Last year Gotye delivered a golden acceptance speech for his three Grammy nominations with, “I'm not from Western Australia, so a nomination for a WAMi remains a distant dream. But three Grammy nominations are pretty good too.” Again Gotye hasn't made the cut, but there are a heap of talented acts vying for your attention. And with the nominees so tightly positioned in the Public Voted Category WAM Awards that the deadline has been extended to this coming Monday 9am WST, the race to take home the goods at the WA Music Awards is in its final stretch.

To thank you for your five minutes-worth of voting which WA artists should claim the biggest bragging rights, WAM are now offering one lucky voter the chance to go backstage at the WA Music Awards on Friday 8 November at The Astor in WA. You'll get to hang with some of the performing acts, indulging in a beverage and some banter. Plus you can bring a posse with you to the Awards, three extra tickets all yours to accept bribes from friends as you wish! We call it the WA Music Awards Backstage Beer, Banter & Bribes Prize, the winner being randomly plucked from all voters. Better hop to it then.

Read the first round of form guides here!

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

We didn't rate them as highly as Tame Impala to take out Album Of The Year, but this category might see Bird Of Tokyo pecking one back. This Fire scorched over triple j and commercial airwaves alike, so there's our hot tip. Looking at our past history of 'successful' tipping though, you'd have to also consider Mathas' song-of-the-moment Nourishment being a dark horse in this category, particularly with the momentum gained from having just taken out the WAM Song Of The Year Grand Prize a few weeks ago. Speaking of SOTY GP Winners, there's a slight chance of rain on the night, Rainy Day Women winning that is. Stillwater Giants might indeed Fly Under The Radar, but then maybe that's their secret weapon? Or could doof triumph in this category, Shockone's most awesomely brain- singeing Lazerbeam perhaps having burnt all memory of these other songs from people's heads.

MUSIC EVENT OF THE YEAR

It's the clash of the national titans here. On one side you've got AJ Maddah with boxing gloves on, ready for the heavy-hitting Soundwave Festival to give the others a good thumping. Fair enough too, with Metallica, The Offspring and Garbage all helping land the blows. Yet in his pathway is no featherweight in Danny Rogers and his St Jerome's Laneway Festival. With one of the best sets of this year in Japandroids, plus Bat For Lashes and more hip acts than a hipster could name, it's going to be up to you, dear voter. And then there's also RTRFM's biggest fundraiser and local love-in of the year, In The Pines. So loved it is that it's had a complete domination over this category for quite some time, plus it was their Anniversary year with blistering sets from old skoolers. Yep, this is another of those categories we'll go to the bathroom when bets are being placed.

MUSIC VENUE OF THE YEAR

Venues. They house us for a few hours, feed us, drank us, fill our souls with glorious music and occasionally put up with our embarrassing behavior. Up for your judgment are four significantly different venues with very diverse offerings. Hosting the 2013 WA Export Showcase and the Night Visions #1 After Party is The Bakery, who also held the Awards last year, so likely a good bet for taking this one out. Then again, they won it last year and history tells us that's not a good thing, all different winners for the last four years. This might give The Bird an advantage, the small venue punching well above its weight but having never taken this award out. On this theory, we're discounting previously winning The Rosemount, even as winning as their newly refurbished outdoor courtyard and commitment to live music are. Instead we're thinking the 1930s restored stylings of The Astor Theatre will see the venue taking out its first award. Well, seeing as the Awards are at that venue, it might be awkward if they don't win, but you'll just have to rock along to the night to see for yourself!

RECORD STORE OF THE YEAR

Whether you're from the High Fidelity school of music obsession or just like to buy music from actual people who actually know things about music, this category is devoted the record stores that have most provided musical bliss to West Australians and music loving visitors. Will 78 Records' move closer to the heart of the big smoke pay off? Will Mount Lawley stalwart Planet Music's move upstairs cost them the vote of lazy and tired voters, or is it worth the vertical challenge? And will people remember the amazing back-alleyway gigs at Dada Records, and that it was pesky neighbors that closed them down? All superb stores, though as the busiest live-supporting record store, our money's on Fat Shan Records. Well, it would be if we hadn't spent it on that Nirvana boxed set.

VOTE HERE!

Tickets to the WA Music Awards here.

More on the WAM Festival info here.