The Academy Awards aired Sunday March 7th, and the red carpet was abuzz with celebrities, media, and high fashion. The most talented people in the industry gathered to pat each other on the back and say “job well done babe!”

But seriously… who cares! We had our own awards show the night earlier!!! And our red carpet was abuzz with some of Orange County’s most talented musicians, industry professional, and friends. Oh yeah, a lot of interesting fashion as well.

The OCMA really kicked off on January 5th with the start of the season’s showcase series. The first of which was at Detroit Bar featuring Kiev, Melanoid, Yellow Red Sparks, The Union Line, and Make Moon. Through out the next 2 months 7 showcases, split between the Live Band Showcases and the Live Acoustic Showcases took up everyone of my Tuesday evenings. This year was a GREAT year for the showcases. Record attendance numbers, energetic and passionate performances, and some of the best venues in Orange County playing host made these showcases a success! Creating the buzz leading up to last Saturdays Awards at The Grove of Anaheim. The bands playing the showcases were actually playing for a nomination spot in the Best Live Band, and Best live Acoustic categories at the OCMA. Of course plenty of acts didn’t make it to the finals showcases, so I just wanted to quickly choose a couple performances that I thought were worth highlighting.

Make Moon: The last band to play the first night of the OCMA Showcase series, and as usual they put on an epic performance. When watching Make Moon you can sometimes feel as if you are being transported sonically to a different place and time. It’s psychedelic fun for the whole family, if your whole family does acid.

Barrett Johnson: The first night of the Acoustic Showcase series and Barrett Johnson captured everyone’s ears and probably most of their hearts with his touching portraits of love, life, loss, and redemption. Needless to say, I cry when I listen to Barrett Johnson, but isn’t music supposed to hit you that hard? The answer is YES.

Handsome G: I’ve seen Handsome G many times before and their set at The Continental Room was the perfect start to such an amazing night. Their blend of rock, pop, country, and fun makes them stand out on a bill usually soaked in take-yourself-too-seriously-indie bands.

Kurt Hunter: The talent Kurt Hunter possesses is amazing. I am convinced that Kurt could write just about any song for any occasion or mood. His vocal range is great and his presence on stage is charming. His set at the Gypsy Den only made me want to see him on a bigger stage.

Moostache: Opening up at this years only all ages venue until the finals you could see Moostache was in control from the start. To look around and see kids getting excited for a local band with such energetic performances and humor, but also sincerity makes me excited for the future, and excited for Moostache’s future.

Parker Macy Blues: To see Parker Macy for the first time is somewhat of an experience. The soul, depth, and conviction with which Parker plays with can catch you off guard, especially since you wouldn’t expect someone so young to play so powerfully. It’s one thing to sound big when you’re in a band with all those instruments, it’s much more impressive when you can achieve the same thing when it’s just you and your guitar taking on the world alone, and Parker Macy Blues does just that.

The New Limb: There is always a lot of talk going on about The New Limb, and it’s well deserved! People love them! In the past few months I’ve started to see them more than just a really good indie band. I see them as a really good experimental band. Their sound has become this great balance between indie rock, pop, and experimental. That element I’ve often felt was there, but lately it seems they have started to embrace it a little more. You could see it in their set at The Gypsy Den on the last night of the Showcase series (not including the finals.) Hey, New Limb… EMBRACE THE EXPERIMENTAL! WE LOVE IT!

All these showcase led up to the last 2 final shows. The Live Acoustic finals included Stacy Clark, I Hate You Just Kidding, Mike Vitale, Marc B Music, and Billy Kernkamp. Kernkamp played an amazing set at the downtown Santa Ana venue, The Yost Theater. This earned him 4 days recording time at Red Bull Studios, 2,500 bucks from Fender, and a spot to play the OCMA at The Grove! The Live Band Showcase was equally exciting with performances from some of my favorite Orange County bands, including The Steelwells, BLOK, The Union Line, The Colourist, and Dusty Rhodes and The River Band! Dusty Rhodes won the title of best live band, as well as 4 days recording time at Red Bull Studios, 2,500 bucks from Fender and of course a slot to play the OCMA! Both Dusty Rhodes and Billy Kernkamp deserved their respective achievements but to me, the showcases and the awards aren’t about the winning aspect or competition. It does something much more valuable. It brings people, music, and musicians together. It provides the opportunity for everyone to get to know each other a little bit better and makes the entire music scene in Orange County a little more cohesive and accepting. I think that is the real value in something like this.

But finally I’ll get to the actual awards themselves!

The OC Music Awards in all manners and respects takes itself seriously as an awards presentation, event, show, whatever you wanna call it.  but the mood of it all is more of a party.  It’s laid back, packed full of the best entertainment in Orange County, dare I say the entire west coast, and a ridiculous amount of fun!  Live performances included BLOK, Melanoid, The Steelwells, Dusty Rhodes and The River Band, The Dirty Heads, Lit, and Billy Kernkamp!  The nights all around winners were Dusty Rhodes, taking home 3 awards Best Live, Best Rock and Best Country/Americana.  Most of the winners were artists that have not yet experienced great commercial success, but are pushing the creative envelope forward.  Bands like BLOK, winning for Best Hip Hop, The New Limb, winning for Best Indie, and The Steelwells winning for Best Song – “El Capitan” and Best New Artist!  Artists like Atreyu, Thrice, and The Adolescents took home some big awards as well.  Atreyu for Best Metal, The Adolescents for Best Punk and Thrice with the notable Best Album for “Beggars.”

In execution the OC Music Awards were spectacular.  The performances were amazing, the artists enthusiasm and sense of unity felt within The Grove was inspiring.  It was a great night for Orange County music, with much of the credit going to Luke Allen and Ashley Eckenweiler.  This little team has managed to up the ante since they started working together on the OCMA last year.

Check out the complete list of winners below and check out all the bands nominated at www.ocmusicawards.com

Best album – Beggars, Thrice

Best song – “El Capitan,” the Steelwells

Best new artist – The Steelwells

Best rock – Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

Best country/Americana – Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

Best live band – Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

Best acoustic – Billy Kernkamp

Best folk – Yellow Red Sparks

Best punk – The Adolescents

Best indie – The New Limb

Best alternative – Stereofix

Best metal – Ateryu

Best hip-hop – Blok

Best pop – Stacy Clark

Best electronic – Electric Valentine

Best blues – Roman Alexander and the Robbery

Best surf – The Growlers

Best jazz – Translucent Ham Sandwich Band

Best world – The Dirty Heads

Best Latin – Boogaloo Assassins

People’s Choice Award – Duress

Lifetime Achievement Award – Jim Washburn

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Photography by Jennifer Vincent

The Orange County Music Awards was a night full of collecting swag, contacts, and memories.  The highlights of the night were undoubtedly watching Humanlab’s bassist rock the upright bass, rocking out to Japanese Motors, meeting ½ of the Vandals (who, by the way, rocked Bamboozle Left to the max yesterday), and watching Corey Case – “Musician,” as it states on his business card (Musicians have business cards? Apparently) – perform, then later meeting the fine young gentleman. Overall, the night was a success despite modern technology doing its best to ruin the night.  We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and would like to congratulate all of the winners, one last time.

Saturday night, my buddy Tyler and I set out on a journey to the Yost Theater in Santa Ana for the Orange County Music Awards Best Live Band Finals. It was an epic evening of music, hugs, delay pedals, and accessorizing hipsters. Everything I would expect from downtown Santa Ana. I should have worn my brown (fake) leather vest, damnit!

Five Orange County bands played last night. The Venus Infers, The New Limb, The Jakes, The Union Line, and The Living Suns. The neon lights of the marquee listed some of the best-known local OC bands, but one name is relatively new to the collection. The New Limb released “Allude to the Sounds EP” in May 2008. Since then they have started to gain more and more recognition with OC showgoers every time they play a note. Their live performance comes off as creative, and fun, but most importantly natural. They’re not up there acting cool; they just are cool. They’re not acting super friendly after the show; they just really are super friendly! Both of these characteristics plus the actual musical talent of the four lovely Costa Mesa roommates makes for a killer combo. The New Limb is Joey Chavez, (vocals and guitar) Dan Perez, (back up vocals and lead guitar) Lauren Salamone, (back up vocals, keys) and Adam Chavez (back up vocals, drums). These four pack their “Allude to the Sounds EP” with inventive and haunting melodies accompanied by equally impressive harmonies. Their musical vision does not get lost in transition from recording to live performance as proved to all in attendance at the Yost Saturday night. They did a great job entertaining the crowd by creating an atmosphere of sounds as diverse as the lightest of guitar and key harmonies to the heavy crunch of Dan’s guitar solos. The New Limb performed in front of a homemade art-house style video of lights, shapes, and mirrors. All of this produced an amazing performance from which I’m sure lots of new faces will be seen at one of the many future performances of The New Limb coming up this month and next. So do yourself a favor and catch this lovely foursome real soon!

But Saturday night was not just one bands show.  The Union Line really made the night a collective party. This was my first time seeing The Union Line, a band I have heard so much about, and I can only describe my feelings during their set as a collection of joy and amazement. They took control of the stage with little struggle and kept it tightly in their grip till the house music came back on. It is no surprise to me that at the nights end this outfit of young men won the title of Best Live Band in Orange County. With songs as infectious as “Mama Don’t Care,” it is nearly impossible to sit still while controlled mayhem is unleashed in front of you by a ragtag looking team of musicians. By all accounts the sound of The Union Line will testify that these guys know what they are doing, and they are taking music seriously. Yet, on stage, they’re witty; and casual conversations between songs, for example joking that they are from Orange County, Florida, say to me that they aren’t taking it too seriously. They aren’t over thinking it. This is a confidence that eludes even the most successful bands. Maybe this is what allows them to let loose and go nuts on stage, changing instruments and dancing around like they are being attacked by hundreds of bees. Whatever it is, whatever they are doing, it is working and I hope they continue doing it for a long long time. You will definitely be seeing me at their future shows. Congratulations to them for winning Best Live Band in Orange County!

OCAC would also like to remind you to meet us here on 4/4/09 at 7pm to view live coverage of the OC Music Awards!  More info here.

2009 marks the 8th consecutive year for the OC Music Awards and it’s also a year of many changes.  Martin Brown (formerly the House Agent Booking shows at the Galaxy), started hosting the OC Music Awards at the Galaxy in 2001.  Then, a few years later, the show was moved to the Grove and has been there ever since.   Most recently Luke Allen, owner of Gemini Rehearsal Studios has taken over as Producer.  According to Allen, Martin “just mentioned that he was moving to Spain and that he was looking for someone to take over the Awards.  So basically I said ‘okay’ and then we worked out the details.”

This is also the first year that the awards are academy-driven.  Why the switch?  Allen says, “We looked pretty closely at two neighboring awards shows that have both been around for 18 years, the LA Music Awards and the San Diego Music Awards. We attended both shows and we found that the SD Music Awards had great support from the local community and a really relevant show. The nomination process was the main difference between the two shows. The LA Music Awards is a pay to submit process, where as the SD Music Awards are an Academy based process.  So we decided for the long term, to change the Awards to a nomination based process was the best way to make it a relevant and effective show for the community.”    When asked, it was confirmed that the academy was chosen as one might think… These people are the most influential and knowledgeable in the OC music scene.  The academy is made up of managers, promoters and talent buyers from many of the best local venues and record stores, music critics and writers from local publications and one DJ from the KUCI radio station.  Who better to nominate and select the winning bands and musicians from all around OC? As Ashley Eckenweiler (Marketing, Partner Services, Booking for the OCMA’s) puts it,  “The Academy represents some of the most respected individuals in the local music scene. They have their hands on the pulse of all that’s happening in local music and we felt their expertise would lend to an accurate list of deserving nominees.”  I was also told that more academy members may be added in the future as new players in the OC music scene emerge.

There are 21 categories total.  18 are Academy nominated, 2 (live) categories are free submission based  and the People’s Choice Award nominees are determined by the public via online voting.  The People’s Choice Award winner is then selected by text messaging the night of the Awards.  When asked why they chose to keep the 2 live categories separate from the Academy, Allen explains, “We kept the two live categories submission based to have a hybrid system where new bands could get involved even if they were not really well known in the community.”  This is in line with the original purpose of the Awards, which Allen says is to “create awareness and opportunities for local musicians through recognition of talent.”  There has been a lot of press about the nominees and other local artists that have participated in the showcases and hopefully people will “start taking notice of the scene and the artists in OC and get inspired to open more venues, labels, studios, publication etc.”

Allen also has a lot to say about the difference between the LA and OC music scenes.  He portents that “LA is oversaturated… there are a million bands trying to do the same thing on Sunset strip.”  He claims that if a band or artist hasn’t already made it, they become a needle in a haystack, or just one artist in a sea of faces.

Some of the more widely known bands on the long list of this year’s nominees are; The Offspring, The Vandals, Thrice, Avenged Sevenfold, and Jack’s Mannequin. But they’re flanked by lesser-known, yet equally as talented names such as; The Fallen Stars, Molly Jenson, Matt Costa, Stacy Clark and Translucent Ham Sandwich Band.  The lineup of performances for the Awards show is still TBA, but looking at the list of nominees, one can be sure that it will not disappoint.

OC Arts & Culture will be there to cover the event live.  Be sure to tune in at 7pm as we begin posting pictures of the red carpet coverage.  We’ll be using Cover It Live to answer your questions in real time and take polls of who our readers think should win each category.  As always, we’ll be Twittering it contantly.  Follow @Jennvy, @evanvincent, @billyd13 and @Natlee for live updates via Twitter.

Photography by: Dave Safley (MP) ModernPics.com