FWW Music Awards Booklet 2019

presents

fort worth weekly music awards festival

2019 FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 1

MAKE AN IMPACT IN YOUR COMMUNITY

GIVE TO UNITED WAY OF TARRANT COUNTY TEXT UWTARRANT TO 41444 OR VISIT UNITEDWAYTARRANT.ORG

2 FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019

The Big 2-0 Welcome to the 2019 Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards (#MAF19). This is the 20th time we’ve done this thing! The first iteration was a small event at the old Ridglea Theater featuring five or six bands –– or so I’m told. This year, we’ve booked our customary 40 bands spread out over eight venues on the Near Southside, from 5 to 10pm on June 23. Complimentary shuttles brought to you by The Bowery Residential will be zooming by to whisk you away to your next venue in air-conditioned luxury.

Seeing as this shindig is free and we’re chauffeuring you from club to club, we’d appreciate it if you’d drop a Lincoln (that’s $5 for you squares) and purchase a copy of our annual compilation album, Frequencies, Vol. 10, featuring 16 of the best acts in town, including 88 Killa, Ansley, Dagger Club, Devi, Ploydogs, and Grady Spencer & The Work. Sales of the album will benefit United Way of Tarrant County. As always, thanks for supporting local music now and all year round. –– Eric Griffey

Jarvis St

W Daggett Ave,

S Main St

E Dashwood St

4

7

E Broadway Ave Bryan Street

8 stages 40 bands Oak Grove St

BOILED 1 THE OWL TAVERN CHAT 2 THE ROOM PUB St. 3 Republic Bar AT 4 MAIN SOUTH SIDE THE 5 OFF RECORD 6 SHAW'S PATIO GRILL & 7 SHIPPING RECEIVING 8 TWILITE LOUNGE

S Calhoun St

S Main St

Lipscomb St

Colleg Ave.

8

E Vickery Blvd

3

E. Hattie St

free!

W Rosedale St

5

north of rosedale

6

magnolia

5

6

W Oleander St

1

Travis St

6

Lipscomb St

Alston Ave

S Henderson St

S Lake St

2

W Magnolia Ave

5

W Morphy St FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 3

909 W. Magnolia Ave. 817-920-9616

9pm

1263 W. Magnolia Ave. 817-922-8319

9pm

Dead Vinyl

sur duda

8pm

8pm

all Clean

Joe Gorgeous

7pm

Heater

7pm

Joe Savage

6pm

6pm

Tornup

stone machine electric

5pm

The.Naaman 5pm

ox combine 4 FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019

201 E Hattie St. (817) 615-9360

1002 S. Main St. 682-707-7774

9pm

9pm

meach pango

Son of Stan 8pm

clay perry

Cut Throat Finches

7pm

7pm

wrex

88 Killa

6pm

6pm

washed up rookie

Chilamundo

8pm

5pm 5pm

svenny baby!

Keanu Leaves

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 5

721 W Magnolia Ave, 817.926.2116

1051 W. Magnolia Ave. 817.926.2116

9pm

9pm

mean motor scooter

squeezebox bandits

8pm

8pm

henry the archer

daryel sellers

7pm

7pm

mordecai the zenith

gollay (acoustic)

6pm

6pm

the fibs

levi ray

5pm

5pm

big heaven

ryker hall

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201 S. Calhoun St. 818-887-9313

212 Lipscomb St. 817-720-5483

9pm

9pm

royal sons

jake paleschic

8pm

dagger club

8pm

vodeo 7pm

devi

7pm

polydogs 6pm

vogue machine

ansley

5pm

5pm

neptune locals

6pm

signals & alibis

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 7

The

performers Though he’s scored a lot of traction in Dallas, 88 Killa is a rapper’s rapper who always reps Fort Worth. The “Hulen Mall Legend” rocks the boasts like no other, making waves with lines spat in a raspy, cocky delivery over juicy, skittering beats and throbbing bass pulses. If you need a jam for a drive across the county line, any 88 Killa track will do just fine.

Last year, Zach Edwards (Ice Eater, Son of Stan, Oil Boom) launched the live-band shuttle for his solo material, an angsty mass of heaviness that welded computerized doom to an onslaught of guitar rage, hitting local stages like a giant robot gone insane.

Since then, All Clean has only gotten tighter and more destructive, and their live show is instantly electrifying.

Whether she was belting out hard rock swagger in her old band, Panic Volcanic, or using her voice for quiet moments of introspection in the sweeping piano pop of her solo debut, Rituals, Ansley has been a major force on the Fort Worth music scene. This summer, she’ll be leaving Cowtown to make her mark on Nashville as a songwriter, and we wish her the best as she moves to make her dreams come true.

Big Heaven frontwoman Mandy Hand writes sad girl ballads dressed in the neon hues of bubble-gum bop, and her interpretation of ’60s girl-group perfection –– or the Beach Boys, or the Ramones, for that matter –– washes that classic pop formalism in shades of synths, turning a punk vibe down a New Wave street leading to the neighborhood of the Bangles and The Go-Go’s.

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Calling Chillamundo “slacker rock” is kind of accurate, but the moniker sort of distracts you from the deftly wrought guitar melodies, off-kilter arrangements, and a wacked-out sense of humor.

Their spacey guitar jams are sweaty psychedelia for backyard barbecues, a cul de sac of sound just down the block from the intersection of Pavement and Ween.

This philosophical rapper’s metaphysical musings meld an articulate flow with a swagger that’s easy to get behind, floating deep thoughts across laid-back beats. On the surface, Clay Perry can be tossed in the bowl of Xanax-buzzy Soundcloud rappers, but his search for truth and meaning is always at the front, and his lyrics give his music some real weight, preaching a gospel that’s free from the burden of religion.

With a foundation cemented in gospel and a frame made of Americana, Cut Throat Finches are a house of heartland rock that’s easily accessible, yet they still manage to kick up the volume around frontman Sean Russell’s anthemic choruses and wry lyrical observations.

Like the weapons that form their name, Dagger Club’s sound is dangerous and intimidating, menacing your ears with fist-pumping hard rock, chiseled from the tombs of long-gone DFW legends Slow Roosevelt, South FM, and A Dozen Furies.

Daryel Sellers is relatively new to the Fort Worth music scene, but he’s been playing music for decades, first honing his craft (and earning a living) as a drummer in the Texas Country circuit before penning a catalog of material as a songwriter in his own right. Last year, he finally recorded a DIY album of lyrics-forward folkinfluenced material that explores life’s contradictions, tragedies, and joys.

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Dead Vinyl has always paid homage to the classic rock gods, but over the past year or so, they’ve gone even deeper into the popular music canon, coming up with Stax- and Motown-powered grooves that juice their hard-rock riffage with a heftier boost of R&B. Of course they still rock, but their lateral shake swings harder than ever.

Devi’s evolution from folkie to sultry trip-hop goddess has been an exciting voyage across roads paved in crisp production and soul-stirring live performances. Stepping from behind her guitar and onto center stage has given this singer the space she needs to soar, and she’s taking off like a private jet on a late-night flight to stardom.

Evincing a dark romanticism that brings to mind bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Fibs burn with a psychedelic glow refracted by reverb and a fog of aural textures that seem moody until they hit you with a sunny, inescapable chorus.

Though Gollay’s new album, Override, is a stunning array of pulsing electronic-pop, frontwoman Rachel Gollay is still a songwriter at heart, and her talents as a lyricist thankfully haven’t been subsumed beneath the enthralling sheen of Override’s airtight production. She can still rock a solo set, in other words, grabbing your attention with her vivid, poetic imagery and captivating voice.

Built on a skeleton of hardcore punk and fleshed out with a body spray-painted in the textures of post-punk and proto-emo, Heater’s bursts of anxious guitar noise are as cathartic as they are high volume, weaponizing distortion and high-gain amps to melt the meat off your bones.

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IT’S HOT OUTSIDE. '3&& 4)655-&4 50 "-- .64*$ "8"3% '&45*7"- 7&/6&4

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 11

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NEW ARTIST Boozy Moods Bruce Magnus Iris Celestialis C.I. Driving Slow Motion Summer Emerson Izzy Josh & The Jet Noise Keanu Leaves Lil’ Sick Prizm Jakob Robertson Solar Slim Summerjob

ROCK Big Heaven Chillamundo Cut Throat Finches Dead Vinyl Henry the Archer Joe Gorgeous Jake Paleschic Polydogs Quaker City Night Hawks Royal Sons Son of Stan Ting Tang Tina Trauma Ray Washed Up Rookie

BAND The Cush Deep Sleepers Duell The Fibs Meach Pango Mean Motor Scooter Polydogs Quaker City Night Hawks Son of Stan Trauma Ray Vodeo War Party

POP Ansley Big Heaven Devi

AVANT GARDE/EXPERIMENTAL BLKrKRT The Candlelight Service Garage Barrage Mind Spiders O. Deletron Pinkish Black Stem Afternoon Tame … Tame and Quiet Tidals Wire Nest

C&W Alex Bellin Convoy & The Cattlemen Summer Dean Simon Flory Tommy Luke Ginny Mac Ransom Rhodes Joe Savage

HEAVY METAL C. I. Frozen Soul Iron Jaw Life of Scars Necrosis Other Oddities Ox Combine Sonar Lights The Spectacle Stone Machine Electric

The Me-Thinks Neptune Locals Mike Ryan Same Brain Son of Stan War Party Kody West

THE BIG MIKE COVER/TRIBUTE BAND AWARD Babes in Boyland Fatt Chedder The Foo Legacy 4

SEMI-LOCAL BAND Acid Carousel Sarah Ruth Alexander Dagger Club Frenchie’s Blues Destroyers Pearl Earl Kyoto Lo-Fi Peter More Mind Spiders Mountain of Smoke Sealion Shaolin Death Squad Sub-Sahara

ACOUSTIC/FOLK/SINGERSONGWRITER Cody Lynn Boyd Dani & Kris Izzy Jackie Darlene Josh Flemming Wayne Floyd Grace Kali Ryker Hall Lindsay Hightower Darren Kobetich Levi Ray

JAZZ Bigg Groove Johnny Case Bill Hamm Lost Conways Jim Milan’s Bucket List Jazz Band Rage Out Arkestra Tom Reynolds Trio

Torn Up Wrex

DRUMMER PERFORMANCE Jeffrey Chase Friedman, Mean Motor Scooter, “Gutterboy Blues” Maddie Cotton, Washed Up Rookie, “Too Late Pt.2”

BASSIST PERFORMANCE Panda Cuenca, Phantomelo, “Gum Love” Kris Luther, Polydogs, “AK48” Jacob Pullig, Vodeo, “Role Playing” Jennifer Rux, The Fibs, “Waiting for a Train” Caleb Stanislaw, Chillamundo, “Reanimator” Steve Steward, Son of Stan, “Hostage” Joe Tacke, Mean Motor Scooter, “Gutterboy Blues” Matt Thomas, Josh & The Jet Noise, “April Rains” Zach Tucker, Roar Shack, “Maps” Brooks Willhoite, Mountain of Smoke, “Retirement”

OTHER PERFORMANCE Rebekah Elizabeth, Mean Motor Scooter, “Gutterboy Blues” Steve Hammond, Vodeo, “Role Playing” Alex Johnson, Mountain of Smoke, “Orion’s Shoulder” Cameron Smith, “There is a Room Filled with Blood” Eric Webb, Cut Throat Finches, “New Age”

Josh Block Sam Culp Jordan Richardson Britt Robisheaux Bart Rose Robby Rux Joe Tacke Taylor Tatsch Peter Wierenga

VIDEO “Deez Daze,” Son of Stan “Dial Tone,” Pinkish Black “Eat.Shit.Die,” Duell “Genzai,” Juma Spears ft. Wrex “Gum Love,” Phantomelo “Gutterboy Blues,” Mean Motor Scooter “Let it Burn,” Royal Sons “Lucky Smoke,” Ansley “New Age,” Cut Throat Finches “Proctor & Briggs Co.,” The Hendersons “The Prophet,” I Happy Am “Run It Back,” Lou Charle$ “Sea Serpent,” Mean Motor Scooter “Suit in the Back,” Quaker City Nighthawks “Till the Cosmos Fall,” Dead Vinyl “Waiting for a Train,” The Fibs

Uriel Avila, Trauma Ray, “Blend” Colton Cogdill, Washed Up Rookie, “Too Late Pt.2” Jonathan Gehringer, Vodeo, “Role playing” Ryker Hall, “Neon Spirit” Sammy Kidd, Mean Motor Scooter, “Gutterboy Blues” Belvedere Lee, Duell, “All The World” Ian McKenyon, Garage Barrage, “Mission Permission” Preston Newberry, The Fibs, “Waiting for a Train” Blake Parish, Royal Sons, “Let it Burn” Will Rakkar, Phantomelo, “Gum Love” Joshua Reed, Josh & The Jet Noise, “Deadly Affair” Jordan Richardson, Son of Stan, “The Innocents” Sean Russell, Cut Throat Finches, “New Age” Matt Tedder, Polydogs, “AK48” Denver Williams, Chillamundo, “Reanimator”

ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR A Good Way to Say Goodbye, Cameron Smith/ Sur Duda The Fibs, The Fibs Furies, Mind Spiders Futureless, Duell Gods of Biomechanics, Mountain of Smoke Love Is Trippy, Ting Tang Tina New Demons, Ox Combine Paper Airplane, Chillamundo

ALBUM OF THE YEAR Daedalum, Clint Niosi Forever, Vandoliers Good Luck, Matthew McNeal Ikikn, Clay Perry Liver Dye, Joe Savage Natural Born Winner, Smoothvega Override, Gollay Polydogs, Polydogs Radioville, Simon Flory Rituals, Ansley Sage Mode Summer, Wrex Spilt Paint 3, Dru B Shinin’ Vice City, Solar Slim You Will Never Understand (The State of Soul), Tornup

Deep Sleepers, Deep Sleepers Diamond Cuts, Son of Stan Genzai, Juma Spears Little Sea, Bosque Brown Live at Blackshield Studio, Izzy The Lost Years, Daryel Sellers Not for Naught, Wayne Floyd Olivia, Big Heaven Pet Your Dog More, Phantomelo Saylah EP, Renizance Skylar Payne, Skylar Payne Soon You’ll Be A Skeleton, Ryker Hall Temporary Power, Heater Too Late, Pt. 2, Washed up rookie Trauma Ray, Trauma Ray TV Baby, Mean Motor Scooter Vodeo II, Vodeo

THE 2019 FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS BALLOT

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 13

R&B/RAP 88 Killa Boogatti Kasino Lou Charle$ Dru B Shinin’ J/O/E Lil’ Sick Mordecai the Zenith The.Naaman Nice Major Clay Perry Renizance Juma Spears Solar Slim

BLUES/SOUL Abraham Alexander Leighton Fields Michael Lee Brandon Marcel Chet Stevens Kelvin Thomas

PUNK Better Now Bulls Dead Words The Fibs Joe Gorgeous Heater Mean Motor Scooter Skin Job War Party

PRODUCER

TALENT BUYER Bryan Beckman Alan Brown Cara Cassaday Jen Franke Brooks Kendall Premier Live Experience Tyler Stevens

VENUE The Blackhouse The Boiled Owl Tavern Caves Lounge Lola’s Saloon Magnolia Motor Lounge MASS Ridglea Room Shipping & Receiving Sunshine Bar Tin Panther Tomcats Twilite Lounge

ELECTRONIC Beaubourg Iris Celestialis Kitbashes Micro D Signals and Alibis Squanto Starbass Laboratories Summerjob Tidals Vogue Machine Weather & Age

NR/CD Poo Live Crew Pour Brothers Squeezebox Bandits Velvet Love Box

Phone: _______________________ E-Mail: _______________________

Garage Barrage Steve Gnash and the Source Gollay Hightower Mañana Cowboy Meach Pango Prizm Svenny Baby!

Your Information* Name: _______________________ Address: ______________________

LIVE BAND Convoy & The Cattlemen Cut Throat Finches The Dangits Duell Henry the Archer Holy Moly

TEXAS MUSIC Vincent Niel Emerson Joey Green The Hamiltons Rodney Parker & The 50 Peso Reward Mike Ryan Squeezebox Bandits Kody West

HARD ROCK All Clean Dagger Club The Dangits Duell The Me-Thinks Mountain of Smoke Pinkish Black Royal Sons

AMERICANA/ROOTS ROCK Tenessee Dixon Jacob Furr Joey Green The Hamiltons Keegan McInroe Matthew McNeal Taylor Craig Mills Jakob Robertson Grady Spencer & The Work Ryan Tharp Vandoliers

Annie Void Weather & Age

EP OF THE YEAR Alright, Josh & The Jet Noise Battling, Levi Ray

ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR “A Good Way to Say Goodbye,” Cameron Smith/Sur Duda “AK48,” Polydogs “Dial Tone,” Pinkish Black “Eat. Shit. Die, ”Duell “Enough of You,” 19 Machine “Gutterboy Blues,” Mean Motor Scooter “Holy Moses,” Vodeo “Hostage,” Son of Stan “Las Colinas,” Steve Gnash “The Light,” Jake Paleschic “New Age,” Cut Throat Finches “Orion’s Shoulder,” Mountain of Smoke “Pure Destroyer,” War Party “Maps,” Roar Shack “Suit in the Back,” Quaker City Nighthawks “With Specialness,” All Clean

SONG OF THE YEAR “All Night,” Prizm “Bad On My Own,” Brandon Marcel “The Dancer,” Tornup “Gum Love,” Phantomelo “I’ll Go,” Cody Lynn Boyd “I’m Sorry,” Grace Kali “It’s Devi, Bitch,” Devi “Lovers Game,” Abraham Alexander “Myopia,” Vogue Machine “Rainbow Decider,” Gollay “Saylah Song,” Renizance “Run it Back,” Lou Charle$ “Spacey,” Joseph Wayne Miller “Two Way Street,” “Jakob Robertson, “Vinyl Love,” Svenny Baby!

benefiting

AND PROUD PRESENTER OF THE

presented by

ARTIST OF THE YEAR Cut Throat Finches Lou Charle$ Summer Dean Devi Duell Gollay Mean Motor Scooter Quaker City Nighthawks Royal Sons Son of Stan Grady Spencer & The Work Tornup Trauma Ray Wrex

Polite Conversation, Cut Throat Finches Praise & Warships, Royal Sons Pure Destroyer, War Party Quaker City Nighthawks, Quaker City Nighthawks

* Name, address, and phone number must be included for ballot to be counted. Ballots may be mailed, one ballot per envelope, to: Fort Worth Weekly 3311 Hamilton Ave #153 Fort Worth, TX 76107. Ballots must be received by 9 a.m. Monday, June 24, 2019. No photocopied ballots will be counted. Your ballot will automatically enter you into the Fort Worth Weekly Newsletter database.

VOCALIST PERFORMANCE MALE Sam Anderson, Quaker City Nighthawks, “Suit in the Back”

VOCALIST PERFORMANCE FEMALE Ansley, “Time Wasted” Devi, “Senses” Summer Emerson, “Blood-Stained Wings” Rachel Gollay, Gollay, “Alone Together” Mandy Hand, Big Heaven, “Jim Smells Like Weed” Izzy, “Lonely Virginia” Danni James and Kris Williams, Prizm, “All Night”

GUITARIST PERFORMANCE Mike Doty, Son of Stan, “Diamond Cut” Sammy Kidd, Mean Motor Scooter, “Gutterboy Blues” Will Kimbrel, Phantomelo, “Gum Love” Neal McAlister, Chillamundo, “Reanimator” Jonathan Perez, Trauma Ray, “Solstice” Preston Newberry, The Fibs, “Waiting for a Train” Matt Tedder, Polydogs, “AK48”

Jeff Gerardi, Phantomelo, “Gum Love” Matt Mabe, Polydogs, “AK48” Ranger Parrish, Garage Barrage, “Mr. Wolfey” Nick Russo, Duell, “Eat. Shit. Die.” Robby Rux, The Fibs, “Waiting for a Train” Jon Teague, Pinkish Black, “Dial Tone” Nick Tittle, Chillamundo, “Reanimator”

S ummer JULY 10 Joe T. Garcia’s | $9

Meet at: 2201 N. Commerce St., Fort Worth 6:30 p.m. | Dinner included

17 Rangers Game | $9

Carpool departs 6 p.m. | 3701 Birchman Ave., Fort Worth Game starts 7:05 p.m. | Globe Life Park, Arlington

24 Pinstripes Bowling | $9

Meet at: 5001 Trailhead Bend Way, Fort Worth 6:30 p.m. | Game and appetizers included

31 The Grove at Waterside | $9

Meet at: 3720 Convair Dr., Fort Worth 6:30 p.m. | Appetizers and Steel City pop included

AUGUST 7

Axe Factory | $9

Meet at: 220 S. Sylvania Ave. #110, Fort Worth 6:30 p.m. | Dinner included

Get to know other young adults and explore Fort Worth this summer!

14 Night of Champions | $9

Meet at: 3701 Birchman Ave., Fort Worth 6:30 p.m. | Cookout-style dinner included

Claim your spot at www.renovateftw.org/summer 28 Weekly Tailgate + Service starts back up | FREE! Meet at: 3701 Birchman Ave., Fort Worth 6:15 p.m. Tailgate | 7 p.m. Service We meet every Wednesday for a free tailgate and a service at the Chapel. This is our fall kickoff.

Questions?

Robert Newberry 512-769-9419

Brooke Seale 601-850-6737

14 FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 Flyer_Working.indd 1

6/12/19 5:42 PM

Frontman Richard Hennessey’s nimble genre-hopping and gift for shaping inescapable pop hooks make you remember what you loved about the alt-rock era, and in a live setting, Henry the Archer skillfully blends the sonics of its carefully crafted recorded material with high-energy onstage swagger.

File him under alt-country, country rock, psychecountry, or wherever else you think his music fits best, but it doesn’t matter, because Jake Paleschic writes good tunes. His knack for poetic framing and the specificity of the moment shade his songs in rich detail, and his ear for melody imbues his music with a sense of impending loss, like the last couple hours of sunlight of a summer fading to fall.

No matter what obstacles fall in their path, Joe Gorgeous keeps cranking up the volume and churning out chunks of anthemic pop-punk ’n’ roll.

They’ve recently spruced up their scrappy sound with thrash-influenced guitar scrawl, resulting in raw and rowdy party rock with all of its zits and scabs on full display. With their amps turned up to ugh-leven, Joe Gorgeous is a beautiful disaster waiting to happen.

Passionate about his art and a poet at his core, Joe Savage is a well-traveled singer-songwriter with a voice like Merle Haggard and a soul like a character out of Steinbeck or Kerouac. His tunes are fiery and honest, rooted in C&W traditions but never bound by them.

Keanu Leaves swirled out of the ashes of Animal Spirit and the roots of Mountain Kid this year with some gorgeous reverb rock veined with angsty political overtones. With vocal melodies that are reminiscent of ’80s goth pop like The Church, Keanu Leaves offers a wistful session of aural therapy. If you’re frustrated with the timbre and tenor of this country’s political discourse, this band empathizes with you.

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 15

Despite years and years of playing and hosting open-mic nights and songwriter jams, Levi Ray hadn’t put out material of his own until this year, when he released Battling, an EP of heartache and self-reflection boomed in his gravely baritone.

His music is as honest as a diary, and its forthright melancholy makes it beautiful.

Meach Pango might come across as a bunch of DayGlo-dressed jokers, but when it comes to putting on an entertaining live show, they are as serious as a pilgrim’s funeral –– but infinitely more fun, packing their performances with tightly played sing-along anthems and party-powered vibes. For these endearing goofballs, showing their ever-growing crowd a good time is Job 1, and with their expertly crafted, effervescent brand of pop-punk, they turn that task into a breeze.

Mean Motor Scooter’s raucous post-garage is loud and proud, crashing into your eardrums like an airborne station wagon coming to rest through a living room’s bay window. Blasting a sound that’s built on B-movie sci-fi vibes and real-life feelings of alienation, this road-tested, crowd-approved fourpiece hits the ground running and howling, leaving a trail of scorched ears and melted-faces in its wake.

With a name like Mordecai the Zenith, you might think he’s at the top of the local hip-hop game, but he’s so underground that even moles and meerkats aren’t sure who he is. But don’t let that obscurity fool you. This dude is legit, with Quasimoto-esque weirdness zapping in and out of quirky tracks built on subsonic thuds and Gameboy bleeps and trills. If you’re a true head, dig deep and peep this dude.

Though still relatively new to the rap game, The Naaman enters his second year of artistry throwing down bars like lightning bolts. Dealing with his own demons over sticky beats and sunny hooks, Naaman is an MC inspired as much by self-reflection as his willingness to critique the world around him.

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Sticks for the honored game of STICKBALL are made from hickory, pecan or ash wood and woven with deerskin.

TIMELESS SUMMER TOOMPALLI '–CHICKASAW FOR SUMMER Memories of summer adventure last a lifetime. Escape the ordinary to find a myriad of cultural activities waiting to enrich your summer getaway. Now is the time to tour sun-ripened gardens, share in stickball in our Traditional Village and enjoy dining outdoors. Join us as the season brings a renewed vigor for exploration.

Wander through the SPIRAL GARDEN where our fresh produce grows.

Enjoy outdoor dining and traditional Chickasaw cuisine at AAIMPA' CAFÉ.

C h i c k a s a w C u l t u r a l C e n t e r. c o m S u l p h u r, O K • 5 80 - 6 2 2-713 0

FORT WORTH WEEKLY MUSIC AWARDS festival 2019 17

Neptune Locals’ blend of reggae, funk, and stoneriffic riffage make for a fun listen and a dope party when they take the stage. Fire up your beer thrusters and set your coordinates for the Dank-obah system, because a Neptune Locals show is an out-of-this-world good time.

Thrashy three-piece Ox Combine is all killer, no filler, packing high-speed power chord crunch into compact blasts of metal mania, precision engineered to explode like a barrel of toxic waste heated by laser beams, fired out of the eyes of a coldblooded cyborg killing machine, who also has a sword for no other reason than that a robot with a sword is fucking awesome.

You could probably call the Polydogs “Queens of the Surf Age,” because the Matt Tedder-led four-piece dabbles in rubberneckin’ guitar banging washed in reverb-soaked solos, but its influences are all over the map and pop up like must-see tourist attractions –– a Beatles-esque harmony here, some Alice in Chainsian crunch there, with the connecting highways stretching from the musical alacrity of four highly proficient rock ’n’ roll prodigies.

After what seemed like forever, Royal Sons emerged from the ashes of the Hanna Barbarians and In Memory of Man this past year to burn down local stages like a phoenix hellbent on reminding the world what guitar rock can do for your soul. Furious and loud, the band captivates audiences with electrifying riffage and frontman Blake Parish’s animal howl.

Ryker Hall’s music comes from a place of heartbreak and tragedy, but his songs are also the result of his admirable dedication to woodshedding. While his songs could easily be filed under “emo,” they transcend that genre’s cringier signifiers. The dude has a voice that’s all his own, and his drive to make music has translated into some really great material that’s refreshingly real and without pretense.

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The moody and dark wave-y Signals & Alibis have been making ambient, dreamy synthesizer pop for years, but over the past few, their music has reached a bigger audience, as well as broadening their sound to include other similarly textured genres like shoegaze and goth.

Jordan Richardson’s self-produced prog-flavored pop project Son of Stan has recently evolved into a collaborative effort with his backing group, the newly minted Boat Club Rd. Band. The humor and hooks are still the main game, but Son of Stan’s latest material has changed its sonic palette from strip mall pastels to the glistening hues of water park excitement, revving like a Sea-Doo fueled by Malibu Rum and Crystal Light, jamming like Phil Collins and Eddie Van Halen if they had been drafted to craft a jingle for a beer commercial.

There’s probably no better representation of Fort Worth’s musical DNA than the Squeezebox Bandits, whose cross-cultural music is equal parts Tejano and country, tender and raucous, and it’s always a good time. With an album of covers under their belt buckles and one full of originals on the way, the Bandits are primed to spread their Cowtown heritage to places far and away.

Superficially, Stone Machine Electric looks and sounds like your (cannabis) garden-variety doom band, crushing your ears in waves of high-gain riffage and mind-melting aural textures, but closer listens and deeper dives into their improv-forward sonic explorations reveal a legitimately jazz-influenced approach to songwriting. And whether you’re sinking into the subtleties of their recorded material or locked into the musical telepathy of their live shows, you’ll find this duo cosmically captivating.

Now that War Party has more or less entered the great beyond, frontman and principal songwriter Cameron Smith is able to put his pen-name-cum-solo project front-and-center, and Sur Duda has been a veritable factory of new music –– it seems like you can hardly refresh your Facebook feed without a new Sur Duda single. Whether Smith is singing about the joys of family life or quitting smoking or ruminating on his journey from the past to the current moment, his heart is always there on his sleeve, and we’re lucky to hear it beating.

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Svenny Baby! sounds like if Incubus sold their didgeridoos and went to the disco, blending funk rock with dance beats and positive lyrics borne on soaring choruses and singable guitar solos. Their musicianship is serious, but their shows are totally fun.

Tornup’s flow is as polysyllabic and syncopated as ever, but with the release of his latest album, the stunning You Will Never Understand (The State of Soul), he’s found the harmony between verbal alacrity and lyrical texture, employing that balance of speed and poetry in a series of heartbreaking vignettes that force the listener to face the realities of African-American life in the era of red MAGA hats, white privilege, and Blue Lives Matter stickers.

Pumping out melodic dance-pop with a heavy dose of electro-flavored synth-rock, Vodeo’s music is as perfect for late-night, solitary drives as it is for crowded parties. Disco might have died a long time ago, but when these boys turn it up, their bass-heavy pulse and spacey funk make for inescapable grooves that are as tight as a Swiss watch.

Vogue Machine’s stars have aligned this year, after their song “Kardio” popped up in a surprise promo for Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, advertising the comedic sci-fi cartoon’s upcoming fourth season.

But here on Earth, they’re still making catchy, experimental synth-pop, and it’s worth your while to catch them before they hurtle into orbit of major music festivals and mainstream success.

Washed Up Rookie’s swampy blues riffage lurks in your brain like an alligator covered in moss, grabbing hold of your soul and wrestling it into a dreamy murk of fuzzedout guitar and tribal drum stomp. On their new EP, the garage rock duo aims to charm your primal instincts, and the spell they weave is highly intoxicating.

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Motivated by his quest for self-improvement and reinvention, Wrex’s music mirrors his lifestyle and viceversa, drawing inspiration from subjects that range from chakra meditation and the spiritual side of martial arts to the fragrant cannabinoid haze that makes life’s anxious moments more bearable. Yet for all that introspection, Wrex still likes to party, and his live show never fails to get a crowd amped up.

Your Vote Counts.

VOTE NOW! PRESENTS

1.

Dagger Club, “Short on Mercy South of Grace”

2. Mind Spiders, “Dreams” 3. Nice Major, “Run Ricky Run” 4. Polydogs, “Taking the L” 5. Chillamundo, “ A.M.” 6. Devi, “$TSLA” 7. Vodeo, “Show it to Me” 8. Ansley, “Time a Wasted” 9. Grady Spencer & The Work, “Funkytown”

2019

10. Izzy Jeffrey, “Send Somebody Soon” 11. All Clean, “Fake AF”

music awards

12. 88 Killa, “Black Beamer” 13. Ryker Hall, “Morning Blues” 14. Naaman, “Cool Cool Cool” 15. Vogue Machine, “As Scene on TV” 16. Stone Machine Electric, “Journey on the Nile”

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