Here are some blurbs I wrote for this year’s Best Music Poll National Winners; the complete list can be found here:
http://thephoenix.com/BMP/National/2009/
Best Act, National: MGMT
Sometimes we’re so busy looking for the next big thing to appear in the form of the last big thing that we miss those crucial behind-the-back baton passes that happen in pop culture. Which explains to some degree how a few years can turn a couple of upstate dorm-room knob-twiddling dorks into MGMT, the global hit-making factory that now has Paul McCartney begging for a shot at a collaboration. Mega-viral smash “Kids” sounds like childhood dredged up and filtered through late adolescence, its ringtone chirps and cresting waves of kiddies at play somehow reigniting the satisfyingly deep wisdom of your first brush with inebriation. It’s hard to tell whether this is MGMT hitting a stride or enjoying a Peter Pan moment — the question now is whether the world will let them live in Neverland forever.
Best Hard Rock Act, National: Mastodon
With the release of Crack the Skye (Reprise), the deep-fantasy maniacs of Mastodon marched the fine line between relentless thundering barrage and ridiculous high-concept pretense. (You have to have some pretty bitchin’ flame-retardant stage backdrops to sell Rasputin, astral travel, and Stephen Hawking’s wormhole theories to metal’s great unwashed.) As it turns out, either the competition is really thin or the intelligence of Metal Nation — especially its recently ascendant D&D faction — has once again been cruelly misunderestimated. That would explain why Crack the Skye debuted at #11 on the “Billboard 200” album chart, and why Mastodon duly ax-slapped both Metallica and Iron Maiden in our poll. As long as the grooves are deep, the bass is bowel-looseningly low, and blastbeats reliably rise and fall in the mix, even brainiac wizard metal can find a way to trump the old masters in the hearts of the faithful.
Best Male Vocalist, National: Caleb Followill, Kings of Leon
Anglophile-rock enthusiasts have always favored male voices that can soar anthemically over the fray. Thing is, the UK-first mega-success of Caleb Followill’s Nashville family band Kings of Leon can seem like a real headscratcher at first, if only because the music he and his kin make is so bloody ’Mur’can. But the Followills have learned a thing or two about their foster fan base, and they’ve finally hit paydirt at home with their fourth album, Only by the Night (RCA), wherein all sorts of synthy tricks are deployed in their relentless effort to reach the punter at the very back of the footie stadium. The result, especially on worldwide smashes like “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire” and barnburner “Notion,” sounds not unlike, ohhhh, Steve Perry channeling Ronnie Van Zant while fronting the Killers. Whether you take that as a harbinger of doom is irrelevant — it’s evident that this pond-crossing spit swapping is here to stay.
Best Punk Act, National: The Gaslight Anthem
If a band can state unequivocally that (a) they prefer speedy tempos, (b) they accept abandon as an MO, or (c) they subscribe (at least in part) to a strain of musical conservativism that keeps the proceedings lean and stripped down, then said band will be “punk” to someone. New Jersey’s Gaslight Anthem satisfy all three of these maxims while somehow owing a greater debt to the Boss than to Dag Nasty or the Exploited. Then again, at a time when punk is nothing more than anachronistic dress-up to some, it’s refreshing to see a band rock hard while still looking switchblade sharp. Penning songs with a legitimately swingin’ ’tude that tips its fedora to fintail gas guzzlers as well as to the drunk punks who steal them to race over cliffs is no small feat. If that sounds like your kind of retro-punk, then, as the band sing, “Here’s Looking at You, Kid.”
Best Roots Act, National: Bob Dylan
One has to wonder, deep down, what Robert Zimmerman thinks of his status as the 600-pound gorilla in the room anytime someone investigates roots in America. The new kids (even scraggly wizened ones like Steve Earle) can try any new tricks they like, but with Dylan cranking out new works like Woody Allen lately, and with his Never-Ending-Tour moving way past the point of being a victory lap, anyone even thinking about nodding toward the Old Weird America has to do so in his shadow. That said, his legacy will always be more vital than his current output: the zydeco-meets-Chess endurance test that is his most recent, Together Through Life (Columbia), will probably never rate on most Zimmophiles’ top 30 or 40 favorite Dylan discs. Doesn’t matter though: whether you’re an oddball eccentric like Chan “Cat Power” Marshall and Will “Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy” Oldham or a Muscle Shoals traditionalist like Drive-By Trucker Jason Isbell, trying to elude categorization with an unexpected zig or zag just further classifies you as Dylan-esque. When it comes to mixing profundity and inscrutability, the Bard of Hibbing will always have everyone beat.
