Music >>

• Best Local Album of the Past 12 Months
  Gateway to Dignity
  The members of Grand Ulena have garnered notoriety for their pedigree, their simultaneous refusal to play their hometown while declaring themselves "Ambassadors of St. Louis" and the St. Louis Police Department's recent "courtesy call" on their practice space. All this controversy, both imagined... More >>
• Best Rapper
  Chingy
  Like there's any question here. This summer you couldn't hide from Chingy's début single, "Right Thurr," even if you wanted to. But why would you want to? What kind of person didn't fall for the song back in the spring, when it was bubbling on local radio before exploding everywhere as... More >>
• Best Concert of the Past 12 Months
  Flaming Lips at the Pageant
  On June 7, 2003, the Flaming Lips cured cancer. Really. Every person in the audience that night felt it happen; the bitterness and pain and regret and recriminations that gnaw at your insides and leave you with a bellyful of dead black sludge were burned away by the incandescent joy of the... More >>
• Best Band Name
  Malade de Souci
  Malade de Souci may or may not exist: Few people have seen them play, fewer still know who they are and no one seems to know anyone who might actually be in the band, assuming the band exists. We're not saying they do: We are simply acknowledging that the two albums of non-Euclidian, noodly... More >>
• Best Band Paraphernalia
  Conformists
  There isn't a lot of money to be made on the local rock scene if you're a musician -- Clear Channel sees to that; hence the merch table that appears at nearly every show. Local bands attempt to financially justify getting the night off from work to play the show by selling logoed and branded... More >>
• Best Band to Leave Town in the Past 12 Months
  Hroom Hroom
  Those quick to assume that music fans in St. Louis can't handle anything too challenging will be at least slightly relieved to find out that Hroom Hroom weren't driven out of town on a musical rail; instead the duo relocated to Chicago for the higher purpose of higher education. Made up of... More >>
• Best Band to Die in the Past 12 Months
  The Reactions
  The curse of the RFT music awards strikes again! The teenage striped shirt-wearing trio the Reactions won in the Best Garage category and almost immediately thereafter went their separate ways, citing "creative differences." Unlike most breakups attributed to that hackneyed excuse, however, this... More >>
• Best Country Band
  Dealer's Choice
  As a band, Dealer's Choice exists but once a month; as individuals, they've made their marks in country music (and we're not just talking locally). For Dealer's Choice, history keeps unfolding every second Saturday, at a smoky, bric-a-bracked dive in St. Peters called Horstmeier's. No frontman,... More >>
• Best Bluegrass Band
  Cumberland Gap
  For some aficionados, if the band doesn't sound like the Bluegrass Boys or Flatt and Scruggs, it ain't no part of bluegrass. For others, any jam band with a mandolin qualifies. Cumberland Gap doesn't have time for territorial skirmishes: They're too busy keeping their set lists fresh with... More >>
• Best Gospel Artist
  Fontella Bass
  Should all the mid-'60s soul singles vanish from the planet, leaving you with only "Rescue Me," Fontella Bass' 1965 masterpiece, you could listen, learn and distill the genre anew. Why? Because the gospel sound, the DNA of soul music, is there. Daughter of gospel titan Martha Bass -- a member of... More >>
• Best Songwriter
  Andy Ploof and John Wendland
  When you write for a group of impeccable players fronted by an overpowering singer, you're lucky anyone notices your songs at all. The now-defunct One Fell Swoop wasn't one of St. Louis' best bands because they could pick and sing. They had songs in spades, the kind that stand with the best of... More >>
• Best Vocalist (Female)
  Kim Vrooman
  Last Halloween Kim Vrooman and her band Earthsol masqueraded as Led Zeppelin. They didn't just wear costumes. Set up in the cramped confines of Obie's (recently reborn as Griffin's) in Soulard, the band raged through two hours-plus of Zep, nailing each and every guitar wail and vocal mania. This... More >>
• Best Vocalist (Male)
  Thayne Bradford
  Yes, he's a virtuoso on fiddle, guitar (acoustic and electric) and mandolin, and he has played with such bluegrass legends as Bull Harmon, Benny Martin and Vince Gill. But it's his voice, a tenor of exacting clarity and startling range, that confirms Thayne Bradford's indispensable place on the... More >>
• Best Folk Artist
  Jim Nelson
  One of the most reticent and recondite musicians in St. Louis is also one of the most knowledgeable, skilled and in-demand. Though he'd blanch at the description, guitarist and singer Jim Nelson is to St. Louis folk music what Bob Costas is to baseball: He knows everything worth knowing -- from... More >>
• Best Cover Band
  The Skulls
  The intensity of the Skulls is found in the sweaty face of lead singer Devin Baker -- and also on his arm. His face contorts as he screams out the lyrics to "TV Casualty" and other Misfits covers, but on his arm lies the tattoo that explains it all: "WWDD" -- "What Would Danzig Do?" Baker's... More >>
• Best All-Ages Venue
  The Pageant
  Built in 2000, the Pageant has quickly filled a gap in the St. Louis music ecosystem, becoming the venue of choice for national bands not big enough for an arena or shed tour. The White Stripes, the Foo Fighters and others have all played here recently on their stop through the STL. The real... More >>
• Best Turntablist
  Kenny Kingston
  To the headz, the term "turntablist" denotes a very specific craft within the DJ community: one who performs tricks and antics and body spins and choreographed dances and basically showboats his or her talents for a few minutes at a time. But really, as cool as "turntablism" is, it gets boring... More >>
• Best Rock Band
  Riddle of Steel
  What is the riddle of steel? Many have contemplated this, but only Crom knows the true answer. The answer -- at least for St. Louis -- is that the Riddle of Steel is a juggernaut rock three-piece formed like a phoenix from the ashes of many other regional acts. Featuring the virtuoso guitar of... More >>
• Best Music Festival
  Washington Avenue Beat Festival
  Beat Festival, the transcendent biannual electronic music festival on Washington Avenue, is the most happening Sunday night in St. Louis ever (and maybe better than the best Saturday night, too). Thousands of wristband-sporting celebrants come out Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends to revel in... More >>
• Best New Artist
  In Medias Res
  Sure, the music scene is notoriously cyclical, but who saw this revival coming? Five years ago, if you had mentioned funk to a punk rocker, he would've rolled his eyes and made some joke about Primus. But all of a sudden everybody's claiming Gang of Four as an influence, and New York bands like... More >>
• Best Local Label
  Ascetic Records
  Hieu Nguyen and Matt Snell launched Ascetic in 2001 because, according to Nguyen, "there have been so many cool labels that have supported so many good bands, we just wanted to do the same." In a relatively short time, the label has put out ten releases from local and regional acts, all in the... More >>
• Best Jam Band
  Naked Groove
  "Ass" is a difficult concept to grasp. It's not that people don't understand its ramifications; more likely, they're not willing to accept the fact that ass is a common denominator in many of the things in life that are good. They think it's a nasty word that has no place in civilized speech, an... More >>
• Best Noise Band
  Brain Transplant
  Much like guacamole-flavored potato chips, the music of Brain Transplant don't hardly make no sense to regular folk. You can try to stuff the pigeon into the hole, but you're just going to end up with a mess of blood, feathers and splintered bone. According to Chris Smentkowski, half of the... More >>
• Best Blues Artist
  Bennie Smith
  There was a time, long ago, when blues guitar was about simplicity and soul instead of Stevie Ray Vaughan wankery. We might not remember that period, but Bennie Smith does. Smith played with luminaries such as Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner as the '50s transformed the blues into rock &... More >>
• Best Rock Radio Program
  The Wayback Machine
  KDHX (88.1 FM)
  On his Web site, Jeff "Kopper" Kopp, the DJ of KDHX's Wayback Machine, claims to play a lot of different music on his show: "'60s garage/psych-punk, '70s proto-punk, instrumental surf/hot rod, frantic R&B, mod, freakbeat, beer-soaked frat rock, broken blues, rockabilly/psychobilly" -- just to... More >>
• Best Jazz Artist
  John Norment
  Some jazz musicians stay inside, expertly navigating the changes while inventing fresh new melodies on the spot. Others go outside, discarding the boundaries of harmony and stretching music into pure sound with a restless yearning to grab the whole world and channel it through a horn. One of the... More >>
• Best Lounge Act
  Tony Viviano
  "Hi, folks, how you doing? Good to see you. Come on in, there's a table right over there. And now, I'd like to do one of my very favorite songs. This one goes out to all you couples out there." Defined in our imagination by the artistry of Sinatra, Bennett and Tormé; the kitschy excess of... More >>
• Best Jazz Radio Program
  Jazz with Bob Parlocha
  WSIE (88.7 FM)
  Whether you're driving home from work or a gig or a date along a near-deserted highway, propelled by an urgent walking bass and ride cymbal, or sitting in a third-floor walkup lamenting lost love to the moody musings of a tenor sax, the hours after midnight seem like the perfect time for jazz... More >>
• Best R&B Artist
  Oliver Sain
  As a saxophonist, keyboard player, composer, arranger, bandleader, producer, engineer and entrepreneur, Oliver Sain has worked with, influenced and mentored literally hundreds of musicians over the years. The Mississippi native who came to St. Louis in the 1950s has written and produced hit... More >>