The nominees for the 21st installment of the San Diego Music Awards were announced this week. First of all, the fact that there is an organization put together (San Diego Music Foundation) to recognize and assist the local music scene is quite extraordinary. So, bravo to the SDMF for organizing this very popular event. Having said that, I would be lying to you (which kind of defeats the purpose of the blog) to say Lexington Field was not disappointed for not being nominated this year. The last year has been a tremendous one for our band, including playing the biggest show of our careers at shamROCK 2011 and releasing our brand new album Old Dirt Road. If there was a year to be recognized by the “Academy“, I thought this would be the one. In fact, every Irish band in San Diego got snubbed including The Fooks, Skelpin, and Tony Cummins. And our good friends the Hard Fall Hearts, Just Like Jenna, Lenny Morris and the Mayors of SexyTown should have been nominated based on their songs, live show, and work ethic, which is quite impressive! On the surface, it appears that if you don’t play the Casbah or any venue in North Park/South Park/Hillcrest area or not signed to a major label, your chances of even getting a nomination are greatly reduced. That is just an opinion, based on personal observation of these awards over the years. We all know it is politics and who you know. But, hopefully in the future, other genres and bands and singer/songwriters, who equally work their tails off, will be recognized in some form by this organization.
Now, after getting that off my chest, I don’t mean to disrespect the current nominees this year and the people who put this event together, who do a great service to the San Diego music scene. There are some amazing bands nominated and some personal connections to us that I want to mention.
First of all, Lexington Field’s former bass player, Brendan Malone, and his current band, Bill Cardinal and The Canyon Band, were nominated for Best Americana. We are super stoked for Brendan and hope they pull out a win. It will be tough, because they will be up against another artist who we shared the stage with in the past, Sara Petite. She is awesome, so good luck to both you! Another connection to a nominated band is Ghetto Blaster, who will be up against some tough competition such as Cattle Decapitation and As I Lay Dying in the Hard Rock category. John Cota is the guitar player for Ghetto Blaster and he also was one of our studio engineers for our Old Dirt Road recording. Cota is a trooper and we hope Ghetto Blaster wins an upset!
Up for Best Acoustic artist is super talented Jordan Reimer. Back when we were Fiffin Market and playing coffee houses, we played a few shows with Jordan and she is a very good songwriter and hard worker. We are rooting for you Jordan! In the Best Tribute Band category, I am pulling for two different bands. The first one is Cash’d Out, who rocks Johnny Cash songs like nobody else. Lexington Field recently played a packed house show with them at the Belly Up Tavern for our CD Release show, and they were awesome! Speaking of Belly Up, on St. Patrick’s Day 2010, we played a show there with Weezer tribute band Geezer. They are funny, creative, and who doesn’t love Weezer, seriously? I hope either Geezer or Cash’d Out wins.
Finally, I want to mention who I think should win a lot of awards and is by far the best band in San Diego right now (next to Lexington Field of course)…drum roll please…The Silent Comedy. I had the pleasure of seeing them at the House of Blues when they opened for Ryan Bingham and they blew me away. Great songs, good stage presence, and overall amazing live show! I expect big things from The Silent Comedy in the near future and if you haven’t seen them yet, go to the San Diego Music Awards ceremony on August 8, 2011 at Humphreys by the Bay, cause they are one of the nominees performing live.. So, congrats to all the nominees and to all the snubs, keep making amazing music, it is all appreciated by the fans no matter what!
For a complete list of nominees and info on the San Diego Music Awards check out their website at www.sandiegomusicawards.com
– written by Snow Black