If it's mid-November, then it's time to start thinking about those year-end lists, which means it's time for the fourth annual, often imitated, never duplicated Top 40 Bands In America list. Yes, some people think of this little exercise as The Top 40 Bands In America As Voted On By A Bunch Of Effing Music Bloggers That Only Listen To Cooler Than You Guitar Based Indie Rock And Not Much Else, but that's way too long of a title and not very catchy, don't ya think? I've addressed this all before. There may not be enough hip-hop or dance music on here for your liking, but there's not much I can do about it. Most bloggers follow and write about indie rock. I've emailed dance bloggers and hip-hop guys in years past and never get a response, so I didn't even bother this year. Get over it.

In case you're not familiar with the process, each year I email a bunch of bloggers and ask them for their Top 10 artists of the year. I changed up the criteria this year and asked the participants to simply give me the 10 artists they covered the most throughout 2006. I felt that in years past, people were voting for artists they felt like they had to vote for, not the artists they wanted to vote for, so hopefully that changed this year. The entries are then scored, sorted and double-checked and viola , the list is born. Anyone making music is eligible for the list, as long as they are American. NO FOREIGN BANDS. Please read that last sentence again before you go crying that Broken Social Scene or whatever band from Montreal is hot right now isn't listed below.

Just because you're favorite band isn't listed here, don't freak out. It's likely they were nominated but didn't get enough love to make the Final 40. A total of 129 bands were nominated, so most of them didn't make the cut. I'll post the names of all the nominated bands tomorrow. I will go ahead and tell you not one person voted for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and I couldn't be happier about that.

In addition to the Top 40 and the list of all 129 bands, this year I'll also have a list of local bands worth keeping an eye on, as voted on by our esteemed panel. Look for this list Friday or Monday.

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Rest of the list for "The Top 40 Bands in America – 2006 Edition" can be found here:

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