2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards

For the last year, the pAper chAse has been working on yet another effort to scare the shit out of their fans--Now You Are One of Us, set for release from national label Kill Rock Stars in June. "We're always focused on our sound and trying to do something that sounds interesting to us, so last year was no different in that regard," Kirkpatrick says. "We spent the first half of the year working out the arrangements for the songs that would wind up being on the album. Then we spent the fall driving around the country, going to different studios for the sounds we wanted." The pAper chAse then continued to offer up live shows last year when most bands would hole up in studios satisfied to just be recording...proving that indeed, these unfriendly bastards actually like to play for you people. --M.M.

Fishing for Comets >br>Best Folk/Acoustic

Though Fishing for Comets isn't in the same category as Fair to Midland, Mugzu or even the Deathray Davies, folk or acoustic it ain't either. The band does, however, have a mandolin player and an accordion player, so you know how that goes. Add lead singer Camille Cortinas' easy vocal melodies and Sam Romero's subtle electric guitar work and it's clear why Fishing for Comets has captured the Folk/Acoustic award every year the band's been in existence (that'd be twice). The eclectic instrumentation and matter-of-fact vocals at times recall 10,000 Maniacs, but Fishing for Comets' songs are smaller, cuter and less worldly--and that's a good thing.

Started by best friends Cortinas and Romero, who also write the majority of the songs, the band's whimsical name came from a "stupid thing" Cortinas once said to her mother to explain away what she'd been doing out late the night before. Cortinas' creativity also extends to personal touches like the homemade refrigerator magnets available for sale at shows and her quirky MySpace postings. The band's only official recording, an eight-song, self-titled EP released more than a year ago, is now somewhat out of date, but with a bit of luck and a new CD due for release in August there's no reason why Fishing for Comets can't make next year a three-peat. --Sander Wolf

Woodbelly
Best Funk/R&B

You people really screwed this category up. Do you even bother to read these ballots anymore? Dallas is and always has been about style over substance, form over function, the cover of the book being the only thing we read in this town. Now you've gone and blindly cast your votes awarding Woodbelly, a trio of panda-shaped crackas, as Best Funk/R&B Group. While they may look like rotund Best Buy employees and their reggae riffage may initially smack of a ska band that couldn't even scrape together a horn section, Woodbelly has the performance mileage, college credits and well-weathered chops to tackle a seemingly disingenuous formula with mastery and respect. Cas Haley, Ben Drake and Brandon Morris combine two decades' worth of formal education and tireless in-the-trenches gigging to produce music that is firmly rooted in an encyclopedic knowledge of their sonic ancestry without forgetting how to craft a hook that pop radio can't deny.

Despite certain inescapable Caucasoid persuasions, Woodbelly has already shown that they're in the midst of careening toward greater and grander things. It's not like they needed a Dallas Observer Music Award to solidify their street cred. Has your frumpy-ass white-dude band opened for Burning Spear lately? Didn't think so. --G.J.

Steve Austin
Best Hip-Hop/Rap

To some voters, the hip-hop/rap category is as simple as picking the artist with the best songs. By that criterion alone, this year's ballot is pretty tough, as every dude here has it, from Tahiti's mega-watt wit to Pikahsso's sing-funk insanity to Headkrack's Uzi-style presence to Money Waters' molasses-drawl porch preaching. Steve Austin's win is indicative, to some degree, of his power on the mike, but that's only a fraction of his success.

It makes sense that "the Bioniq MC" has Dallas' best shot at national rap fame right now. His nonstop networking and promoting have landed his slick, fiery rhyme style--a perfect mix of underground cred and mainstream-ready polish--on Universal subsidiary YMC Records, which he says will finally release his long-awaited 800 Pound Gorilla album in August. After proving his business savvy in Dallas' competitive mix-tape scene, Austin's definitely excited about the official album, but he's also hesitant to hype it. "I don't get discouraged, but I don't think, 'Hey, I made it,' either. If you stop working now, when you finally put that album out, it's gonna be double-wood."