Photos by Gregory Bojorquez


THANKS TO ALL WHO PACKED THE HOUSE AT THE ROXY LAST WEEK TO celebrate with us our fourth annual L.A. Weekly Music Awards (LAWMA). Your glittering stars, sundry industry weasels, curious lookers-on and friends and family of our choice selection of nominees milled about, chattering happily, clinking their glasses, looking très chic and generally lending a festive air to what came off as our most swiftly paced and smoothly executed program yet. Genial host Andy Prieboy kept things a-rolling with consummate style, grace, wit and élan; our house DJ, Garth Trinidad, filled the air with a nicely funky flow, and a host of bands gave their all in a series of intense performances that shook the rafters and, let's hope, reverberated up and down the Strip. It smoked, in other words. Our sincere gratitude to one and all for bringing their good cheer to an event that's playing at least a small part in bringing this musical town closer together.


And the winners are. . .


BEST NEW ARTIST


Dengue Fever


BEST ROCK BAND


Concrete Blonde


BEST HARD ROCK/METAL BAND


Queens of the Stone Age


BEST POP/ROCK BAND (tie)


The Excessories
Weezer


BEST PUNK/HARDCORE BAND


Bad Religion


BEST RAP/HIP-HOP ARTIST (tie)


Shapeshifters
Medusa & Feline Science


BEST JAZZ ARTIST


James Carney


BEST COUNTRY ARTIST


Dave Alvin


BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES/R&B ARTIST


Solomon Burke


BEST SALSA/LATIN ARTIST


Quetzal


BEST INSTRUMENTAL BAND


Double Naught Spy Car


BEST NEW-GENRE/
UNCATEGORIZABLE ARTIST


W.A.C.O.


JAZZ EMINENCE AWARD


Les McCann


POP/ROCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD


Etta James


WORLD MUSIC/RECOMBINANT ARTIST


Ozomatli


BEST DJ — MIXMEISTER


Babu


BEST DJ — SELECTOR


Tony Watson


BEST RADIO SHOW


The Monkey Man — Pirate Cat Radio


BEST ROCK/POP SONGWRITER/ COMPOSER (tie)


E (Eels)
Stew


BEST ELECTRONIC DANCE ARTIST (tie)


Crystal Method
Nortec


OUTSTANDING CLASSICAL ENSEMBLE/ARTIST (tie)


Lalo Schifrin
Leonard Stein, pianist and producer of PianoSpheres series


The MVP Award gives all the wee folks out there their chance to finally tell the critics to step aside and shut their gobs; we asked readers to select via e-mail their choices for outstanding L.A. musicians in any genre or style. The following artists outpolled others by substantial margins, thus earning them MVP Awards in a handful of categories. They are:


Best New Band: Radio Vago


Best Rap/Hip-Hop Artist:
L.A. Symphony


Best Hard Rock/Metal Artist: My Ruin


Best Country Artist (tie): I See Hawks in L.A. and the Sid Hillman Quartet


Best Jazz Artist: Phil Ranelin


Best DJ Selector: DJ Irene


Best Electronic Dance Artist: Deepsk

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