In my book, the modern folk artist falls into one of three categories. First, you have the weepy, self-deprecating Conor Oberst types, followed by the ultra-groovy, "look at me I play a million instruments because I'm so talented" hippies. And then you've always got the straight ahead rocker whose faux Springsteen swagger gets ladled over some easily digestible, cut-and-dry lyrics. But if local musician Michael Ubaldini has taught me one thing after a 10 minute browse of his Myspace page, it is
I'll have some more thoughts on the more, uh, interesting choices made by the academy (which I am not a part of, despite what their Web site says) a little later, but for now here's the full list of nominees, unedited from the OC Music Awards press release.
If there's one thing that I've learned about Orange County during my time here, it's that in the early-to-mid '90s, ska was apparently the only genre that bands were allowed to play. Sadly, the "scene" seems to be pretty quiet these days, but for tonight at least, that changes with the "ska circus" at the Grove of Anaheim.The lineup is as follows Suburban Legends (pictured), Starpool, Nuckle Brothers, Half Past Two and Task Force: Panda. The event is sponsored by OC Weekly, so I probably look
