This was a rather confusing Music Awards month. Like the $800 price tag that Oakland Thrift, in the hopes that a Japanese tour bus will happen to cruise down Lancaster Avenue, has placed on a pair of original Levis: The numbers simply don't make sense. Why, for example, did flavor-of-the-month Flickerstick garner just two write-in votes, fewer than several Oklahoma bands? It's not because the band is based in Dallas; that border was crossed in several awards categories. And our "peers" at the Star-Telegram report getting several calls a week from "fans" begging for more Flickerstick coverage. As is often the case when the Star-T gets attention for stupid stuff, we're torn between resentment and relief. Here, relief takes a whomping lead.
Another mystery: Whence the couple hundred ballots with identical mailing labels, all marked with a single identical vote: Soviet Space for Best New Artist? "Whence," according to the identical postmarks, was Crowley, home of Soviet Space's exceedingly popular drummer, Jordan Richardson. Did the deluge of univotes make a difference in the final tally? No, because we didn't count them. Maybe next year we'll add a "Hardest-Working Fans" category. For sure next year we'll clarify our policy on ballot-stuffing.
Here's a stumper: "Band of Joy" received six write-in votes for Best Experimental Band. Are we idiots, or is this a drunks-at-the-Black-Dog joke? (That's an either/or question.) The only Band of Joy we're familiar with is Robert Plant's pre-Zeppelin machine. Turns out we are idiots, or at least ignorant: Our Dallas pals tell us the modern-day group has a c.d. out and is appearing live at Poor David's Pub June 19. (If you're a member of Band of Joy, or for that matter Hobstweedle, let us know when you're performing in our neighborhood. We're always eager to absorb new sounds. Or those from 1968.)
These anomalies aside, our fifth annual music awards went as smooth as a KTCU d.j.'s voice. In the beginning, we asked local music industry types to nominate acts in 21 categories. We ran those nominations for four weeks in the paper, online, and at ballot boxes scattered around Tarrant County. Ballot-stuffing aside, you responded with nearly 2,000 votes, a great percentage of them cast at our May 20 nominee showcase at the Ridglea Theater. Some nominees captured an early lead and held it throughout; other categories were a toss-up until the very end. The most dramatic competition was the four-way run among Chomsky, Deathray Davies, Slobberbone, and Brasco for Best Rock Band; the lead changed daily, and in the end -- that was Tuesday, when awards were handed out during a show at Caravan of Dreams -- only 40 votes separated first from fourth place. As you see, except for the ones we threw away, every vote matters.
Now on to the countdown.
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