Live, in person, fresh out of the oven, here are the official tallies of our 2008 end-of-year reader polls. Discover within our readership a rampant love for Megapuss, Aziz, Aziz feat. Megapuss, Megapuss feat. Aziz, Little Joy, Thom Yorke, Stoniest slices in town (sic), Andy Walo and Fleet Foxes.

Once more for the new folks: All of our polls contained reader-submitted choices (no fooling! “Nothing” won fifth best album with 97 votes). Further, multiple votes were actively encouraged for the sake of good competition. (What a mistake.) In other words if something looks off, don’t blame us. Have fun, don’t be sore losers but do feel free to discuss your votes, and keep your eyes peeled for the individual breakdowns – to be posted soon – wherein you can see all choices, all votes, all polls. For the analyst in you, each entry is followed by the number of votes, and then the percentage of the total vote in parentheses.

Without further ado…

Best Los Angeles Concert 2008

1. Radiohead @ Hollywood Bowl, August 25: 303,542 (40%)
2. Aziz Ansari @ Orpheum, May 30 (20-minute standup; opening for Flight of the Conchords): 254,232 (33%)
3. Editors @ House of Blues, Anaheim: 62,136 (8%)
4. James @ Spaceland, June 6: 37,275 (5%)
5. Megapuss, Little Joy, & The Entrance Band @ The Troubadour Sept 25th (Megapuss feat. Aziz): 34,065 (4%)
6. Bryan Adams @ The Roxy, May 19: 33,408 (4%)
7. Andy Walo Trio Long Beach Blues Festival August 31: 18,316 (2%)
8. Bloc Party/Does It Offend You, Yeah @ The Glass House, July 28: 6,941 (1%)
9. Against Me! @ 517 1/2 North Fairfax Ave., Aug. 18: 6,177 (1%)
10. Projekt Revolution f. Linkin Park/Chris Cornell/The Bravery/more @ Irvine Verizon Wireless Ampitheater: 3,305

HONORABLE MENTION

11. David Liebe Hart @ Hollywood Bowl (outside the gates): 1,545

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Best LA/LA-Adjacent Festival 2008

1. Coachella: 203 (40%)
2. Make Music Pasadena: 169 (33%)
3. F Yeah Fest: 25 (5%)
4. Eagle Rock Music Festival: 16 (3%)
5. No on 8 Rally, Mormon Temple: 16 (3%)
6. Detour: 13 (3%)
7. Christmas Sweater Fest (Echo): 12 (2%)
8. Sunset Junction: 11 (2%)
9. Burning Man L.A., Sylmar Motor Home Park: 7 (1%)
10. Part Time Punks: 7 (1%)

HONORABLE MENTION

11. Lobster Fest, San Pedro: 5 (1%)

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Best Slice of Pizza in Los Angeles, 2008

1. Brownstone (Eagle Rock): 85 (18%)
2. Hard Times Pizza Co (Silver Lake) (“Stoniest slice in town! Me, them, the pie…all of it”): 78 (16%)
3. Vinny’s Pizza (Westchester): 59 (12%)
4. Damiano Mr. Pizza (Fairfax): 50 (10%)
5. Vito’s (La Cienega): 42 (9%)
6. Abbot’s Pizza Company (Venice): 27 (6%)
7. Village Pizza (Larchmont): 20 (4%)
8. Mozza (Hancock Park/Hollywood): 16 (3%)
9. Mulberry’s: 14 (3%)
10. Tomato Pie (Silver Lake): 13 (3%)

HONORABLE SLICES

11. Joe’s (Santa Monica): 11 (2%)
12. Zelo’s Pizza (Monrovia): 11 (2%)
13. Garage Pizza (Silver Lake): 11 (2%)

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Best Album Release 2008

1. Little Joy, Little Joy: 1,317 (43%)
2. Surfing – Megapuss: 1,045 (34%)
3. The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Cross of My Calling: 154 (5%)
4. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes: 102 (3%)
5. (NOTHING): 97 (3%)
6. Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs: 77 (3%)
7. Dear Science, TV on the Radio: 47 (2%)
8. No Age, Nouns: 34 (1%)
9. Saturdays=Youth, M83: 22 (1%)
10. For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver: 16 (1%)

HONORABLE MENTION

11. In Ghost Colors, Cut Copy: 15

Top graphic: Radiohead, Megapuss and Aziz all captured by Sung. Time permitting, I will uniformly format the above entries and cross-link where we have applicable coverage. Natch.
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» Reader Picks 2007: The Official Results
» If Aziz Wins “Best Concert 2008″ You Are All Fired
» Best Concert 2008: Aziz Has Officially Upped The Ante
» Andy Walo Fans Upping The Ante; Andy Yet To Call Out Thom Yorke or Aziz In Person
» Radiohead Accused of Masterminding Craigslist “Ballot-Stuffing Ploy” Hire
» Best Concert 2008: The Five-Day Recap

Item: Back at HQ, intern “G” has apparently received a tip that some of you – no naming names here – may be plotting an alcohol-fueled run on the Hollywood sign this evening, with the hopes that we all wake ‘neath a great big LOSANJEALOUS hillside in 2009. Bully for you guys if you pull it off, but be warned: A few of those cameras actually work. Also, we’re not affiliated. On your own. Good luck.

Again I say: What’s everybody doing tonight? Talk to me. Have fun!

Top five concerts of 2008 at the time of this writing:

• Radiohead @ Hollywood Bowl, August 25: 303,488 votes (43%)
• Aziz Ansari @ Orpheum, May 30 (20-minute stand-up set opening for Flight of the Conchords): 254,222 votes (36%)
• Editors @ House of Blues, Anaheim: 62,134 votes (9%)
• Megapuss, Little Joy, & The Entrance Band @ The Troubadour Sept 25th: 31,060 votes (4%)
• James @ Spaceland, June 6: 19,923 votes (3%)
• HONORABLE MENTION (sixth place at press time): Andy Walo Trio Long Beach Blues Festival August 31: 16,655 votes (2%)

Looks like we have five different venues and one festival performance above. It is comforting, watching this statistically sound, analyst-approved poll back up my longstanding hypothesis that Los Angeles maintains a robust, healthy venue/venue booking diversity. Good job, venues. This next white-zin-and-bowl-of-chex-mix is on me.
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VOTE HERE, NOW, OFTEN, WITH VIGOR AND FURIOUS PASSION. VOTE WITH YOUR THIRD EYE. VOTE WITH A SEETHING HATRED. VOTE WITH AN OPEN, BROKEN HEART FOR THE WORLD. VOTE WITH AMBIVALENCE. VOTE WITH PURPOSE, DRIVE, AND SURETY. VOTE WITH OR WITHOUT CONFIDENCE. JUST FUCKING VOTE AND SOON HOPEFULLY I WILL STOP SHOUTING.

• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles Concert of 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles/LA-Adjacent Festival 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles Slice of Pizza 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Album Release of 2008″ here

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CHEX MIX/ WHITE ZIN
» Reader Picks 2007: The Official Results
» Best Concert 2008: The Five-Day Recap
» Losanjealous End-of-Year Dept: Sung’s Picks, 2008

As always, scour the list carefully before adding a new selection. We won’t be consolidating votes cast for multiple identical entries.

UPDATE, 12/31/08: Polls closed as of New Years Eve.
Happy New Year! Who won?
Results will be posted early 2009. Check back.

UPDATE, 12/31/08: Polls closed as of New Years Eve.
Happy New Year! Who won?
Results will be posted early 2009. Check back.
 
 

• Infamous annual poll launches Friday, midday. Aziz, The Mars Volta, Radiohead and Andy Walo become fast front-runners
• Walo takes the lead, gets chastized for yearlong residency, immediately jumps to forefront again with newly-added gig
• Aziz calls out Radiohead on his blog once, twice
• Team Megapuss springs to the forefront thanks to a double-billing with Little Joy at the Troubadour
• Aziz finds mysterious, suspect, improperly-spelled-Jonny’d hiring post in the “computer gigs” section of Craigslist Los Angeles
• The online entity or entities known simply as “robots” point to center field a la Babe Ruth, promising sure victory for Radiohead
• David Liebe Hart (pictured, right, with puppets “Chip The Black Boy” and “Doug The Dog”) springs to place within the top 11 listings

Got all that? Stick around. It’s only been five days. [ VOTE NOW ]

LOSANJEALOUS (Losanjealous) :: Radiohead is being accused of trolling for a specialized programmer that might help the band garner numerous, instantaneous “Best Concert 2008″ votes, according to a post filed on the AZIZISBORED.COM website Wednesday morning. The programmer-trolling post in question was apparently housed on Craigslist, a popular free online want-ads provider:

Ansari, now sitting first place in the 2008 poll thanks to (Devendra side project) Megapuss, proffered no additional proof (nor comments) at press time.

[ VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE CONCERT NOW ]

Blues guitarist Andy Walo plays the Redondo Beach Pier each and every Saturday. He is currently beating Radiohead, TV on the Radio, AC/DC, The Cure, Portishead, Megapuss (feat. Aziz), Hall and Oates, Fleet Foxes, The Mars Volta, Foo Fighters, Beachwood Sparks, Jay Z, Prince, David Liebe Hart, Mayor Villaraigosa, Sigur Ros and about 500 other concerts in our annual Best Concert poll. Get out the vote! Andy’s fan base has spoken, and is speaking still. What it is speaking… is Andy Walo.

Andy Walo has not issued an official statement regarding the poll at press time.

[ VOTE FOR ANDY WALO OR ANOTHER ARTIST NOW ]

So this time ’round, we want you to choose the best festival of 2008. We’re not looking for an individual performance here so much as the overall festival, itself: How were the acts? The food? The drinks? The bathrooms? The parking? How tight was that annoying wristband? Etc. All we ask is that you keep the festivals local this year (no Bonnaroos), and that you keep local street fairs and smaller festivals in mind just as much as the big lavish productions. Beyond that, anything’s fair game (hell, last year “Lobsterfest: Red Lobster” placed third with 452 votes, if that’s any indication). I’m adding Coachella, voting for it once, and going to go get a cup of coffee. You know what to do. Again with this one, you have until December 31. Hop to it! (Call out: Sean Carlson I expect you to vote for “F Yeah” at least once. Don’t disappoint.) Without further ado…

UPDATE, 12/31/08: Polls closed as of New Years Eve.
Happy New Year! Who won?
Results will be posted early 2009. Check back.

Vote, people. Vote once now, twice after work, once during the rain-suffused commute home (only while stopped, please, unless you’re on a bus or walking) and 86 times this evening. It is your right. It is your responsibility. Go vote.

(UPDATE: Second call-out!)

Last year the Losanjealous “best concert” poll garnered more than 145,000 total votes from humans and robots alike. With that in mind, things to remember while going crazy with this poll:

• You don’t need 1000 signatures to get your concert on this ballot. To add a concert choice to the poll, click the “add an answer” button ONCE. When the entry field appears, enter your concert and click the “vote” button. Voila; you are done.
• Scour the list carefully and make sure your favorite concert is NOT ALREADY LISTED before using the “add an answer” function. If you don’t do this, don’t count on us manually adding your damn votes by consolidating (as we graciously did last year)
• Local concerts only please
• “Best Festival” will come separately, so do please keep all your Detours Coachellas Eagle Rock Music Fests and whatnot out of the running here
• No concert is too big; no concert is too small
• Include the date whenever possible, particularly where multiple artist-venue pairings exist (ie, sample submission might look like: Stallone Is Eating Hot Peppers @ Spaceland, August 7 (free monday residencies but this one was the best)
• IMPORTANT: If you don’t see your vote or choice immediately reflected, don’t panic and don’t add it again: our caching system is notoriously hardcore. Clear your cache and/or come back after a few minutes (or do both). Check thyself and refer to bullet point two above.
• Vote as often as you like
• Vote again, even after you stop liking
• Stick around for the end-of-year results!

Remember, people, bragging rights for calendar year 2009 are at stake here. Without further ado…HERE WE GO (starting the proceedings with two of my personal favorites):

UPDATE, 12/31/08: Polls closed as of New Years Eve.
Happy New Year!
Did Aziz Win!?
Did Radiohead Win?
Results will be posted early 2009. Check back.