The We Shot J.R. Awards
I love being right. After predicting that the results of the second annual We Shot J.R. Awards would better reflect what is actually happening in Dallas/Denton/Ft. Worth than those "other" awards, I was proven right by the large number of quality votes we received. This isn't to say that I personally agreed with all of our voters' choices, nor is it to say that all our categories were completely cut and dry and perfectly defined. But I do think that what we have here is a high quality and respectable group of winners (aside from the "worst" dudes), and I'm happy to share this list with you. Anyway, before you go on and read the list, I want to tell you a couple things:
1. The We Shot J.R. Awards Party will take place on Saturday, September 8th at the Fra House in Denton. We'll share the line up with you in a couple days when we have it finalized, but I'll tell you right now that you won't want to miss it.
2. If you tried to stuff the ballot box in order to change the results, or if you did it just to fuck with us, you should know that we didn't count your votes more than twice if you voted several times in a row from the same computer (all votes had an ip address attached to them), and it took us a total of five minutes to figure this out (I'm looking at you Matthew and the Arrogant Sea).
3. The official winners are in bold, and our staff picks are included below them.
Here we go:
BEST BAND
Shiny Around the Edges
(SR: The Great Tyrant; DL: Eat Avery's Bones)
BEST NEW BAND
Ghosthustler
(SR: Ghosthustler; DL: Koji Kondo)
BEST EXPERIMENTAL
Mom
(SR: Mom, Zanzibar Snails: DL: Mike Forbes)
BEST DJ
Nature
(SR: The Party, Prince William; DL: Select)
BEST ELECTRONIC
Undoing of David Wright
(SR: Treewave; DL: Electronik Warfare)
BEST VENUE
Rubber Gloves
(SR: I really can't pick between all the Denton DIY, so we'll call it a tie; DL: House of Tinnitus)
BEST LIVE BAND
Nouns Group
(SR: Koji Kondo; DL: Angry Businessmen, Christian Teenage Runaway)
BEST USE OF VISUALS
Treewave, Undoing of David Wright (tie)
(SR: Treewave; DL: Zanzibar Snails)
BEST MC
MC Router (single mc), PPT (group)
(SR: what DL said; DL: The guy who rapped with Krispee Ones at the WSJR/Art Prostitute Show last December)
BEST BOOKING
House of Tinnitus
(SR: the Denton DIY venues combined; DL: Rob Buttrum and Amelia at H.O.T., Scott Porter at SHQ)
BEST VOCALS
Ashley Cromeens of Record Hop
(SR: the members of CTR, Farah DL: Farah, Kyle from Night Game Cult)
BEST GUITAR
Shane English of Ghosthustler, Undoing of David Wright and Chief Death Rage
(SR: Nevada Hill; DL: Adam of Koji Kondo and Blonde Girls)
BEST BASS
Shane English
(SR: Shane English; DL: Shane English)
BEST DRUMS
Nick Martin of Nouns Group
(SR: Jon Teague of Great Tyrant; DL: Stefan Gonzalez of Akkolyte and Unconscious Collective)
BEST VIDEO ON WESHOTJR VIDEOS
Violent Squid "Sassy Mink"
(SR: Violent Squid was my favorite local video; DL: Violent Squid)
WORST BAND
Black Tie Dynasty
(SR: There are so many terrible bands that I don't even want to think about it- so I'll side with the voters on this one; DL: Cartright)
WORST VENUE
Hailey's
(SR: The Cavern for trying to rip me off; DL: 8th Continent for being the best and then disappearing)
DOUCHE PROMO PHOTOS
Black Tie Dynasty
(SR: Gotta agree with the voters again; DL: Nothing against him, but I'm suspicious of anyone with Hal Samples promo pics.)
Labels: drama
posted by stonedranger at 7:08 PM
98 Comments:
Really? Alright.
Shit, I gotta say "duh". It's not that I totally agree or disagree with the results, but they are obvious WSJR pix and exactly what I would have put money on.
This is just the most unsurprising list ever, save the Violent Squid vid sweep and the Farah shout by SR.
The Observer awards were far more entertaining, just by the sheer "what the fuck?" element, but there you have it.
Oh yeah, it is a bit strange that Nature got best deejay after all those douche bags hated on him a while back. Cool to see him get his due along with Prince Will and Select.
But otherwise, anticlimax, anyone?
(cue sad tuba)
if only we could somehow clone shane english to play both guitar and bass, we could throw orville, aaron and noah in a well.
MOM is not EXPERIMENTAL COME ON PEOPLE WAKE UP!!!!!
Have any of these bands ever toured outside of D/FW? or can they even draw 100 people locally?
yeah, acually all of them have. and obviously you dont get out much.
3:30 be jealous again.
your mom is totally EXPERIMENTAL !
ZING!
EAB was robbed : (
According to this awards list, only young, white males voted.
When are people gonna get over distorted guitars and boring theatrics?
good stuff. all around.
the results we good except for the experimental pick. MOM sucks and is not very experimental.... go to the house of tinnitus to see what experimental music really is.
best electronic: Andrew Michael Hilburn!!
That Hal Samples line is pretty fucking funny, but this was as predictable as the Observer Awards, but, hey, at least their ours.
people are always going to be upset over a genre like picking "Best" experimental. because to put the moniker "Best" is almost to say "Majority" and experimental is not for majority or meant to be a "Best". MOM plays safe and nice pop music that has experimental twists to it. i love their music, i think it makes perfect sense that they would win this category, they play pretty music.
to play experimental music is kind of to not have any investment in people liking you to begin with.
unsurprising
underwhelmed
uninteresting
oh well
still medium funny
(looking at you MATTHEW AND THE ARROGANT SEA)
9:44
Thank you for the compliment.
I do not take for granted that I live in a very creative and inspiring metropolitan area full of engaging and dedicated artists that create opportunities for us to experience expressions of our life and times...
so, experimental music can't be pretty?
Everything's an experiment, right?
I'm experimenting with anonymous posting right now.
"Noise" music challenges me about as much as Yngwie challenges me. Too much emphasis on technique.
People like MC router?
mc router..
i'd like to plug into her DSL.
I'd like to Random Access Memory her.
I'm working on some electronics/gear prototypes right now that will enable Shane English to play as many instruments at a time as possible. The Shinglish Guitar VR 2050.
Cloned Shane dreams will soon come to fruition.
SHOCKING!
awards are fine but hailey's is not the worst venue, the cavern most certainly is.
i'm not saying it can't be pretty. you just want to argue.
it's funny how some say this list was unsurprising, underwhelmed,
and or uninteresting. the thing is ,you had to vote to make this work. If only certain people voted then the result would show that. basic principles of voting.
when you put "best" and "experimental" together people will choose 'pretty' when left to vote. because people like stuff that they can listen to. MOM does play music in such a way that more people will enjoy it than not. duh. don't be a douche. and there's always going to be people who consider "experiment" to a different degree. it's undefined territory so you'll have dispute as to what is "best", pushing the envelope or using pop sensibilities while maintaining an edge of avant-garde. god you're an idiot 10:16.
if you define a best in any genre you restrict that genre. and experimental especially has a specific motive to be unrestricted.
dumbass.
Yngwie?
go watch some youtube and shut the fuck up.
- Spam -
8 White Drugs Videos posted on:
http://thedentoncatalogue.com
How many people did vote in this?
Well, it's like reading a polling by fox news, you kinda know what you're gonna get.
Still unsurprising.
Still funny - I'll still read it.
Prove me wrong.
how do you "maintain an edge of avant garde" when avant garde MEANS edge?
and I'm not an idiot.
I simply think we couldn't come up with a universally agreed upon standard of "experimental" if we tried. And, if there's no standards, how can we judge which one's best?
More simply put, its a subjective contest for a subjective category. Virtually meaningless. But fun, as compared to the DOMAs.
all good acts that often show up on "it lists" for good reason. Why did we need awards again?
Shiny Around The Edges and Mom are both playing at Secret Headquarters on Saturday Sept. 8th...
Beautiful sounds, beautiful sounds.
congrats to the bands, because they are all deserving of the respect they got on these. I do have to go with R. Javelinn, though, and say that this is a snapshot of one segment of d/fw music, albeit a huge one. still many great bands that are fringe on this site as well as the observer crowd.
1218: I'm not asking to be arugmentative, but am honestly curious: what bands are you talking about?
If there are great bands that we don't seem to be aware of, I'd certainly like to learn about them.
I'd also like to know how many votes were cast. Also, would it be possible to categorize a percentage of where the votes came from (e.g., Dallas, Denton, Ft. Worth, etc.)?
there are no standards and there are no bests. we agree. uh?
as well as no firsts. i'll just throw that one in there.
LOL WTF
11:49
that's exactly what i said.
getting along now.
we're not going to disclose the numbers (I don't even know the exact numbers to be honest) because it's a lose/lose for us. If the number is higher than people expect, we're going to get accused of lying about it (and will have no way to prove it), and if the number is lower than people expect, we'll get accused of being irrelevant ot not inclusive enough or something like that.
I'll just say that we received many many times more votes that we got last year, and we're very happy about it.
As far as where the votes came from, I honestly have no way to find out at this point, but what I can tell you is that we typically get more hits from Dallas than Denton, but as far as hits per capita, Denton beats Dallas by a mile.
how 'bout Fort Worth?
Guess they don't give a fuck about y'all.
Hey Stonedranger.
I never said there were bands of which you or people on the site weren't aware. I also want to clarify that I don't include DL or you so much in that statement, because you two are very much aware of stuff going on.
I do wholeheartedly believe that there are bands that are simply on the fringes of this site, at least as far as what the majority of everyday anons and visitors go and check out on a regular basis. A lot of the bands that get attention on here - well deserved attention - are a part of a sometimes tight knit, sometimes loosely knit group of people/bands that have some common ground - namely the noise/experimental bent.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I am not critiquing that at all. There's just a lot of stuff around doesn't quite fit in with a lot of that. Maybe a little, but not enough to really get lumped in. You guys seem aware of that, at least in the way you post.
Who knows! shit. I am at school, about to interview for a job, and kinda freaking out just trying to pass some time.
Once again, congratulations to the bands, because I can't think of one that doesn't deserve some attn.
12:18 = me
Greatness, I can't wait for the awards show, but Hal samples is genius.
these pretzels are making me thirsty.
Way to go, Shiny!
Wow! Congrats Shane, you deserve this!I voted for you. Congrats to everyone who won and thanks for the work DL and SR. Oh also if you are pissed about the results than maybe you need to get more people with your taste to visit this site and participate in these votes. You cant expect things to change unless you do something about it. But for now, the votes are based on what the people like and they took the time to vote. I wish EAB would have won something though.
SHANE ENGLISH!!!!!!!!
LOVE U GUITAR HERO!!!!!!
As far as experimental ... the interesting thing here to me is that Shiny Around the Edges is more experimental by a good margin than Mom, in my opinion. Look at the unexpected places they take their cover songs, for instance (the Neil Young drone set?) .... that's taking chances, and that's partially what it's about. Personally I probably took a more purist view that excluded both Shiny and Mom (yeah, and the pAper chAse) ... at any rate, I think that "experimental" unfortunately means "instrumental" to a lot of people subconsciously ... that may be why the Zanzibar Snails are working on an acapella piece as we speak ....
CONGRATS TO MIKE & JEN and everybody who helped along the way
i agree with sam.
"DOUCHE PROMO PHOTOS"
~Black Tie Dynasty~
So, who had the best promo pic?
Jay
cartright? really?
mc, if you guys did something like that, it would blow my lid (a cappella except for oscillator!)
fuck, people. does shane really deserve TWO awards?
you people need to take shane's lil cock out'ya mouth.
little? You don't get out much.
oh wait...
:) kiddinglish
computer blip in middle of post not allow for me to finish -
I don't know why I should really care, but I don't want anyone to misconstrue what I'm saying.
If you know me, you know that I love most of the bands and people that won (some of them are my favorite bands and favorite people in this short life). It really has nothing to do with this board or this site, I think what was on my mind in general as I was mentally puking in the comment box is that I wish something else would take up the slack in some of the other areas of music we have around here. There are still a ton of great bands that don't get much action because it's just not the thing of many posters on here. which is fine. but once there was a big void for attention to all this hot music coming out of the area that was noisy, freaky folksy, experimental, whatever... and weshotjr came along to fill it. I wonder and hope if other things will come along to fill up other voids in other areas of music.
that would be a dream come true
He won two awards because (besides the fact that hes just GOOD) he is also in several bands. It's not like he just in "a band" he is in (or is working with) a lot of the music community. He deserves this because he doesn't just make time for his music hobby, making music IS Shane English, it is what he does and he makes time for everything outside of that. He is a crucial part of our music scene. Well deserved.
I'm honestly still interested to see examples of what you are referring to.
shane english is a true gentleman and a true artist he is very deserving of his recognition
FlappersInNylons:
go watch some porn and bone your hubby or something... sheesh
HOT more like HOH
(((housee of huuuuggsss!!!!!))
Seriously, I have no idea where that came from? Usually a comeback consists of something that will hurt someone so obviously you typed what you were thinking about. Meaning: You wanna do me. Either that or you watch me through my windows at night <.< Is anyone else thinking WTF about what this slobbering boner just said?
mc said something about covering neil young's drone set, am i wrong or did sonic youth do that aleeady?
Re: SYdroneYoung Did they really do that? I know they toured together but .... Please point me to the bootleg!
RE: Sam's take ... Once disproportionately lauded within the Denton community, the alt-country/slash roots-ish slash songwriter oriented slash/old-school indie pop aspect of the scene has on this site taken something of a backseat. Did Current Leaves really break up? Sarah Reddington fucking left town? What's the noise with Zest of Yore? Does everybody know how good Dust Congress is?
Questions of a scope small enough to be answered by this here site, and if I was a betting man I'd guess they will be, in time.
yeah zest of yore have definitely gotten no attention from SR or DL and they fucking rule. they have NEVER gotten attention from ANYONE except for a few close friends.
dude they fucking have some kick ass fucking songs. those guys are really really really great songwriters. i'm very fucking happy for them. they finally are getting what they for sure deserve.
great job ZOY!
as far as the rest of denton's indie rock bullshit. silver arrows moved. blueprint sea/landrest is moved. jetscreamer and baptists generals etc i think still get a fair amount of coverage if they play but they don't play often. raised by tigers have been included in the It Lists. i don't know. Current Leaves got a write up. Burnt Sienna Trio seems to hit the It List. i don't know who's being left out really? besides ZOY? because to be honest i think most of that alt country/ singer/songwriter crap coming out of denton has been pretty stale. i'm interested in whatever Lyle is up to from Stanton Meadowdale.
all they deserve is a kick in the balls for a name like that.
indeed 5:12. shane english slays. he is hung like a horse too, btw. yay for him.
4:14 wasn't me
this isn't any more representative of what's going on in DALLAS than the Observer awards....
It is just this groups take on it... if you swaped this list with the Observer list there would be just as many people bitching about this and how you write about the same bands all the time.
Congrats to All!!!
***************************
Thursday Night August 30 @
Fallout Lounge
Lost Generation
w/Wanz and Ineka with Guest Select
10pm
I am on at 10.
Check my blog for the deetz.
*Ineka*
so i pretty much disagree with a lot of this:
Best band - The Dutch Treats
Venue - 715 Panhandle
New Band - Teenage Cool Kids
Electronic - Tree Wave
Video - live Clean Sheets (Descendents)
the others I don't really care about. Thats my two cents
-aa
11:10
bullshit.
that's fucking stupid. weshotjr has never written up on the same band twice. and only includes bands in repeat as a hey! this is who's playing tonight and look! they get the venues right!
you're fucking retarded dumbass.
Also! they have proper taste!
FYI YOU'RE A FUCKING DUMBASS
CONGRATULATIONS!
ALSO!
Zest Of Yore is fucking badass band name. FUCK YOU! Big Smile!
shane is the mutha fuckin man!
if you don't see that...well you're a horse shit eating fuck hole that should quit rock and roll and buy a house that you shit too much in because you drink too much starbucks.
-VS
9:25-only young white males voted? i'm none of those things and that's a really stupid thing to say anyway.
p.s. i love you eat avery's bones
Wow. What a horrible list. Do you guys ever leave Denton?
I mean really. Some of the music you like is good, but step out of the electronic pop white guy shit for maybe like two seconds.
This entire list is so saturated with self important snot, that it's drowning.
This blog used to be interesting, but really it's a bunch of whiny hipster nonsense. The world is much bigger than your bubble guys, and I feel sorry for you when you realize that you are not the self-righteous, self-proclaimed music Nazis that you pretend to be.
... and the Hal Samples comment... Do you even know him?
He happens to be a friend of mine, a gracious friend at that. His photos come form a self-trained mind. You little snippy white kids are just jealous of people who do things other than bitch about what they cannot control, or label "cool".
explain more 946. What used to be interesting about it, and what has changed? Who would you pick for some of these categories? Why are you bringing race into it? Did you notice the "nothing against him" part of the Hal Samples comment?
and the world is bigger than our bubble? You realize that these were LOCAL awards, right? Do you think we all listen to only local music?
And you feel sorry for me when I realize I'm NOT a music Nazi? When did that happen, and how did you know about it?
"... and the Hal Samples comment... Do you even know him?
He happens to be a friend of mine, a gracious friend at that. "
i do not see in any way how that is a bar to criticism. everyones a friend of someone.
Hal Samples. Blech.
I ran into him at an event, and he was doing the "spacey photographer" schtick. Like Austin Powers on ludes. Swooping around and dancing at you and trying to really FEEL his subject.
Hey... Hal? It's a photobooth, bud. Make with the clicky because I'm not going to sleep with you.
post of the day?
ummm...am I don't see why you are picking on hal at all. Sure he may have done shots for BTD, but I do recall he did quite a bit for the black angels as well, or are they not "obscure" enough anymore?
Hum. I notice that when my neighbor "borrowed" my computer this morning (his internet is down) he left quit a nasty message on here.
I'm not really sure what race has to do with anything on here. Or what it has to do with musical taste in general.
Anyway, the whole Nazi comment makes very little sense to me because it's phrased as though he wants you to be a Nazi, which is a little backwards. (Sorry, Jeff, but I AM a grammar Nazi...no pun intended.)
I personally may not agree with some of the choices, but come on everyone, it's taste. Don't get your panties in a knot over what other people like. The only way to have awards that make everyone happy is for every single person to give out their own personal award, and that would be overkill and ridiculous. As far as interesting, well look at how many damned comments are on here. If it wasn't an interesting blog would everyone take the time to get on here and bitch? I mean I have this page linked on my blog, so I at least find it interesting.
Anyhow, I am glad to see an alternative to the Observer Awards. There is quite a bit of info. on here as to what shows are going on that maybe no one else sees, and I'll admit it.. I get on here and nose around daily. It may not be perfect, but who the fuck is?
PS. I like Hal too, but even I can read the "nothing against him" part, dude.
558- thats an interesting question about the black angels. It's funny that I haven't already made a decision on it since I choose to only listen to "obscure" music (as defined by me), so I guess I'll have to come up with an answer and get back to you. If I find that they are no longer obscure, you're welcome to my black angels MP3s, which I will surely erase from my hard drive soon after said decision is made.
Thanks so much for the interesting inquiry and for making me take a little bit deeper look at the music and popularity of the black angels than I ever have before.
Someone is trying to advertise their blog. That was not subtle at all chick.
Got Dang, for real?
MOM and Ghosthuster both suck dick. C'mon people.
hey 9:04,
let's say that all of your peers voted incorrectly, the majority of them at least. that's cool.
you think ghosthustler and mom suck. that's cool too.
who do you think should have won those awards and why?
spill the wisdom.
the table is yours.
and what's wrong with suckin' dick?
haha 8:37am... mad typer, you are dumb, you're a dummy.
grrrr.
Hey, I was commenter 558, sorry if what I said was interpreted the wrong way, I love your blog, and was responding more to the other commenters than I was to you.
I respect you a lot for what you are doing to protect and revitalize our music scene.
brown noser
lame... this blog is boring
so?
shit. shane totally deserves the recognition. i wish i could be half as awesome as he is. thanks for being an inspiration, dude.
-meg boner
and congrats to adam and all of koji kondo for being fucking awesome all the time.
-meg
i like how the 2 people out of 90 something that were talking shit about me were anonymous. real cute.
people like my stuff.
i just went to videogame in seattle for 3 days and signed more DS's and case mods than the number of minutes in your pathetic little life.
so if you are gonna talk shit leave your name unless your afraid of looking like more of an idiot then you already do.
im not sure why i won BEST MC, but its pretty awesome and i thank everyone who voted for me.
<3 mc router
haha. eveyone's suckin on shane's cock. including shane.
Right on MC Router!
Don't mess with an 8 bit Bitch.
yo gramma blowz, MC.
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