We’re also nudging those of you who may not pay as much attention to Houston’s musical riches (and niches) as others to go exploring, hoping you’ll find a wealth of new favorites in the names below. Finally, we also expanded the ballot to include several key roles filled by non-musicians, the behind-the-scenes players who are equally worthy of recognition but almost always go unsung — the sound engineers, festival producers, booking agents, graphic designers and, last but hardly least, the fans.
One last thing: This ballot is also purposefully incomplete. The Houston Press music staff chose the names you see below, but one category we’re glad to hold over from the previous HPMA model is the Readers’ Choice award. If your favorite artist’s name doesn’t appear below, we encourage you to vote for them here at this link. Voting for the ballot is now open at this link and continues through Friday, November 18. Good luck to all the nominees!
LIVE
- Gio Chamba & Trippy Cholo
- Only Beast
- Jody Seabody & the Whirls
- Snooty Garbagemen
- The Suffers
- Young Mammals
- Wild Moccasins
BAND FOR DRINKING
- Baron Von Bomblast
- Blaggards
- Dead Rabbits
- Poor Dumb Bastards
- Mike Stinson Band
- Blackgrass Gospel
- Sauce Twinz
BAND FOR DANCING
- Catch Fever
- Children of Pop
- Deep Cuts
- The Escatones
- Fab 5
- Mikey & the Drags
- Phantom Royals
- Umbrella Man
HEAVY/ANGRY BAND
- Blood of an Outlaw
- Cop Warmth
- Funeral Horse
- Oceans of Slumber
- PLXTX
- Venomous Maximus
- We Were Wolves
SEXYTIME
- Bang Bangz
- Dollie Barnes
- Jack Freeman
- Nick Greer
- Chase Hamblin & the Roustabouts
- Jerk
- MNYNMS
- -Us
WOKE
- Days N’ Daze
- Dirty & Nasty
- Giant Kitty
- Lyric Michelle
- Real McCoys
- The Wheel Workers
WEIRD
- Ak’Chamel
- Fiddle Witch & the Demons of Doom
Handsomebeast - Illicit Relationship
- Rusted Shut
- Say Girl Say
MORE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT…
- Black Kite
Guilla - Nathan Quick
- Alex Riddle
- Satanic Overlords of Rock & Roll
- Space Villains*
- Thrill
- Whit
STALWART
- 30FootFALL
- Flamin’ Hellcats
deadhorse - Free Radicals
- Rick Lee & the Night Owls
- Trudy Lynn
- Los Skarnales
- The Suspects
NEWCOMER
- Colonial Blue
- El Lago
- Frog Hair
- Ingrid
- Mark Drew
- Secret Sands
- Ashley Toman
Vodi
MAD GENIUS
- B L A C K I E
- Chase DeMaster
- Maxo Kream
- Muzak John
- Pfaff Pfaffenberg
- The Wiggins
- Twisted Wires
LYRICS
- BIZ (Brian Is Ze)
- Adam Bricks
- Doughbeezy
- DeLorean
- Richard Kimball (Distant Worker)
- Craig Kinsey
- Lyric Michelle
Propain
SINGER
- Kristal Cherelle
- Kam Franklin (The Suffers)
- Cammie Gilbert (Oceans of Slumber)
- Lee-Lonn
- Vockah Redu
- Nathan Quick
- Stephanie Rice (Colonial Blue)
RAPPER
Doeman - Fat Tony
- Genesis Blu
- Le$
Pyrexx - Slim Thug
- Paul Wall
- Z-Ro
DJ
- Damon Allen
- Big Reeks
- Gracie Chavez
- Josh Dupont
- Flash Gordon Parks
- Ill Faded
- Mr. Rogers
- Riddler
PLAYER
- Peter Bernick (Only Beast)
- Jordan Donald
- Sandy Ewen
- Steve Krase
Chapy Luna (The Suffers)- Roberto Rodriguez
THEME NIGHT
- A Fistful of Soul
- Bombon
- Classic Numbers
- Saves the Tuesday
- Tejas Got Soul
- Vinyl Ranch
- Waxaholic Thursdays
FESTIVAL
- Day For Night
- FPSF
- Houston Whatever Fest
- Madness on Main/Yes, Indeed!
- Praia Urbana
- Something Wicked
VENUE (SOUND)
* 5,000 seats or less
- McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
- House of Blues
- Nightingale Room
- Revention Music Center
- Rudyard’s
- Walters
- Warehouse Live
- White Oak Music Hall
BOOKING
- Bassman PEP
- John Baldwin (Walters/Satellite)
- Cactus Music in-stores
- Havin' a Ball Productions
- Nameless Sound
- Pegstar
- ScoreMore
- Punk Rock Stacy (Rudyard's)
ARTWORK
- Miguel Flaco
- Adam Goode
- Wesley Mitchell
- mObscene
- Dennis Polk
- Kyler Sharp
FAN
- Paige Balinski (RIP)
- Clint Broussard
- David Garrick
- Jeremy Hart
- Daniel Jackson
- Wylie
Lechor