2006 Dallas Observer Music Awards

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/RapTo 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."

Austin says he's been preparing Gorilla "his whole life," so why stop working hard now? His live show reflects that attitude, packed with dancers, video displays and his cocksure stage presence, but just as important is his love for the Dallas scene, which he believes has actually benefited from a criminal lack of attention for so long. "You've got people sitting back, so, so, so hungry for it, that all we've been doing...we have our own slang, our own mannerisms, but at the same time, we've been open-minded because we've had to receive so much over the years. Now, we have so much to give."

The only excitement Austin doesn't hold back about is the hope that any success he gets will "kick the door open" for fellow Dallas rappers. He compares it with his recent treatment for tumors in his nervous system, a subject he hasn't gone on the record about until now: "I've been a big inspiration to the people I've been in chemo with, the kids there, because I can move around," Austin says. "They can't move. They can't get up. That's the same way it is with music here in Dallas. We've been held back for so long...and we don't wanna take no for an answer." --S.M.Earl Harvin Trio
Best JazzThis is the very last time Earl Harvin will win this award; he's officially out of the running, retired from contention. There are three reasons for this, two being entirely pragmatic: He's been winning this accolade since I was music editor some time in the late 1960s, and kindly nudging him aside will allow room for other comers in need of the juice Harvin's allowed to take for granted; besides, he now calls Los Angeles home, and if he qualifies for a DOMA, so, too, do Norah Jones and the Dixie Chicks. As for the other reason, Harvin is no more a "jazz artist" than he is a "drummer"; the guy can do anything in any genre with any instrument, a fact he's proven time and again during prolonged stints with everyone from Seal, Richard Thompson and The The to the Pet Shop Boys, French ambient-electro-jazzbos Air and soul stirrer Bettye LaVette. He'll appear not only on the forthcoming collaboration between Air and Charlotte Gainsbourg, but also on his very own solo disc titled Oracles, due by year's end; three samples available on his MySpace page hint at something cocktail-party slinky and back-alley funky. Harvin still comes to Dallas town with his trio (featuring Fred Hamilton on bass and guitar and Dave Palmer on piano and anything else that makes noise), but this town's now but a pit stop as he moves forever forward and upward. We will just have to accept that the great man's gone for good and find other people upon whom we can bestow this tribute from here on out. No longer giving him this honor's the biggest honor we could ever think of.

--Robert Wilonsky

Mad Mexicans
Best Latin/Tejano

Considering the current immigration brouhaha and resulting protests, it would seem merely apropos that Mad Mexicans be chosen best Latino act. But for those whose stereotypical thinking relegates Latino music to mariachi bands or Shakira crossover wannabes, the in-your-face, rap/metal/ethnic noise created by these six Mad Mexicans will come as a severe culture shock. And best of all, they're not really mad, just funny as hell.

Twin vocalists Robert Garza and Rafa Badillo front an aural assault that crosses genres as easily as the two switch languages, while the rhythm section of Rogelio Martinez and El Mero Rockstar applies a thunderous backdrop. Songs that reference underground cockfights, tequila shots and local institutions such as the Dallas Tortilla and Tamale Factory prove that humor is indeed the universal tongue.