Best Local Overall Music Act

Since releasing their exceptional sophomore album Multi-task via Chicago’s Trouble In Mind Records, post-punk outfit OMNI just can’t slow down. With ex-Hello Ocho guitarist Chris Yonker serving as live drummer, singer and bass player Philip Frobos and guitarist Frankie Broyles have taken their wiry conglomeration of intricate riffs and angular grooves across the pond more than a few times for what?s shaped up to be a busy and successful year. The group waves its hometown banner further - geographically and aesthetically - than anyone else in the local rock scene. The new avenues on display with recent singles Sunset Preacher and Delicacy, are filled with promise for a deeper dive into the group’s intrepid ways.

(Photo Courtesy of Omni’s Facebook)

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6LACK, the artist born Ricardo Valdez Valentine, took the city by storm in 2017. The sounds of his thick-as-molasses debut album, Free 6lack (Love Renaissance/Interscope), are more R&B than hip-hop, but when Valdez raps, his lyrics and delivery are on point in songs such as “Rules,” “PRBLMS” and “Alone / EA6.” 6lack’s slow lyrical glide through dense, atmospheric production courtesy of Singawd, FWDSLXSH and Nova paint a chilly, nocturnal landscape that crept up on the city and the rest of the country, earning platinum sales for “PRBLMS.” To celebrate his victory Valdez chopped off his dreads, which sent the public into a bit of a tizzy. It wasn’t enough to hinder his phoenix-like ascent, though. 6lack’s allure, presence and gravitas transcend simple vanity. Free 6lack is the spearhead of an artistic renaissance for Atlanta in the post-trap era, leading a return to mellow melodies and unconditionally excellence in the name of Southern aesthetics. www.free6lack.com. less...

At this point, there’s no stopping Deerhunter’s total domination of the indie music scene both in Atlanta and beyond. After undergoing personnel changes this year - including the departure of bassist Josh Fauver, followed by the addition of Frankie Broyles (guitar) and Josh McKay (bass) - the quintet has continued to excel on every front. 2013’s Monomania, Deerhunter’s most raucous release since 2007’s Cryptograms, is an unabashed love letter to garage rock’s avant-garde outer limits. In April, the group premiered the album’s title track on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” Frontman Bradford Cox used every chance to translate the band’s signature live spectacle to the night owl audience, resulting in an unrefined performance over which many people are still scratching their heads. In June, the group curated the annual All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands, U.K., taking full advantage of such a massive stage by performing its albums Cryptograms, Microcastle, and Halcyon Digest in their entireties, and placing ATL outsiders Lonnie Holley and Hollow Stars alongside notable acts such as the Breeders, Steve Reich, Panda Bear, and more. Five albums in, Deerhunter has surpassed more music industry high points than most bands ever dream about. www.deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com. less...

The Adamsville rapper terrorizes like his childhood Jheri curl-wearing idols and inspires like his late grandmother, a civil rights activist. If you thought his 2012 opus “R.A.P. Music” was a timeless joint that transcended his dirty-but-conscious beginnings, this year’s return with EL-P as Run the Jewels cements the larger-than-life rapper’s permanent place in ATL history - “Every word murderful, surgical, painful, purposeful.” “www.twitter.com/KillerMikeGTO”. less...

We’re proud that Perry, Ga.-bred Ernest Greene has chosen our fair city as his new home base, ‘cause he’s such a fine Southern gentleman, but also because Washed Out is at the vanguard of a new musical age. Greene’s dreamy, disengaged music nods to our age of ephemera while subtly reproving it, an ever-shifting island in a miasmic sea of sensation. As for staying power, Greene’s newly minted record deal with industry stronghold Sub Pop only affirms what those who have witnessed Washed Out’s recent shows already know: This bedroom-pop blog darling has become quite the electro-fied entertainer. myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods.

Listen: Washed Out “Eyes Be Closed”

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Since GENTLEMAN JESSE dropped his debut 7-inch, “I Don’t Wanna Know,” back in ’06, Atlanta’s consummate power-pop innovator has exerted a sweeping influence over the collective consciousness of the city’s native rock scenes. The emphasis he places on the art of songwriting, and the quick, concise pop inflections he’s mastered rise above the common vernacular of garage slop and punk-rock jitters. While the rest of the city’s other bands have watched and followed, he continues to reach for a higher plane of musicianship. Whether performing as the right-hand man in the new Paul Collins Beat, or wielding a bass guitar in the Carbonas, a local music renaissance has fallen upon Atlanta, and much of it is at the hands of Gentleman Jesse Smith. www.myspace.com/gentlemanjesse. less...

It’s no surprise that 2007 is the year DEERHUNTER blew up. After all the attention the group received from sharing stages with the Liars, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Smashing Pumpkins over the last two years, it was inevitable. Deerhunter is a sneering local art-rock band with more talent, ambition and adventurous ideas than the Perimeter could contain. Where there was once erratic experimentation, primordial noise and lo-fi pop sensibilities, there is now order in the group’s songs — albeit the avant-garde variety, swimming in overdriven tones and distortion. And as the harbinger of cool culture, PitchforkMedia.com, trips over its own tongue to report Deerhunter’s every move, the rest of the country and beyond has learned what we already know: This music is world-class.

www.myspace.com/deerhunter

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