Going For the Gold

The San Diego Music Awards will take over Humphreys Concerts By the Bay on Monday, Aug. 13. As it does every year, the ceremony will honor the best and brightest of San Diego's music scene.

Categories include Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Jazz, Best Acoustic, Best Blues, Best World Music and Song of the Year, among many others.

This year’s SDMAs will feature performances by P.O.D, Dead Feather Moon, Hills Like Elephants, the Howls, Hyena and Mattson 2. A Lifetime Achievement award will go to jazz pianist Mike Wofford, and a Courage in Music award will go to blues singer Candye Kane.

Last year’s big winners included Little Hurricane, who claimed three statuettes (one of which was for Album of the Year for their debut, Homewrecker), and one-man band Low Volts, who took home two awards, including one for Best New Artist .

Best American or Country Album nominees the Howls will be performing on Aug. 30 at our free monthly party, SoundDiego LIVE, which will be at Boar Cross'n and features a free happy hour presented by Jack Daniel's. CLICK HERE TO GET ON THE GUEST LIST.

Tickets for the 2012 San Diego Music Awards are still available here. The nominees are:

Best Tribute Band:
β€’ Beta Maxx
β€’ Cash'd Out
β€’ Detroit Underground
β€’ The PettyBreakers
β€’ Rising Star
β€’ Rockola
β€’ Stepping Feet
β€’ Thunder Road

Best Jazz:
β€’ Erika Davies
β€’ Gilbert Castellanos
β€’ Ian Tordella
β€’ Mattson 2
β€’ Rob Thorsen
β€’ Steph Johnson
β€’ Peter Sprague
β€’ The Trunks

Best Acoustic:
β€’ Robert Bondurant
β€’ Colin Clyne
β€’ Gayle Skidmore
β€’ Jeffrey Joe Morin
β€’ Josh Damigo
β€’ Lee Coulter
β€’ Tom Griesgraber
β€’ Vanja James

Best Blues:
β€’ Billy Watson
β€’ Black Market III
β€’ Lady Dottie & the Diamonds
β€’ Len Rainey & the Midnight Players
β€’ Low Volts
β€’ Mercedes Moore Band
β€’ Robin Henkel
β€’ Tomcat Courtney

Best World Music:
β€’ B-Side Players
β€’ Bad Neighborz
β€’ Cumbia Machin
β€’ Patric Petrie
β€’ Spilt Finger
β€’ Stranger
β€’ Todo Mundo
β€’ Zimbeat

Best Americana or Country:
β€’ Bill Cardinal and The Canyon Band
β€’ Billy Joe & the Roosters
β€’ Folding Mr. Lincoln
β€’ Nancarrow
β€’ Nena Anderson
β€’ Sara Petite
β€’ The Farmers
β€’ The Tree Ring

Best Hip Hop:
β€’ Blame One
β€’ Black Mikey
β€’ El Gun Legro
β€’ Odessa Kane
β€’ Orko Eloheim
β€’ Parker & The Numberman
β€’ theBREAX
β€’ Vokab Kompany

Best Pop:
β€’ 321 Stereo
β€’ AJ Croce
β€’ Hills Like Elephant
β€’ Kevin Martin
β€’ Maren Parusel
β€’ The Silent Comedy
β€’ Chris Carpenter
β€’ James Morris

Best Alternative:
β€’ Chairs Missing
β€’ Cuckoo Chaos
β€’ New Mexico
β€’ Republic of Letters
β€’ The Burning of Rome
β€’ The Heavy Guilt
β€’ Little Hurricane
β€’ Dead Feather Moon

Best Rock:
β€’ Black Hondo
β€’ Grand Tarantula
β€’ Hocus
β€’ Rafter
β€’ The Donkeys
β€’ The Kabbs
β€’ The Nervous Wreckords
β€’ Transfer

Best Hard Rock:
β€’ Fates Demise
β€’ Griever
β€’ Lord Howler
β€’ Retox
β€’ Revenge Death Ball
β€’ Ruines Ov Abaddon
β€’ Archons
β€’ The Long and the Short of It

Best Club DJ:
β€’ Adam Salter
β€’ Artistic
β€’ Chris Cutz
β€’ Fresh One
β€’ Gabe Vega
β€’ Junior the Disco Punk
β€’ Mike Czech
β€’ DJ Jason Ross

Best Electronic:
β€’ Beat Panther
β€’ Dudes
β€’ Hyena
β€’ Illuminauts
β€’ Inspired Flight
β€’ Jamuel Saxon
β€’ Mystery Cave
β€’ Room E

Best New Artist:
β€’ Bunny Gang
β€’ Hills Like Elephants
β€’ Mrs. Magician
β€’ The Black Sands
β€’ Tropical Popsicle
β€’ The Lonesome Georges
β€’ Wild Wild Wets
β€’ Ko Ko

Artist of the Year:
β€’ Crocodiles
β€’ Gilbert Castellanos
β€’ Little Hurricane
β€’ Sara Watkins
β€’ Slightly Stoopid
β€’ Switchfoot
β€’ The Silent Comedy
β€’ Unwritten Law

Song of the Year:
β€’ Angels & Airwaves - "Surrender"
β€’ Delta Spirit - "California"
β€’ Jason Mraz - "I Won't Give Up"
β€’ Blink 182 - "After Midnight"
β€’ Crocodiles - "Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)"
β€’ Low Volts – "Blame it on the Break Up"
β€’ P.O.D. – "Lost in Forever"
β€’ Switchfoot - "Afterlife"

Best Pop Album:
β€’ Kevin Martin - Throwback Pop
β€’ Maren Parusel - Tightrope Walker
β€’ Mrs. Magician - Strange Heaven
β€’ Neon Cough - Dracula's Mixtape
β€’ Seaholm Macintosh - Monarchs
β€’ Scott Mathiason – Lost Along the Way
β€’ TV Girl - The Wild, The Innocent, The TV Shuffle
β€’ Wendy Bailey - String Theory

Best Rock Album:
β€’ The Beautiful View - Life Is Beautiful
β€’ Italian Japanese - Two Islands
β€’ A Scribe Amidst The Lions - The Lidless Kind
β€’ Astra - The Black Chord
β€’ Coda Reactor - Parasite
β€’ Death on Mars - These Feelings
β€’ Taz Taylor Band - Straight Up
β€’ The Black Sands – 1977

Best Alternative Album:
β€’ Crocodiles - Endless Flowers
β€’ The New Kinetics - Contact
β€’ Cuckoo Chaos - Woman
β€’ The Bloody Hollies - Yours Until The Bitter End
β€’ Hills Like Elephants – Endless Charade
β€’ Children of Nova - Impossible Landscape
β€’ Dead Feather Moon – Dark Sun
β€’ Wavves – Life Sux

Best Hard Rock Album:
β€’ As I Lay Dying - Decas
β€’ Cage - Supremacy of Steel
β€’ Carnifex – Until I feel Nothing
β€’ Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity
β€’ Deep Sea Thunder Beast – s/t
β€’ Griever - Inferior
β€’ Retox - Ugly Animals
β€’ Heretic – Blue Fires Away

Best Hip Hop Album:
β€’ Autopsy - 21 Bodies
β€’ Black Mikey - Premeditated Music
β€’ Bully Blinders - Moon Under Eyelids
β€’ Don Diego - All Red Everythang
β€’ Left Handed Scientists - Kill Your Present Future
β€’ Parker & The Numberman - Clockwork Slang
β€’ TheBreax - I Never Arrive
β€’ Dubble-O-Beez & Young Sau – Monkey Beezness

Best Blues Album:
β€’ Candye Kane - Sister Vagabond
β€’ Nathan James & the Rhythm Scratchers – What You Make of It
β€’ Stoney B Blues band - Sho Nuff Blues
β€’ The Fremonts - Live at the Woodpit
β€’ 145th Street – Where the Blues Lie
β€’ Hugh Gaskins & the G String Daddies – Workin’ at the Booby Trap

Best Jazz Album:
β€’ Gregory Page - Shine Shine Shine
β€’ Ian Tordella - Tragic Comedy
β€’ Leonard Patton - Expressions
β€’ Montalban Quintet – s/t
β€’ Nena Anderson - Beyond The Lights
β€’ Kevyn Lettau – Drawn to You
β€’ Mike Woffard & Holly Hofmann Quartet – Turn Signal
β€’ Teagan Taylor – Wonderland

Best Americana or Country Album:
β€’ Eve Selis - Family Tree
β€’ Blaze Eisner – American Spirit
β€’ Jesse LaMonaca & the Dime Novels – The Lament of the Tumbleweed Hawk
β€’ John Meeks and Joanie Mendenhall – From My Grave
β€’ Nena Anderson - Beyond The Lights
β€’ Roy Rapid and the Rhythm Rock Trio - One Last Chance
β€’ The Howls - Rocky Ground
β€’ Euphoria Brass Band - Coast to Coast

Best World Music Album:
β€’ The Amalgamated – Boss Universal
β€’ Omar Lopez - Profundo Amor
β€’ Stick Figure – Burial Ground
β€’ Stranger - World Underground
β€’ The Devastators - Lights of Tomorrow
β€’ The Dread Crew of Odd Wood - Heavy Mahogany
β€’ Reef Bound Sol – Under the Sun
β€’ Sunny Rude - Rudimentary

Best Local Recording:
β€’ Beaters - Fishage
β€’ Nicey Nicey World – s/t
β€’ Stephen Rey and The Slicks – Old Fashioned Future
β€’ The Styletones - s/t
β€’ The Comeuppance – s/t
β€’ Wayne Riker - Guitar Decathlon
β€’ The Lovebirds - Nutsy Pants
β€’ Blackout Party – Closed Mouth Don’t Get Fed

Album of the Year:
β€’ Gregory Page - Shine Shine Shine
β€’ Blink 182 - Neighborhoods
β€’ Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity
β€’ Crocodiles - Endless Flowers
β€’ Delta Spirit – s/t
β€’ Jason Mraz - Love is a Four Letter Word
β€’ Steve Poltz - Noineen Noiny Noin
β€’ Rob Crow – He Thinks He’s People

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