2. Rudy Van Gelder
3. Greil Marcus

1. NIRVANA - Was there ever a more impressive breakthrough to the mainstream?
2. TALK TALK - I believe the term 'post-rock' was invented in '91. For Mark Hollis & co.
3. MASSIVE ATTACK - And dance becomes credible. Like a soul without a mind, in a body without a heart.
4. JANIS JOPLIN - The most important female singer of her time.
5. EAGLES - Made some of the most well-crafted records in history.
6. DEEP PURPLE
7. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
8. DEPECHE MODE
9. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
10. PEARL JAM

Backstage:
1. Juan Atkins - Founding father of techno
2. Anton Corbijn - The 5th member of U2, the 4th of Depeche Mode. Responsible for the visual side of both bands: the covers, the shows, the clips, the photographs...
3. Bruce Pavitt - Without Pavitt, no Sub Pop. Without Sub Pop, no Nirvana. Without Nirvana, no revolution.

Three young American men release their sophomore album, taking the stylistic innovations of the late-80's underground heroes of their genre to a whole other level. Of course I'm referring to:

1. A Tribe Called Quest - By my reckoning, The Low End Theory is not only the best album of the year by a very clear margin... it is the best album released since at least Purple Rain, and probably a fair amount of time longer.

2. Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young)

3. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

4. They Might Be Giants

5. The Grateful Dead

6. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead is a very interesting follow up. I don't mean to be all about the Native Tongues Posse, but one of the biggest what if's of the past 20 years of music is (with all due respect to Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, et al.) what if hip hop had found a way to make the Native Tongues' contributions more commercially viable.

7. George Jones

8. Peter Gabriel

9. The Staple Singers

10. The Jackson 5

What? No Nirvana? That's correct. Sorry people. I didn't give a vote to Bowie after Hunky Dory or Springsteen after Greetings from Asbury Park, so Nevermind certainly isn't going to move me to vote for them. To my mind, it's an album with a few grreat singles, and a lot of not so great filler.


Backstage:

1. Norman Granz
2. David Fincher - Still at the top of the video directors hit parade.
3. Anton Corbijn - Not as big a fan of his work as many, but his impact was pretty big.

paul, you're killin me

Still open ?

1. NIRVANA : of course. They changed the picture. And Cobain was a good songwriter.
2. The EAGLES
3. MASSIVE ATTACK : the other cornerstone act of 1991
4. Philip GLASS
5. IRON MAIDEN : even if they stand the same amount of chance as the Eagles
6. Nick CAVE
7. John Lee HOOKER : even if his comeback in 1991 was of (very) poor quality, he deserves induction for his tremendous influence. Anybody ?
8. GRATEFUL DEAD
9. DE LA SOUL
10. LYNYRD SKYNYRD

Got it in under the wire, nicolas.