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best of new york 2006
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Best NYC Rock Album - Mirrored

With all the fuss over what constitutes a summer anthem—its sound, its look, its sentiment—and with all due respect to Rihanna’s splendid “Umbrella,” let us admit to ourselves that the official such jam of 2007 was a ludicrous, mortifying battle cry with bleating, incomprehensible, robotically pulverized lyrics and a mordant marching-munchkin beat that led some to imagine the Smurfs recast as fascist Kraftwerk fans laying siege to a Radio Shack. Ladies and gentleman, we give you “Atlas,” the bewildering lead single off NYC quartet Battles’ exhilarating Mirrored, a breathlessly complex art-rock leviathan that mingles merry melodies with pulverizing polyrhythms, high-tech wankery with good ol’ physical brutality. It’s both mesmerizing and impenetrable, and though a dazzling group effort, it’s drummer John Stanier (he of Helmet and Tomahawk) who provides the visceral heartbeat—albeit the heartbeat of a highly evolved mutant robo-beast with severe anxiety issues. Pump your fist in, like, 31/64 time.

Other Arts & Entertainment categories:

Best one-off fluke in NYC rap history
"This Is Why I'm Hot"

Best savior of the printed word
826NYC

Best rising theater director
Annie Kauffman

Best place to get on point
Baryshnikov Arts Center

Best way to honor street musicians
Buskers Hall of Fame

Best murder mystery by phone
Canal Street Station Installation

Best hardcore band led by dogs
Caninus

Best child of Andy Warhol
Cary Leibowitz

Best reason to start working on your rubber-band ball
City Reliquary

Best way to relive your teen angst
Cringe Night

Best spot to find deranged '50s and '60s music
Crypt Records

Best venue to see experimental dance
Dance Theater Workshop

Best overtly political gallery
Daneyal Mahmood

Best New York movie this year (so far)
Day Night Day Night

Most completely terrifying stage presence
Dirty Projectors

Best café to write in
Doma

Best Saturday-morning radio show
Felix Hernandez

Best New York theater production that may never appear in New York
Gatz

Best neo-Britpop/Northern Soul revival/art- damaged band comprising some ex-Yalies who now live in Brooklyn
Harlem Shakes

Best MFA writing program
Hunter College

Best foreign theater director we wish was a New York theater director
Ivo van Hove

Best (and hottest) teacher
Jo Boobs

Best documentarian of New York's indie- rock scene
Joly MacFie

Best tribute to Stevie Wonder
Keistar's Annual Wonder-Full: Stevie Wonder Tribute Party

Best martial-arts comedian
Master Lee

Best multi-colored tower that isn't the Empire State Building
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Clock Tower

Best pop-cult composer
Michael Friedman

Best NYC rock album
Mirrored

Best break-out theater company
Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Best museum to contemplate La Deutsche Vita
Neue Galerie

Best music shop to go digital
Other Music Digital

Best MP3 blog/zine hybrid that will add to your intelligence without insulting it
paperthinwalls.com

Best punk-comedy cabaret act
Puttin' on the Ritz

Best antidote to the burgeoning Bushwick arts scene
Ralphy's Towing

Best coffeehouse folk album for those sensitive to media overexposure
Real Life

Best reason Tuesday should be the new Friday
Slavic Soul Party

Best local publisher of global mysteries
Soho Press

Best be(a)st
Taylor Mac

Best place to hear self-important design professionals talk about themselves (and sometimes each other), and occasionally also see some excellent work
The American Institute of Graphic Arts

Best way to impress your friends with your newfound art smarts
The Contemporaries

Best didactic gallery
The Grey Art Gallery

Best crowd participation at the movies
The Magic Johnson Theater

Best provocative playwrights
Thomas Bradshaw or Young Jean Lee

Best made-up musical genre
Upper West Side Soweto

Best way to get smart about dance
Works & Process