Music Awards Festival 2015

VENUE

Lola’s Saloon dominates this category, and for good reason. The tastemaking West 7th corridor venue books an excellent mix of local and road shows and has more street cred than whoever shot Tupac and got away with it. But neighboring venues The Grotto, Magnolia Motor Lounge, and Fred’s Texas Café are netting their share of big fish while always saving room onstage for local artists. The Near Southside is ruled by a couple of venues that specialize in big events: Shipping & Receiving and The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge have hosted the types of marquee shows that not too long ago would have ended up in Big D. Don’t count out The Rail Club. Fort Worth’s heavy metal sanctuary fills a niche the others can’t. — E.G.

COVER/TRIBUTE ACT

Human Jukebox Big Mike Richardson fronts half a dozen tribute bands and plays solo gigs pretty much every night. If there’s a group that could match his catalog, it might be Velvet Love Box. Me and My Monkey feels just as comfortable playing a fancy wedding as a smoky dive bar. Poo Live Crew put the “F-U” in fun, but don’t let their costumes and crazy antics fool you –– dudes can play. The Foo brings all the intense energy of a Foo Fighters gig without the $90 ticket price. — E.G.

BOOKING AGENCY/TALENT BUYER

Blackbox Presents holds the keys to some of the city’s best venues, most notably Lola’s Saloon –– where, incidentally, you’re also likely to see a show by Dallas Distortion Music, Up to Eleven Entertainment, and upstarts Red Empire, who appear to be the only talent buyers willing to take a chance on local hip-hop. And as Spune Productions has shifted its focus to festivals, Elmo Jones Productions is keeping the Fort heavy. — E.G.

ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR

All kinds of rock comin’ atcha from Le Fort this year. Various forms of metal are represented by Duell’s Back to Drunk (desert, stoner), Stone Machine Electric’s Garage Tape (doom, sludge), The Dangits’ Come Alive (Motorhead meets KISS), and Spacebeach’s Orange Karma (bat-shit craziness). Which isn’t to say the rest of the nominees are quiet. No, no. Year of the Bear’s Gold Rushin’ sounds as if it had been recorded in an empty Genesee Cream Ale the size of California, while The Cush’s Transcendental Heatwave and Jetta in the Ghost Tree’s Clandestine, Vol. 1 sound like the result of some hash smoked out of that can. As Jefferson Colby’s Dr. M is dynamic but unabashedly rock-y, Cleanup’s Sun Life verges on prog and Bummer Vacation’s Creative Differences is as icily groovy as Ian Curtis’ dead-fly dance. — A.M.

EP OF THE YEAR

When you’ve got good tunes, why sit on them? That’s what these nominees are saying. With the exception of Wrex Washington’s infectious rap gem Wrexish and Cody Culberson’s country-inflected Carry the Blame, all of the nominees are rock-oriented. But, boy-howdy, is the rock diverse in the Fort. The punk comes fast and furious on Toy Gun’s lyrically progressive Please, Please You and Road Soda’s rowdy Coup D’Cool. Somewhere in between The Ramones and The Rascals is War Party, authors of the splendidly odd … And the Queen Makes Three, and Blank-Men, the new traditionalists behind the Devo-loving Fact or Fiction? Before you ask, we’ve got your straight-ahead rock right ’ere! It’s in Missing Sibling’s clanging, bashing, Lemonheads-inspired Commiserate and Picnic, Lightning’s Gilded Youth. And don’t forget about Georgia, Son of Stan’s brilliant toe-tapping, head-bobbing valentine to that dark but delicious corner of the pop canon where Frank Stallone fronts the Alan Parsons Project. — A.M.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Jake Paleschic’s Again, At Last is a moody meditation on love, faith, and life, scored by spectral country twang and tight grooves. Gollay’s Built for Love is a compelling suite of fully realized characters, palpable emotion, and heart-stirring melodies, highlighted by sumptuous production. An O.G. local statesmen, rapper/producer Smooth Vega dropped Exclamation Point, his most mature and nuanced work to date. With his low, percussive, polysyllabic flow percolating in and out of Berto G.’s beats, Tornup goes big on his debut, Impossible Dreams (Artistic Ambitions), pondering life, the universe, and everything that keeps people from having harmonious existences. On It Happens Every Night, Andy Pickett’s door guy’s-eye view of the beauty, ugliness, and the beauty found despite the ugliness plays out across ambling piano pop laced with sardonic wit. Rachella Parks’ Meditative Inspirational Suite is a groovy, gorgeous collection of spiritually minded contemporary jazz, while Chucho’s Monotonic Tailpiece is countrified blues for when your Sunday is coming down. Flipside sounds perfectly inventive on Perfectly Sane, proving that jazz can be interesting and accessible. On Seplica’s Bedroom, Tidals takes you on a mushroom trip minus the next-day exhaustion, washing your cerebellum in waves of aural textures that are alternately pleasing, confusing, and ominous, like a barely-remembered dream or a David Cronenberg romance. Lou Charle$’ high-energy vibes name-check the Sacramento Kings and Conan the Barbarian and bite the Red Hot Chili Peppers as he wraps his rhymes in wry hooks and head-nodding grooves. Natural Anthem’s debut, Thread, salutes Brit-pop’s glammier origins, bathing stateside rock ’n’ roll stomp in dreamy, psychedelic soul. Jacob Furr’s Trails & Traces keeps folk-rock troubadour traditions alive with a collection of songs pulled from Furr’s grief-stricken heart and the journey he made while making sense of it all. Henry the Archer’s When Something Means Nothing has the spirit of fizzy, fuzzy indie-pop lurking in it dark heart — like a Buggles album re-imagined by Nick Cave. — S.S.

SONG OF THE YEAR  

The ’60s are alive and well, if we’re to believe some of this year’s nominees in this category. Melody and trippy-dippy vibes –– and soft male voices –– permeate Natural Anthem’s “Paranoid” and Silver Siblings’ “Super Heavy Gravity,” while Chucho takes the decade literally with the Tom Waits-ian “Peace Sign.” Well, since we mention it, another decade is also prominent here. The ultimate retro star, Leon Bridges offers “Coming Home,” which could have been recorded in ’57 in RCA studios. And in the spirit of soul’s halcyon days, Chris Watson Band pumps out “Two Bottles,” written by Hall of Fame inductee Josh Weathers. On the old-timey country tip, Vincent Neil Emerson’s “Lady Luck” is full of delicate acoustic guitarwork and down-and-out lyrics (tres George Jones). Matter of fact, with the exception of Kyeyote’s funky, rock-kissed “Never in a Day, old-school rules. Jake Paleschic’s “Easy Living” conjures Jackson Browne and the Bakersfield sound, while Oil Boom’s “Sneak Tip” is as deliriously giddy as a Cindy Lauper dance tune sung by Daryl Hall. And as Andy Pickett’s bouncy, pianistic, and imminently catchy “It Happens Every Night” harks back to Steely Dan and Andy Newman, Gollay’s “Built for Love” is a sumptuous mid-tempo number underlined by lilting vocal harmonies and ethereal synth atmospherics. — A.M./E.B.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Has there been a bigger story in North Texas music than Leon Bridges? After stealing the show at South by Southwest, the silky smooth soulman stole the national spotlight, performing all over the country and on the biggest late-night talk shows on broadcast television. Close on Bridges’ heels was Luke Wade, the blue-eyed crooner who went deep into The Voice. One guy who’s already performed in front of thousands of people at once, Brandin Lea is back on the local scene as frontman for his comeback vehicle, Jetta in the Ghost Tree. That Jacob Furr is still able to make music is a miracle, considering the heartache he’s been through, losing his young wife Christina to cancer over a year ago. And be on the lookout for Jake Paleschic, who was hand-selected by Bridges to open for the recent Columbia Records signee on a short stateside tour. — E.G./A.M.

Hall of Fame

This year’s class is bound to make you all teary-eyed. Josh Weathers was at the top of his game before pulling the plug a couple of years ago to focus on his family. Sure, you may see him onstage once in a blue moon, but the guy who paved the way for the Leon Bridgeses and Luke Wades of this part of Texas had a voice that Elvis would have envied and a stage presence to match. The other inductee had no choice but to stop. Justin “Beef” Williams suffered an accident at work that left him unable to sing or perform. But before he left, the former frontman for Bomb Quixote and Villain Vanguard left a mark on Fort Worth music that’s indelible. — A.M.