Best of Nashville 2009: Music

Best Punk Band to Play Bluegrass Underground:
Those Darlins
There's probably no other local band right now that can be as many things to as many people as Those Darlins. One minute they're opening for scuzz-blues auteur Jon Spencer in NYC, the next they're playing a showcase (with opening act John Fogerty, no less) for the Americana Music Association festival, and the next they're at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, playing under the chandelier and the stalactites as part of WSM's Bluegrass Underground series. All while "breakin' hearts, rippin' farts," as they say, and whooping up a frenzied, fuzzed-out Appalachia-studded punky pop style that's got the whole country (as in the U.S.A.) talking. STEVE HARUCH

Best Place to Block out the Music Industry Apocalypse:
Grimey's
We get that the industry is in freefall and that Wal-Mart—the only place in most towns where people can actually walk in and buy a new CD—has record labels by the balls. So we ought to thank our lucky stars that Grimey's remains an oasis with entire catalogs by bands-who-aren't-The-Eagles to browse and staff with fires in their bellies for worthy underdog acts. Plus, they sell vinyl—something Wal-Mart will resume stocking on a cold day in hell. Grimey's is one of the only spots in town hosting in-stores these days (The Groove is another), and—regardless of hand-wringing elsewhere—people don't tend to look so pensive leaning against the pre-loved bins, drinking free beer and catching the Drive-By Truckers right after work. Co-owner and "vinylist" Doyle Davis says he doesn't "even think of Grimey's as being in the 'music industry' any more." And that's probably a good thing. JEWLY HIGHT

Best Ballsy Confession of Dysfunction in a Song:
"Mama's Eyes" by Justin Townes Earle
Justin Townes Earle couldn't pretend he had a model childhood if his life depended on it. Everyone in town knows what a punk kid he was, and whose blood runs in his veins. And if somehow you missed that whole story, he'll retell it willingly—but not in his songs. Earle's a swinging, sharp-dressed showman, and not the type of songwriter who usually writes soul-baring confessions. "Mama's Eyes" is his rare explicitly autobiographical song, and his history looms large behind it—with his dad ("We've never tried to be the fucking Cleavers"), his old habits and his mom ("Despite all her efforts I turned out a fucking raving lunatic junkie"). Only, in this song, Earle expresses these truths a lot less colorfully and with a quiet vulnerability that hits hard—even when you hear it for the 17th time. JEWLY HIGHT

Best Hip-Hop Album:
The Long Goodbye by Coolout
Coolout wasn't kidding when he called it The Long Goodbye—it took almost six months after the album dropped for him to pack his bags and go. Recently relocated to Philly, Coolout spent 10 years tending turntables and making beats with a keen ear for old-school idioms and new-school flavor alike. Goodbye is a mature, sophisticated sonic exploration of a man's relationship with his surroundings—for better or worse. Combining boom-bap party hooks with jazzy space soundscapes on songs like "Leaving" and "Love Affair," Goodbye is a high-water mark by which the city's progressive hip-hop community will judge for some time to come. SEAN L. MALONEY

Best Source for Hip-Hop and Urban Music:
New Life Record Shop
They've been around so long it's sometimes easy to overlook the fact that New Life Record Shop is still around while Tower and Blockbuster (among others) are long gone. But they are perhaps the closest we have now to the types of stores that used to be the staple for the soul/R&B/funk music fan—operations where the workers had their ears to the street and knew the hottest jams long before they hit the airwaves. If you think record stores aren't necessary anymore, try finding songs popularized on mixtapes or, for that matter, anything done by rap, hip-hop or urban performers not on a Billboard chart. Ron WYNN

Best Breakout Band:
The Non-Commissioned Officers
Originally the soundtrack band for the locally shot and produced independent zombie film Make-Out With Violence, The Non-Commissioned Officers decided to be something more than a cinematic one-off. They released the Make-Out With Violence soundtrack in early 2009 while the film played at South by Southwest, and continued to play larger, more exciting shows around town until the film and the band were finally untangled. With songs that are morose but danceable, The Non-Coms fill a New Wave niche that's usually occupied by the sloppy and distracted. The marked growth in confidence and showmanship in frontman Eric Lehning bodes well for the band's potential, and it seems clear the group made the right decision to push beyond their origins. ASHLEY SPURGEON

Best Hip-Hop Mixtape:
Your Mom's Favorite Mixtape Vol. 2 by Wick-It
The problem with 98.75 percent of local hip-hop "mixtapes" in the digital age is that they aren't mixed. Technology has supplanted the need for actual skills, meaning any asshole can throw an instrumental into GarageBand and call it a mixtape. Wick-It is in that rare 1.25 percent that actually mixes records—and the difference is dramatic. Using a grab bag of classic turntablist tricks, Wick-It combines skillful cuts and scratches with blends and edits, flipping tracks both old-school and new to create a tape that's really, truly mixed. And he scores extra points for dropping "The Mexican" by Babe Ruth, which features Nashville transplant Alan Shacklock on guitar. SEAN L. MALONEY