Waterloo Records, one of our finest independently-owned, nationally-renowned music stores, has been nominated for a prestigious PLUG Independent Music Award, along with Austin festivals SXSW and ACL. Sponsored by URB, Spin, Insound and Evolvs Media, the annual nominees are selected by a group of "writers, DJs, webmasters, bloggers, artists, filmmakers, managers, indie retailers, and most importantly, fans." Now that the lists have been narrowed down to a lucky few in categories such as the best record producer, music festival, genre-specific album, new artist, music blog and college/non-commercial radio station of the year. Just going down the list briefly, we've already spotted several spectacular nominees that we're leaning towards - acts like Animal Collective, Bloc Party and Sufjan Stevens.

The awards ceremony, taking place in NYC's amazing Webster Hall, airs February 2, 2006.

Waterloo's competitors for "Record Store of the Year" include:
-Amoeba Music, Berkeley, CA
-Aquarius Records, San Francisco, CA
-Criminal Records, Atlanta, GA
-Dusty Groove America, Chicago, IL
-Easy Street Records, Seattle, WA
-Insound, New York, NY
-Newbury Comics, Boston, MA
-Other Music, New York, NY
-Sonic Boom Records, Seattle, WA
-Sound Fix, Brooklyn, NY
-Twist & Shout, Denver, CO

While competing Festivals include:
-All Tomorrow's Parties
-ArthurFest
-Bonnaroo
-Bumbershoot
-CMJ Music Marathon
-Coachella
-Intonation Music Festival
-Lollapalooza
-Siren Music Festival
-Vegoose

You can cast your vote here.