Five local acts that made good in 2011

Sure, new albums from Taking Back Sunday and Bayside dominated what the Long Island music scene sounded like in 2011.

But there were plenty of other area acts who made an impact as well. Here are the year's five best:

1. I AM THE AVALANCHE, 'Brooklyn Dodgers' (I Surrender) -- It took six years, but the Long Beach band's follow-up was worth the wait, especially on this nostalgic, hard-hitting indie-rock anthem, complete with catchy chorus and scream-along gang vocals.

2. HESTA PRYNN, 'Turn It Gold' (Reynolds Recording Co./For Fire Music) -- The Dix Hills native, best known as one-third of hip-hop group Northern State, has reinvented herself as an indie-leaning dance artist, and this single shows that edgy can still be danceable and smart can still be fun.

3. MIKE DEL RIO, 'Feel Good!' (Mike Del Rio) -- The Franklin Square singer-songwriter welded a sunny pop melody to a sly groove so memorable VH1 snagged it for its morning show. And yes, it lives up to its name.

4. LIGHTS RESOLVE, 'Happens Every Day' (Rock Ridge) -- The Lawrence band sounds more like Jane's Addiction in its heyday on this soaring rock track than Perry Farrell and the gang did on their most recent album.

5. HOODIE ALLEN, 'Flipping Out' (Hoodie Allen) -- The Long Island native pays tribute to the great De La Soul with his dexterous wordplay and clever sense of humor over a laid-back groove from his second mixtape "Leap Year."

HONORABLE MENTIONS Swear and Shake, "For Better, For Worse" (Swear and Shake); Aeroplane Pageant, "Desperate Characters" (Aeroplane Pageant); Wiretap Crash, "Parasite Dynamite" (Saint Elsewhere); Danny Kean, "The Goodness" (Ruffle Bird); Patent Pending, "We're Freaking Out" (Patent Pending)