Music of the Year

Nikal Fieldz is our Hip-hop Artist of the Year. (Credit: Rich Paprocki file photo)

Local Song of the Year: Nate In Public’s ‘Moon’

(Determined by fan/reader votes through our MySpace page: www.myspace.com/rocinsider)

At first it creeps up on you with subtle, ambient sounds. But Nate In Public’s “Moon” thumps as hard as anything released by a local band this year. It eventually builds into a heavy onslaught that even Coheed and Cambria would be proud of.

Lead singer Billy Beck, and his blood-curdling scream, milks the heavy drums and snarling guitars for all they’re worth. “Moon” is as much mesmerizing as it is haunting.

www.myspace.com/nateinpublic

Breakout Band of the Year: The Hoodies

In 2008, Greece rock band The Hoodies grew up. Just two years ago singer Dan Armbruster, guitarist Joey Morinelli, bassist Brandon Desormeaux and bassist Paul Brenner were nothing more than a group of guys begging to be heard. In 2008, they sold out nearly every local show they played, at venues such as Water Street Music Hall and The Penny Arcade, and spent this past summer recording demos with producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World; Blink 182) in Los Angeles.

But perhaps the true indication of how successful this year was for The Hoodies lies in the fact that the band’s songs were all over MTV’s stable of popular reality shows, such as The Real World and Paris Hilton’s My New BFF. If it’s good enough for Paris, it’s good enough for us.

www.myspace.com/thehoodies

Hip-Hop Artist of the Year: Nikal Fieldz

Whether you love him or hate him (and he’d be the first to tell you he welcomes both), you can’t deny the ambition of a man who refuses to fail. For the past 12 months, Nikal Fieldz (real name Nick McGuinn) talked the talk and, for the most part, walked the walk.

He opened shows for Lil Wayne and Ludacris, was featured on BET’s Rap City and won the award for “Song of the Year” at the 2008 Underground Music Awards in New York City. In typical Fieldz fashion, he did it the hard way, winning the award for his most controversial song to date, “Racist.” In more ways than one, Fieldz is Rochester’s version of Eminem — the most hated-on of all those who get hated on. And something tells us he wouldn’t have it any other way.

www.myspace.com/nikalfieldz

'Local Show’ picks

WBER host Sloan Kristy, who knows as much about local music as anyone these days, hit us up with a countdown of her top 10 local music acts of 2008:

1. The Noise, On Vinyl (www.myspace.com/thenoiseonvinyl)

2. Alpha Centaur (www.myspace.com/alphacentaur)

3. One MM/Sec 1 mm/sec. (www.myspace.com/onemillimeter)

4. The Instruments Band (www.myspace.com/weareinstruments)

5. Walri (www.myspace.com/walrimusic)

6. Julia Nunes (http://www.junumusic.com/ or www.myspace.com/jaaaaaaa)

7. Khalil (www.myspace.com/khalilismusic)

8. Mikey Jukebox (www.myspace.com/mikeyjukebox)

9. Ju-Jajuba (www.myspace.com/jujajuba)

10. Nate In Public (www.myspace.com/nateinpublic)


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