A Night at LAWMA 2004

Photos by Ted Soqui

Friends, fans and the faithful flocked to the Music Box at the Fonda Theater last Thursday night for the L.A. Weekly’s sixth annual music awards, and once again it was a typically feral and undomesticated affair (about as slick as a music awards show ought to be without slipping in Grammy-fied cheese) featuring strangely sexy host Kennedy, nuevo bump & grind by the redoubtable Suicide Girls, sleight of hand by a humorously morbid Rob Zabrecky and his pianist Mr. Uncertain, in-house DJ resonance provided by nominees Frosty and Daedelus, and live workouts by several of the award nominees, including brooding acoustics by guitarist-singer Patrick Park; a poppily tenacious set from the Like; heavily rocking math & slash by Kristin Hersh’s 50 Foot Wave; a joyously funky blast from community bridge-builders Build an Ark, who this night integrated their ranks with several other L.A. Weekly Music Award nominees, such as the high-flying vocal master Dwight Trible (who went on to win the Best Jazz Artist prize), Afro-Brazilian specialists Badauê and hip-hoppers Sol Uprising; and a quite loud indeed onslaught from metallic melodicists Abloom (excellent stuff that nonetheless cleared the main room of its less stouthearted drinkers and wonks). Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to veteran session saxist Plas Johnson (the Pink Panther–theme man); Runaway grrl rocker Joan Jett; to devolutionist pinheads Devo, with founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale on hand to accept their plaque; and to the L.A.-scene champ, Minuteman Mike Watt, whose mother conveyed Mike’s thanks via a note from the road. (And by the way, we always take pains to point out that Lifetime Achievement Awards recognize artists for their long years of service in the betterment of music in Los Angeles, and do not imply that the honorees should be put out to pasture . . .) The LAWMA nominees were selected in a poll of 40 local music writers, who largely disregarded the height of the bands’ media profiles and aimed directly at emerging artists concerned with pushing the music forward in widely varying stylistic ways. Onward, upward, over ’n’ out.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS:

BEST NEW ARTIST
Dios

BEST ROCK BAND
The Mars Volta

BEST HARD ROCK/METAL BAND
The Icarus Line

BEST POP/ROCK BAND
All Night Radio

BEST PUNK/HARDCORE BAND
The Weirdos

BEST RAP/HIP-HOP ARTIST
[tie] Chali2Na, Dilated Peoples

BEST JAZZ ARTIST
Dwight Trible

BEST COUNTRY ARTIST
Carla Bozulich

BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES/R&B ARTIST
[tie] Jake La Botz, Southside Slim

BEST LATIN ARTIST
Quinto Sol

BEST INSTRUMENTAL BAND
Future Pigeon

BEST NEW-GENRE/ UNCATEGORIZABLE ARTIST
[tie] Amps for Christ, Tom Recchion

JAZZ EMINENCE AWARD
Artie Shaw

POP/ROCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
were presented to
Devo
Joan Jett
Plas Johnson
Mike Watt

BEST WORLD MUSIC/RECOMBINANT ARTIST
Lili Haydn

BEST LIVE ELECTRONIC ACT
The Postal Service

BEST DJ — MIXMEISTER
Numark

BEST DJ — SELECTOR
Nobody

BEST DANCE MUSIC ARTIST
Dance Disaster Movement

BEST RADIO SHOW
Jonesy’s Jukebox — Indie 103.3

BEST ROCK/POP SONGWRITER/COMPOSER
Grant-Lee Phillips

OUTSTANDING CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE/ARTIST
USC Thornton New Music Ensemble