As the year draws to a close, we recognize those who make Reverb Raccoon possible: you, the musicians about whom I write. Without you I would not be writing anything, which would be a great disappointment to the vast hoard of loyal Reverb Raccoon readers who flock to this site each week to find the best in below-the-radar music. I heard a lot of great music and made some new friends. I hope that the words printed here captured the spirit of your music, and your individual spirits as artists and people. Thanks, everyone!

And now we present the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Raccoon Awards for most page views in 2013!!!

Gold Raccoon: Amalie Bruun – Crush
Amalie became the first artist to recognize Reverb Raccoon’s existence when she posted a link to the “Crush” review on Facebook. Thanks, Amalie! Your early linkage has earned you the 2013 Gold Raccoon Award for most page views! Interest in Amalie has made Reverb Raccoon moderately popular (if you employ very liberal definitions of “moderately” and “popular”) in Denmark, a country full of attractive people who ride bicycles. Most commuters have two bikes, one to ride between home and the suburban train station, and another to ride between the city station and work. Walk by a Copenhagen station on the weekend and you will see five million bikes piled up outside. But finding a taxi on a rainy day? Forget about it!

To honor our Visitors from the North, we offer “The Tao of Amalie,” featuring the vintage pantsuit that got rave reviews during Ex Cops’ True Hallucinations tour.

Amalie stays incredibly busy acting, modeling, walking dogs, advancing her solo musical career, and co-fronting Ex Cops with Brian Harding. The first Ex Cops album, True Hallucinations, was released last January to excellent reviews. To describe the breadth of the music, the Pitchfork reviewer had to reference seven groups, two indie labels, Paul McCartney, and throw in a link to a Velvet Underground video for good measure. Here we see Amalie and Brian in a great Ex Cops video from 2011. Locksley fans will recognize Kai Kennedy on guitar and Sam Bair on drums. But where’s Locksley? And hurry up with the new album!

Silver Raccoon: Dr. Bo Wagner – The Mouseketeer Who Wasn’t There
Bo Wagner tap dances at the nexus of one of the best TV shows of the 50’s, the original Mickey Mouse Club, and one of the best pop songs of the 70’s, Starbuck’s “Moonlight Feels Right.” Thus, many of my readers arrive having Googled “bo wagner mouseketeer.” The factoid that Bo was NOT an original Mouseketeer may be the least interesting part of his story.

Typically, page views come in a rush after the subject posts a link on Facebook, Twitter, or a website. The Bo Wagner post never had that initial spike in readers. But visitors dribble in, a few every day, earning Bo the #2 spot in page views and the 2013 Silver Raccoon Award. Consistent interest in Bo’s story proves that, while pop stardom is fleeting, interest in former pop stars who are incorrectly thought to have been original Mouseketeers lasts forever.

My favorite part of this post is the video of Actual Original Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess and his family, backed by father-in-law Myron Floren on accordion, doing the Chicken Dance. I love the two kids on the right. You think you had it bad when your mom trotted you out in your pajamas to play “March of the Wee Folk” on the piano for her bridge club? Try doing the Chicken Dance in a gulag-like studio with your dad yelling “Reverse!” and Grandpa wheezing away on an accordion while you try to keep a toothy grin plastered on your face. There ain’t enough Seroquel in the world to repress this memory. Plus it’s on YouTube so it will be out there for, like, infinity.

UPDATE (April 2018):  The post about Bo Wagner became the most popular on the site, by a wide margin. Unfortunately, Bo Wagner was highly offended that I had told the world that he was not an original Mouseketeer. He was offended by several other things as well. As far as the widespread misconception that he was an original Mouseketeer, Bo told me, “Blame Disney and blame Lawrence Welk.” I won’t go into why they should be blamed. It’s a long story, which Bo related to me in a multi-hour phone conversation. Long story short, a very large number of people believe that Bo was an original Mouseketeer, and none of that (according to Bo), is Bo’s fault. I attempted to reword the post to make it more sympathetic to Bo, and to tell his side of the story. However, I was never able to please him and each revision brought on a lengthy email response from Bo. Eventually, I got tired of dealing with Bo Wagner (who impressed me as a major asshole), so I just deleted the post. Then he died. So it goes. Since then, I’ve discovered a number of rather sketchy things about Bowen Bo Wagner (to which he apparently changed his name after being born Robert Wagner). If anyone cares to look, you can find them, too. Maybe I’ll write about them someday when I feel like flogging a dead horse. His face still graces the bottles of Dr. Bo’s Colon Magic.

Bronze Raccoon: Mike Herz – Life Music from Northern New Jersey
Mike is every man’s Everyman, a stay-at-home troubadour with the unenviable day job of teaching English to a generation that expresses itself in 140-character splorts hammered in with their thumbs. Mike’s goal is to “keep pushing the music forward” every year, expanding his fan base and friendships through music. He obviously has plenty of both: though his feature was posted late in the year, Mike’s loyal followers boosted it to #3 in page views, earning Mike the 2013 Bronze Raccoon Award. The feature also received the most non-spam comments (two!). Neither commenter mentioned the review; they came here to praise Mike, not bury the blogger.

In our email interview, we asked Mike “If you could sing a duet with any living singer, what singer would you choose?” It was a throwaway question, and I assumed he would name Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan (though you would have to be a real masochist to try the latter). Mike’s choice was Emily Barnes, his friend and partner in Closer to Home. The simplicity, sincerity, and practicality of the answer seemed to summarize Mike as a person and as an artist. So here are Mike and Emily singing “If The Stars Align.” Which we hope they do for Mike in 2014.

See ya next year!!!! And everyone keep making Good Music!!!