11-Jun-16 – Band of the Year, dude.

The band that named itself “Marina City” was crowned Chicago’s best of 2016 on Tuesday at the third annual Chicago Nightlife Awards.

“Thank you so freaking much,” the band gushed on Twitter, crediting their fans for the win.

Marina City has been working with producer/singer/songwriter Craig Owens on a live acoustic EP, Lost Doesn’t Mean Alone, which was recorded in April in five different studios, including Rax Trax Recording north of the Loop, but with a live audience in each studio. It was released on March 2.

“The idea is to create an EP that has the quality of a studio but the energy and grittiness of a live performance,” explains Marina City. According to the band, recording an EP this way has never been done before.

Music videos and a documentary will be released later this year.

The four-year-old band, described by Alternative Press magazine as “Midwest pop-punkers,” won the Ernie Ball Warped Tour Battle of the Bands last October and will be at the Riot Fest music festival in Douglas Park west of the Loop in September.

Drummer Eric Somers-Urrea told Alternative Press at the time people connect with their songs about struggles in life and trying to achieve dreams.

“It resonates with a lot of people,” he said, “so I think that’s where we get a lot of the heartfelt messages from [fans] that are just incredible. It’s weird to think we write almost selfishly the music we would like to hear, and to have such a great response from a fan base is the coolest thing ever.”

(Above) Marina City accepts its Band of the Year trophy at the award show and entertainment event at Concord Music Hall on North Milwaukee Avenue. Photo by Carpe Momentum Media. (Below) The band performs at House of Blues on July 21, 2012. Photo by Steven Dahlman.

In April, the band traveled to Los Angeles to record new music with producer John Feldmann, who has produced albums with Blink 182, Panic! at the Disco, and Plain White T’s – a band whose members, like Marina City’s, are from a Chicago suburb – and describes Marina City as a mix “between Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold.”

Interest in the band’s music often leads to interest in the Chicago landmark that inspired the band’s name.

“Almost every interview or fan Q & A, someone asks where did we get it,” Argast told Loop North News in April. “Few people know the name of the towers. This is actually cool to us because we get to spread the word about the little Chicago city inside Chicago. Everyone is always amazed.”