Blog Will the MAMAs be more diverse this year?

Those of us who always whine about people like The Lucas Cates Band "sweeping" the Madison Area Music Awards have an opportunity this year to make things less predictable. The current round of voting (open through March 18) narrows down the actual awards nominees, and a lot of bands have snuck some actual surprises into the options. After I made my $5 donation Friday morning to the charity-awards hybrid, the online ballot for "Artist Of The Year" opened up, and of course it was a big list of mostly the same bands who always seem to be up for this award: Natty Nation, Dumate, Harmonious Wail, and so on. (All bands I think are fine and dandy, by the way, but someone needs to make sure the artist-of-year category is different from year to year. That said, Dumate's put out a spiffy album and really put itself at the top of local hip-hop over the past year.) As I moved through the gauntlet of more specific categories, though, I ran into some encouraging signs.

I mean, of course, that I saw some of the less-appreciated local bands that I always just assume will sit the MAMAs out and maybe grumble from the sidelines. The "hard rock" category gets a big boost this year, thanks to wacky theatrical metallers Lords Of The Trident, death-metal band Buried Future, and Lords Of Discipline. Rust Belt Sermon, a terrific post-hardcore band that unfortunately hardly ever plays shows, entered its album Soliloquy in one of the album categories (which are free this year). Revolving Doors, The Shtetlblasters, and The Cemetery Improvement Society make the "electronica" categories a lot more interesting (as does Null Device, who frequently participates in the MAMAs). Luke Bassuener has entered his Bawku West Collective project, for which he recorded some of his musician friends in Ghana. Oh, and there's El Valiente, who I will of course never shut up about.

Let's be honest about the way everyone looks at the MAMAs' rather complicated online ballot: You look over the names, and either roll your eyes or happily click away depending on whether or not these are bands you already like and/or are pals with. Every year, the debate over the awards really drives home that there's little cohesion among all our town's musical cliques. It's as if we all live in different parallel-universe versions of Madison. Can anyone name a local band that has played both The Project Lodge and Scatz? Or even knows of both? I rest my case.

It's up to the bands to make these awards whatever they're going to be. The big disconnect is that Madison isn't on anyone's list of big places to move your band and make it. Some Madison bands want to make a career out of it, which is fine, and some just want a fun creative escape from jobs and families, which is fine. I hear plenty of good music from bands that persistently promote themselves and plenty from bands that hardly bother. It's obvious which type of artist the MAMAs attract. One local rocker I talked to about the MAMAs just flat-out rejects the idea of competition and awards in music. Granted, a mini-Grammys is not what we need to build a healthier music community here. That's why I'd rather just see bands of all stripes and all career inclinations participate: It'll make the MAMAs into something that's more supportive, that's better prepared to address its flaws, and does more justice to musicians of all genres, ages, and ambitions. For now, we can at least scoot the awards further from the middle of the road by supporting the artists who've unexpectedly taken a chance this year. Every competition needs a dark horse or two.

Disclosure: The Madison Area Music Association recently assembled a volunteer "advisory panel" of local musicians, bookers, and journalists. MAMAs Founder Rick Tvedt talked me into sitting on this, reasoning that I've bitched about the awards in the past, so I might as well try to throw in some useful ideas. In short, we've had a couple of informal meetings. I'm not sure where it's going, but everyone involved throws in good ideas. I don't believe this gives me a special stake in the MAMAs or makes me an apologist for them. It just makes me want some changes, which is nothing new.