The Mother of All Music Awards Shows took place last night, obscuring the annual indie-rock celebration known as the Plug Awards. We attended the ceremony-cum-rock show at NYC’s Irving Plaza on Saturday night to represent the proud few whose musical tastes tend more toward Neutral Milk Hotel than Carrie Underwood.

The evening was appropriately chaotic (this is, after all, indie rock): The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, minus two-thirds of the family, took twenty minutes to announce the winner of the Best Art Packaging award; an “iPod battle” consisting of two teams of Mexican wrestlers trying to out-DJ one another failed so miserably that when Round Two of the competition was cancelled, it elicited the loudest applause of the entire night; and just after Band of Horses won the award for Album of the Year, an overzealous fan detonated a stink bomb, suffusing the venue with the sweet smell of rotten eggs. This wasn’t your mama’s award show. That said, there were still plenty of highlights worth mentioning. Read all about it after the jump.

• This year’s winner for the Impact Award (the Plug’s equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award) was Stephen Malkmus, who played a lively seven-song set. We spoke to Malkmus, who gave us the rundown on his upcoming new album, tentatively titled West Coast Advantage: The disc was recorded up in Montana and is being engineered by TJ Doherty, who also worked on the forthcoming Wilco record. The songs are “ready,” and sonically, we can expect an album that “splits the difference” between short, poppy songs and the longer, more jam-based tunes Malkmus previewed on stage at the Plugs. (Standouts include “Dragonfly Pie” and “Walk Into A Mirror.”)
• The Silversun Pickups, nominated for seven Plugs, professed their love for Prince and Wes Anderson and discussed their excitement at being included on the lineups of upcoming festivals Coachella and Sasquatch and another huge American we can’t reveal (hint: it’s NOT Bonnaroo). Though they left the Plugs empty handed, SSPU played a killer five songs from their album Carnavas highlighted by their anthemic “Lazy Eye.”
• We learned from Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier that Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead approached the band about contributing overdubs to their most recent album, the fantastic Friend Opportunity, but upon hearing the tapes, decided that he was incapable of improving on the material. Talk about a ringing endorsement. Deerhoof played arguably the best set of the evening, showcasing elongated versions of songs from their new album.
• Rapper El-P debuted songs from his new album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, including the stellar “The Overly Dramatic Truth.”

[photos by Tammylo: http://flickr.com/photos/tammylo/]