L.A. Weekly Music Awards 2003

For this year’s edition of our annual music awards, to be held at the Henry Fonda Theater on Thursday, June 26, 30 local music writers were given the task of selecting the best L.A.-based musicians. Our nominees were chosen on the basis of quality, regardless of commercial success or relative obscurity, with an eye toward emerging artists we feel deserve praise and encouragement for their efforts. Thus in several categories we have higher-profile, internationally prominent artists competing against worthy artists working at a more grassroots level. Once again, the categories are rough descriptions of the nominees’ skills; many or most of these artists could easily be slotted into several different divisions. Each nominee was chosen for high achievement in music this year or for the great music they’ve given Los Angeles over the years. As usual, the superb abundance of musicians in L.A. made it a hard job to narrow the field down. As always, every nominee is a winner.

BEST NEW ARTIST
Midnight Movies
Minibar
Moving Units
Jennifer Nash
The Sharp Ease
 
BEST ROCK BAND
Alaska
Earlimart
Fatso Jetson
Radio Vago
The Warlocks
 
BEST HARD ROCK/METAL BAND
Audioslave
Black Label Society
Otep
Queens of the Stone Age
System of a Down
 
BEST POP/ROCK BAND
The Dagons
The 88
Metric
Rooney
The Tyde
 
BEST PUNK/HARDCORE BAND
The Distillers
400 Blows
Go Betty Go
The Stitches
The SuperBees
 
BEST RAP/HIP-HOP ARTIST
Abstract Rude
Aceyalone
Busdriver
Jurassic 5
Kool Keith
 
BEST JAZZ ARTIST
Billy Childs
Alex Cline
Henry Grimes
Charlie Haden
The Stacy Rowles Sextet
 
BEST COUNTRY ARTIST
Dave Alvin
The Idaho Falls
I See Hawks in L.A.
Garrison Starr
Mike Stinson
 
BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES/ R&B ARTIST
Blue Shadows
Café R&B
Cody Chesnutt
Kim Hill
The Soul of John Black
 
BEST SALSA/LATIN ARTIST
Francisco Aguabella
Conjunto Jardin
Cumbeley
Ricardo Lemvo
Bobby Matos
 
BEST INSTRUMENTAL BAND
Future Pigeon
Insect Surfers
Languis
Orchestra Superstring
Planet X
 
BEST NEW-GENRE/ UNCATEGORIZABLE ARTIST
Books on Tape
Kraig Grady
Gwendolyn
Akira Rabelais
Phthalocyanine
 
JAZZ EMINENCE AWARD
Bobby Bradford
Benny Carter
Teddy Edwards
Anita O’Day
Gerald Wilson
 
POP/ROCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS will be awarded to
Hal Blaine
Los Lobos
Sparks
 
BEST WORLD MUSIC/ RECOMBINANT ARTIST
Blay Ambolley
Rocky Dawuni
Pejman Hadadi
Najite Olokun Prophecy
Adam Rudolph Go: Organic Orchestra
 
BEST ELECTRONIC DANCE ARTIST
Dntel
Mount Sims
Ray Makers
Seksu Roba
Supreme Beings of Leisure
 
BEST DJ — MIXMEISTER
John Kelley
Cut Chemist
Daedelus
Madlib
Nobody
 
BEST DJ — SELECTOR
The Bud Bros.
Frosty
DJ Haul
DJ Logic
Marques Wyatt
 
BEST RADIO SHOW
Rodney Bingenheimer,
Rodney on the Roq (KROQ);
Rev. Dan’s Music for Nimrods (KXLU);
Nic Harcourt,
Morning Becomes Eclectic (KCRW);
Doug MacLeod,
Nothin’ But the Blues(KKJZ);
Derek Rath, Cosmic Barrio(KPFK)
 
BEST ROCK/POP SONGWRITER/COMPOSER
Damon Aaron
Jon Brion
Eleni Mandell
Elliott Smith
Simon Stokes
 
OUTSTANDING CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE/ARTIST
California EAR Unit
Martin Chalifour (Principal Concertmaster, L.A. Philharmonic)
Robin Cox Ensemble
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Los Angeles Philharmonic
New Music Group