Hard to believe, but the fuse for the Best Music Poll Awards show is running short and the scene is ready to blow up May 7, at the Asylum, when everybody who’s anybody gets together to hear the results and party down with the likes of Roy Davis and Sara Cox (how’s that for a star-studded collaboration?), Labseven, Dominic and the Lucid, DJ Graymatter, and maybe even a certain perennial winner of the Best Male Vocalist category.
But who’s going to win? That’s the question on everyone’s lips. Luckily, the vote-counters don’t give me the heads-up about winners, so I’m free to speculate along with the rest of you. Thus, in the spirit of the seemingly never-ending Presidential Tote Board elsewhere on this page, I give you the BMP Tote Board, handicapping the big categories — because who doesn’t like reducing real life to betting lines?
Best new act
Daro 4-1
Highway Jackson 13-2
Honey Clouds 12-1
Man-Witch 25-1
Rattlesnakes 25-1
Chris Teret 50-1
Daro lead the pack here by virtue of their connections with Cambiata, whose rabid fanbase will likely transfer its votes here. Punks may not vote in stuff like this, so Man-Witch and Rattlesnakes have an uphill climb. Highway Jackson, with a solid rock base, has an outside chance.
Best male vocalist
Dave Gutter 1-2
Pete Kilpatrick 2-1
Jonny Balzano-Brookes 4-1
Dominic Lavoie 4-1
Chriss Sutherland 20-1
Micah Blue Smaldone 25-1
Though this has the potential to be a hugely competitive category, I’d never put money on anyone but Gutter in this category. He sort of never loses. Still, Kilpatrick, Balzano-Brookes, and Lavoie all have big computer-savvy fanbases. An upset here is not impossible.
Best female vocalist
Emilia Dahlin 2-1
Sontiago 3-1
Cruella 7-1
dilly dilly 12-1
Colleen Kinsella 12-1
Jaye Drew 19-1
Dahlin isn’t quite the lock Gutter is, but she’s got a great pedigree in the BMP. If Sontiago can cross over far enough with the girl-power set, however, she could take this.
Best local act
Rustic Overtones 1-2
Cambiata 2-1
Covered in Bees 10-1
Cult Maze 15-1
Fire on Fire 15-1
Samuel James 50-1
This will be the category to watch if you’re curious about the future of the Portland music scene. Have we officially returned to the past, where Rustic Overtones have never lost this category if they’ve been nominated, or is the future now, where Cambiata are ready to assume their place at the top of the heap?
