Photo by Charlie Gross
Yes, friends, once more the time has come for les critics musiques to put their pointy heads together, to jab fingers, hurl invective, get all damp and bug-eyed, pompously proclaim and proudly pontificate pretentiously on who and what, indeed, are the greatest things on the L.A. music scene.
We know, we know, awards shows are a dime a dozen, they’re super way cheesy, and they don’t prove a dang thing except what a deluded herd of self-important twerps all music critics are. Fine and dandy. Hey, don’t get us started — we know everyone hates critics, we know no one loves us, least of all ourselves . . . Waaahhh!
Anyway, that’s what we’re here for: to bring us all together, for better or worse. With that in mind, the Weekly polled 25 writers on the best of L.A.’s musical best. Again, most of our nominees create sounds that straddle several borders, so categorizing them proved to be among the chief difficulties; you can take their inclusion in this or that stylistic division as a pretty rough demarcation, with plenty of spillage into other zones of endeavor. We recognize that we’re honoring a mere small sliver of L.A.’s fertile musical tree, thus our choices reflect such factors as the artists’ length of service, their potential for future greatness, depth of concept, skill in execution, cultural relevance or just pure entertainment value. Our only criterion was that the artist lives and/or works in or around Los Angeles, signed or unsigned, major or independent, megastar or megastarving.
The LAWMA pays tribute not just to outstanding individual musical achievements, but to the amazing diversity and wealth of the Los Angeles music scene as a whole — and we’re talking a true embarrassment of riches. Everyone’s a winner for being nominated, of course, and if we didn’t get to you this time, we will.
BEST NEW ARTISTBeachwood Sparks
Macy Gray Mia Doi Todd Nebula Styles of Beyond
BEST ROCK BANDThe BellRays Buckcherry Mother Superior L7 Bluebird
BEST HARD ROCK/METAL BANDCoal Chamber
Motley Crue Rage Against the Machine Rollins Band
System of a Down BEST POP/ROCK BANDBeachwood Sparks Buck Eels The Negro Problem Wondermints
BEST PUNK/HARDCORE BANDBetty Blowtorch Excessories Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs Texas Terri & the Stiff Ones The Zeros
BEST RAP/HIP-HOP ARTISTDr. Dre
Jurassic 5 Kool Keith Medusa Ugly Duckling
BEST JAZZ ARTISTJames
Carney Alex Cline Brad Mehldau Wadada
Leo Smith Dwight Trible
BEST COUNTRY ARTISTDave Alvin Chris Gaffney Brantley Kearns Kathy Robertson Rick Shea
BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES/ R&B ARTISTCafe R&B Macy Gray
Ben Harper Etta James Dewey Terry BEST SALSA/LATIN ARTISTCaravana Cubana
Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
Bobby Rodriguez Poncho Sanchez Son Mayor
BEST INSTRUMENTAL BANDBanyan Breakestra Destroy All Nels Cline Double Naught Spy Car Michael Whitmore Sometet
BEST NEW-GENRE/ UNCATEGORIZABLE ARTISTCrib Kraig Grady Brad Laner/Electric Company Solid Eye
Azalia Snail JAZZ EMINENCE AWARDBobby Bradford
Charlie Haden Billy Higgins Don Preston Wadada Leo Smith
POP/ROCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDSwill be presented to
Hadda Brooks, Dick Dale,
Arthur Lee and Big Jay McNeely
BEST WORLD MUSIC/ RECOMBINANT ARTIST Ricardo Lemvo
Ozomatli Prince Eyango Quetzal
Adam Rudolph BEST DJ (Mixmeister)Babu
Cut Chemist DJ Jun Numark DJ Higher
BEST DJ (Selector)Jason Bentley Joseph Brooks DJ Daz Al Jackson Mike Messex
BEST RADIO SHOW Alma del Barrio (KXLU)
Garth Trinidad’s
Chocolate City (KCRW)
Molotov Cocktail Hour (KXLU)
Bill Gardner’s
Rhapsody in Black (KPFK)
Mark Torres’
Travel Tips for Aztlan (KPFK)
BEST ROCK/POP SONGWRITER/COMPOSERBeck
Jon Brion Eleni Mandell Aimee Mann Mike Ness BEST DANCE MUSIC ARTISTOO Soul Fishbone
Christopher Lawrence Doc Martin
George Sarah OUTSTANDING CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE/ARTISTEastside Sinfonietta
Miguel Harth-Bedoya L.A. Chamber Orchestra/
Jeffrey Kahane L.A. Philharmonic’s New Music Ensemble Xtet
The L.A. Weekly Music Awards 2000 will be held at the Henry Fonda Theater on Thursday, June 29, at 8 p.m. For tix and info, call (323)-993-3648.
And the nominees are:
