It’s that time of year again. The Illinois Times have once again launched their nominee voting for their annual Best of Springfield series for 2019. Now is your chance to nominate your favorite local businesses and people for various different categories to make it on to final voting later on in September. Check out the nominee voting right here. This goes on from now until August 19th, and actual voting with finalists in each category takes place from September 12th through September 23rd. Yes, this is a popularity contest, it is true.

What categories do we fall under this time around as Dumb Records? This year is the first go-around for the Best Of’s that we have been at our new location downtown, which may open us up to some new categories. It looks like the big one that we want to shoot for getting at least a finalist for this year would be Best New Business Downtown in the “Goods and Services” category. Looks like we might also fit into categories “Place To Go Downtown,” or also “Small Music Venue” as usual. Oh! And also “Best Open Mic Night,” that could be us! It may be ending soon, but The Dumb Records Radio Show can be a contender for “Best Radio Show.” We are never sure if Best Music Shop means record stores or musical instrument stores, but we’ll take any nominations we get for that category.

For the band and musician categories this year, there seems to be less opportunities to vote for your favorite local bands this time around. There are just categories for “Best Original Band,” “Best Cover Band” and “Best Overall Band And Their Genre,” which is sure to leave many disappointed. (Don’t worry, you are all winners in our book). There is an opportunity to vote for your favorite musicians in categories such as “Best Drummer,” “Best Horn Player,” “Best Keyboardist,” etc.

You can also vote for your favorite local music festival, and your favorite local food spots and restaurants. Other fun downtown categories include “Best Use For The Y-Block” “Use for Public Money” or “Use For The Armory.”

We’ll be sure to let you all know when the finalist voting begins and if we make it onto any finalist categories as Dumb Records.