Our Best of Nashville 2017 poll began last week with the Garage Rock category and after you-the-people cast your vote, we have the results to share with you!

Overall Poll winner (Jurors vote + Readers’ vote): The Saturns 

Readers’ Poll Winner (Readers’ Vote only): The Saturns 

The Saturns come at garage rock from a unique angle. Bringing in elements of classic rock and blues, they tow the line between the kind of heavy, pentatonic guitar style that characterized rock in the 60s and 70s and the fuzzy, lo-fi timbre so common to independent rock records that have come out Nashville’s basements for the past decade. They’ve mastered the art of displaying musicianship without the kind of braggadocio that too often ruins contemporary takes on classic rock. The songs are functional and refined. Nothing exists in them that doesn’t contribute to their overall structures, and even flashy instrumentals and solos act as integral building blocks. The composition is well planned despite feeling improvised, much in the same way retro rock bands like The Black Keys find fertile creative space in the peaks and valleys of blues bars, The Saturns take advantage of the variety and opportunity in every little flourish and riff of a song. 

Honorable mentions go to Thelma and The Sleaze (second in the overall chart) and Daddy Issues (second in the Reader’s poll). The full list of nominees can be found under the streaming tracks.

Here is the list of of all the finalists in the Nashville garage rock category and their readers’ poll results:

	Breast Massage		5%	4 votes
	Daddy Issues		9%	7 votes
	The Saturns		83%	59 votes
	Thelma and The Sleaze		1%	1 vote

Our Best of Nashville 2017 poll began last week with the Indie Rock/Pop category and after you-the-people cast your vote, we have the results to share with you!

Overall Poll winner (Jurors vote + Readers’ vote): Sun Seeker

Readers’ Poll Winner (Readers’ Vote only): Mom and Dad

Both of these artists offer a unique brand of indie rock. Mom and Dad concieve fuzzy rock n’ roll songs that are catchy enough to linger in your head long after you think you’re done with them. They fill a lo-fi, experimental sonic niche reminiscint of artists like Ty Segall, but structure their tunes in a way that emulates 60s pyscedelic pop hit makers like (ironically) The Mamas and The Papas. Both the heavy, garage rock fans and indie radio pop listeners have a friend in Mom and Dad, who don’t have any qualms with a catchy synth line or cutesie pop vocal hook, but love to create heavy sonic scapes with distorted guitars. They’re master dabblers who love swim in and out of different genre pools. 

Sun Seeker is a collective of local boys who give Nashville its much needed dose of alt-country rock. With simple beats, acoustic rhythm guitars and long, soaring pedal steel lines, they fill a somehow vacant space in the indie scene. Influeced by classics like Fleetwood Mac and Wilco, the songs are mature in their minimalism. Despite the band’s young age, they have enourmous talent in crafting beautiful, simple work that feels classic on the first listen. 

Honorable mentions go to Keeps (third in the overall chart) and The Pills (second in the Readers’ poll). The full list of nominees can be found under the streaming tracks.

Here is the list of all the finalists in the Nashville indie rock/pop category and their readers’ poll results: 

	ElEl		4%	3 votes
	Keeps		5%	4 votes
	Lylas		1%	1 vote
	Mom and Dad		76%	53 votes
	The Pills		8%	6 votes
	Sun Seeker		2%	2 votes

Don’t Wake Me Up is a body of work that both stimulates and soothes a musically curious mind. The songs are at once disarming and complex, blending a smooth, soulful voice with complex chord changes and playful, dancing melodies that skip lightly across the instrumentation of members of Nashville’s more seasoned neo jazz/funk/R&B/soul outfit, Dynamo. Hammel’s vocal talent is undeniable, with striking similarities to the vocal timbre of early St. Vincent records like Marry Me but with rounder edges that bring Nora Jones to mind. The overall complexity and combination of jazz, funk, and soul elements come together in these songs to form a masterful and cohesive piece that just makes sense to any appreciative listener. – Andrew Strader 

We stumbled upon this beautiful mesh of of lo-fi, psychedelic, garage rock, and country and couldn’t help sharing it. Carrots is an EP that draws on a whole plethora of genres and musical elements to craft something remarkably fresh. Groovy acoustic guitar rhtyhms draw on the retro psychedelic, folk rock traits of bands like T. Rex and The Brian Jonestown Masssacre while tiny tin-can, creepy, distorted vocals prove reminiscent of more recent lo-fi outfits like King Tuff. The songs periodically veer off into saccharine, psychedelic instrumentals, rising and falling into crescendos of reversed guitar riffs. It’s as if someone found a way to make jam bands less tiresome, indulging in the blissful potential of a guitar solo with enough taste to know when to bring it back home. There’s virtually nothing online about this guy. He’s got a facebook page with two likes and a bandcamp account, but with a first release like this, let’s hope we hear more from him soon. – Andrew Strader

Nothing produces high quality music quite like activism. Nashville psych rockers, Keeps, contributed to a compilation album released by Knoxville based label, Gezellig Records, from which all proceeds go to benefit the American Civil Liberties Union. Its roster contains a wide variety of artists, including indie favorites like Surfer Blood, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Mount Eerie, all coming together in support of an increasingly relevant and important organization. You can download the album on bandcamp or buy it straight from the Gezellig Records site and feel really good about it. – Andrew Strader

Vocalist and frontman, Greyson Anderson, briefly departs from the grungy conventions of the Nashville hard rock staple, Dogs of Oz, to cover a country classic. Though he stays true to the cathartic, sentimental characteristics of the tune, his heavier sonic influences can be detected. Playing and recording all the instruments himself, Anderson blends elements of his brand of Nashville garage/grunge with an unapologetic pop vocal sensibility. The video, featuring Anderson at a variety of locations aound Nashville, paints a picture of an unabashed young rocker willing to own an enthusiasm that might prove unsexy in a somtimes hyper-self-consciously hip rock scene. – Andrew Strader

Ahead of the March release of their new album "In Business," Nashville’s favorite landlocked surf rockers unveil a beachy, fuzz filled power pop tune sure to please both the garage rocker and easy listener. Big Surr refuses to be confined by a sonic niche. They dwell in the liminal space between the lo-fi, fuzzy, trashcan garage and sweet, breezy, reverb-soaked beach. "Sometimes" is no exception. The guitar hook structures and compliments an otherwise washy collage of smooth, atmospheric guitar swells, while Helen Van’s unassuming slacker vocals invite everyone in, disarming any skeptics with a charming, humble apathy. Big Surr’s releases are true gifts for independent music fans in Nashville, and they’ve got a lot more coming our way. You can preorder their album, out on 3/10, here. – Andrew Strader

BASECAMP offers an electronica that incorporates elements of chillwave, house, club music, and hip hop. Though often uptempo, it retains that jazzy subdued melody and structure you might find in a Flying Lotus track. Imagine Thundercat cut a record and had a young James Blake croon over it, and you understand the magic of BASECAMP. The production is crisp and clear, lacking the abrasive trappy sub bass that so often taints today’s electronica. The arrangments are complex enough to satisfy the music nerd, but not too esoteric so please the dancers and ravers. This group has something to offer everyone, so be sure to catch the their show or order their latest album, In Stone here. 

Up and comers in Butthole open up for Thelma and the Sleaze‘s intra-city tour documentary about playing 30 shows in 29 days at a series of surprise locations across Nashville. Butthole is a goofy, psychedelic, fuzz rock outfit that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Their tunes are a blend of charming, surfy, laid back Mac Demarco-esque attitude with just enough edge to be remiscent of female punk rockers from Patti Smith to Carrie Brownstein. The show, at Little Harpeth Brewing, starts at 9 PM on Friday night with a $10 cover that includes a limited edition Kandyland Vinyl.

– Andrew Strader

We talked a bit about Shanshala when the behemoth collaborative effort Creepier Than Family dropped early this year and we’ve been low-key creeping on those social media channels to see what would come next. Next has come, and it’s taken the form of the full-length Closed. It’s an eclectic album taking fruits from the disparate branches of the musical tree and coating them with a thick, hallucinatory goop that binds it all together. Highly recommended if you’re the kind of person who people have learned not to ask what kind of music they enjoy. –Austin Phy

With Tennessee Scum, a band isn’t just a band or a hobby. It certainly isn’t meant to be a cynical money machine, and I’m sure they’d have a few choice words for anyone with those aspirations. It’s about a message and a lifestyle, and every day in that life is a battle. At least that’s the message on "War Zone," the latest single off the soon-to-be-released What A Drag. "War Zone" is classic Scum, a quick burner with plenty of weight regardless, but the new album is definitely an evolution in a more refined direction. Make no mistake, there’s no less fury to be found. The sound is just more focused; it’s sharper around the edges and all the more deadly for it. 

Keep an eye on the band’s Facebook page for new track postings daily and don’t miss them at Foobar for the album release show on July 30 with Ebony Eyes, Roman Polanki’s Baby, and Hans Condor. -Austin Phy  

Sometimes in the summer heat all you can do is fight fire with fire, and fire is exactly what you’ll find on V, the latest from instrumental soul-psych wizards Magic in Threes. The band sits back and lets the beats speak for themselves as features from DeRobert, Tujarzz, and Wally Clark take center stage. There’s a heavy dose of 90’s East Coast hip hop powering the whole affair, but over-indulgence isn’t a problem. V is produced to a golden crisp and brings its influences into a totally modern context. –Austin Phy