The Music Feeds Weirdly-Specific Awards For Australian Music In 2021

Do you ever get the feeling that Australian music awards ceremonies have categories that are just too damn broad?

Like, Best Album? Out of everything? Best Artist? Out of everyone? Heck, even when you get into slightly more detailed areas like Best Pop Release or Best Rock Release, it’s like… both are very wide spectrums, y’know? There’s just no way to whittle it down to just five or so nominees – it always ends in heartbreak.

It’s something we here at Music Feeds have thought about a lot, and so we’ve decided to really get into the thick of it and give recognition where it’s deserved – no matter how weirdly specific it gets.

Without any further ado, welcome to the first (and probably last) annual Music Feeds Weirdly-Specific Australian Music Awards (or the MFWSAMAs, for short) for 2021.

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The Obligatory Genesis Owusu Award For Genesis Owusu Because It’s 2021 And It’s Genesis Owusu: Genesis Owusu

Best Live Loophole: Concrete Surfers, for doing a tour as the entertainment for a bunch of footy games because it was the only way they could tour in Queensland

Best Studio Loophole: Amyl & The Sniffers, who were allowed to record an album because they were also filming a documentary

Best Paul Kelly Rework: Ziggy Ramo, for “Little Things”

Weirdest Paul Kelly Rework: Ben Lee, doing “Dumb Things” on The Masked Singer

Tallest Guitarist: A tie between Spacey Jane‘s Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu and Eliza & The Delusionals’ Ashley Martin – and Paul Dempsey of course, but he wins every other year

Best Short King Energy: Tasman Keith, posing for a photo alongside seven-foot giants Peter Garrett, Troy Cassar-Daley and Richard Wilkins

Biggest “Go Get ‘Em, Tiger” For US Achievement: The Kid LAROI

Biggest “Go Get ‘Em, Tiger” For UK Achievement: Gang of Youths

Biggest “Go Get ‘Em, Tiger” For Australian Achievement: Gretta Ray

Most “Grab the Tissues” Cover: The Teskey Brothers doing INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” in tribute to the late Michael Gudinski

Most “Who Is This For?” Cover: A tie between Birds of Tokyo doing Silverchair’s ‘Straight Lines’ and Drapht doing Lime Cordiale’s ‘Robbery’

Best Debut Album: Genesis Owusu – Smiling with No Teeth

Best Debut EP: Barkaa – Blak Matriarchy

Best Second Album: Amyl and the Sniffers – Comfort to Me

Best Third Album: Courtney Barnett – Things Take Time, Take Time

Best Fourth Album: Big Scary – Daisy

Best 18th Album: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000

Best Podcast: Who is Daniel Johns?

Best Podcast Guest: Ben Lee

Best Mind-Numbing Music-Related Lockdown Go-To: The Masked Singer

Most Nightmare-Inducing Costume On The Masked Singer: Baby (AKA Ella Hooper) – those eyes

Rawest Deal: Hockey Dad, for being pulled off stage by Queensland Police during their Brisbane show and forced into hotel quarantine due to last-minute border changes

Luckiest Break: Amy Shark, who managed to complete almost an entire national tour and was the first Australian artist to play arenas in over 18 months

International Achievement Award For Timing: Thurston Moore, who got in and out of Australia literally a week or so before a national round of lockdowns

Best Spoonerism: Tropical Fuck Storm, for ‘Bumma Sanga’

Best Backronym: Ruby Fields, for ‘R.E.G.O.’

Best Expletive Use: Amyl and the Sniffers’ Amy Taylor, for the “FUCK!” in ‘Guided by Angels’

Best Adlib: Allday, for the whispered “bang bang” in ‘Stolen Cars’

Best Command Song Title/Most Common Phrase Uttered During Lockdown: King Stingray, for ‘Get Me Out’

Best Question Song Title/Most Complicated Question To Actually Ask People After Lockdown: Holy Holy, for ‘How You Been’

Best Lockdown Reference In A Song Lyric: Noah Dillon, for “Sourdough warrior/Australia’s Jamie Oliver” in ‘That’s Just How I Feel’

Best Rhyming Of “Airbnb” With “The Fucking OC” In A Song Lyric: Ali Barter, ‘Chocolate Cake’

Best Airhorn: Speed, for ‘We See U’

Best Number-Related Band Name: 1300

Best Pun-Related Band Name: The Buoys

Most Frustrating Grammatical Error Band Name: Between You & Me (It’s “between you and I!”)

Best Supergroup: Springtime

Best Guest Verse: Kwame, on Tasman Keith’s ‘ONE’

Best Unexpected Cameo: Uncle Jack Charles, on Baker Boy’s ‘Survival’

Worst Unexpected Cameo: The Delta variant

Best Unexpected Collab: Briggs and Troy Cassar-Daley, on ‘Shadows’

Worst Unexpected Collab: Bliss N Eso and Kasey Chambers, on ‘Good People’

Best Trojan Horse For Australian Musicians: Bluey

Best Musician Turned Actor: Kate Miller-Heidke in Preppers

Best Influencer Turned Musician: Abbie Chatfield in Candy Moore’s ‘I Know You Do Ketamine’

Trippiest Music Video: RUFUS DU SOL, for ‘Next to Me’

Best Aus Music Doco: Going Countryhttps://iview.abc.net.au/show/going-country

Worst Album Cover: Polish Club – Now We’re Cookin’

Best Album Cover: Polish Club – Now We’re Cookin’

Best Beard: Brett Jansch, Dune Rats

Best Seedy Mo: Ruel

Best Mullet: Amy Taylor

Best Act To Dance To: Haiku Hands

Best Dancer: For the 45th consecutive year, Peter Garrett