Wow. We were pleasantly surprised with the voting for this year's awards-- not only did we receive more votes than ever before, but we also noticed that the quality of the votes submitted this year was higher than in either of the previous years-- most voters voted in most of the categories, and the vast majority of the votes seemed serious and well thought out. So congratulations to everyone in our little community who decided to make their voices heard. As much as we like to be dismissive smart asses around here, we recognize the fact that these awards can be a great way to pay tribute to some of the musicians in the area that are actually producing important and interesting music, and we also recognize that the legitimacy of this whole process has much more to do with your participation than ours. So thanks for that. Below is a list of the winners for every category. We'll be making an announcement concerning our plans for Awards celebrations and the like a bit later this week, but for now, take a look at the wieners:

Best Band: Record Hop
Best New Band: Darktown Strutters
Best DJ: Schwa
Best New DJ: Tommy Boy
Best MC/ Hip Hop Artist: Damaged Goods
Best Noise/Avant garde: Zanzibar Snails
Best Metal (all genres)
Akkolyte
Best Punk/Hardcore/Grindcore/Garage: Wax Museums
Best Folk/experimental folk: Dust Congress
Best Indie Pop: Fight Bite/Teenage Cool Kids (tie)
Best Solo Artist: Sarah Jaffe
Best Local Album or Ep of the Year: Record Hop, s/t
Best Local Single of the Year: "Swiss Ex Lover" by Fight Bite
Best Vocalist: Daron Beck of Great Tyrant
Best Guitarist: Will Kapinos of Jetscreamer
Best Bassist: Tommy Atkins of Great Tyrant
Best Drummer: Steve Hill
Best Instrumentalist that doesn't play one of the above instruments: Megan Carrol of Nouns Group
Most Underrated band: Kaboom
Best Live Show: Teenage Cool Kids
Best Art work: Nevada Hill for a variety of projects
Best Sound Guy: Justin Collins of Hailey's
Best Promoter/Booking Agency: Parade of Flesh
Best Local Spot to Record: Echo Lab
Best Dressed: Rival Gang
Worst Dressed band: Black Tie Dynasty
Worst Band Name: Mom and Black Tie Dynasty (tie)
Best Local Music Journalist that isn't Us: Hunter Hauk of Quick, Dallas Morning News
Best WSJR Commentator: Anonymous
Best Local blog: US! (we set this up so that no one other than us could win)
Age When you Realized that D Magazine Covers Local Music Better than the Observer: 22
Best Good Ol' Fashioned Songwriter: Doug Burr
Best Venue: Rubber Gloves

Photo courtesy of Quick