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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