Best Art Museum

Williams College Museum of Art

Williamstown, Mass.

The museum at Williams College stands out for its breadth of exhibition offerings, which routinely feature everything from samples of its permanent collection by Old World and American masters to cutting-edge art by contemporary stand-outs.

Best New Art Gallery

Davis & Hall Gallery

362 1/2 Warren St., Hudson

From the pristine space of the front gallery, with its gleaming hardwood floors, to the courtyard and carriage-house gallery in back, this is an imaginatively conceived new home for visual art. There’s definitely a focus on the unusal in the exhibitions held here; the main showroom typically features paintings, while the courtyard and carriage house often display sculpture.

Best Hands-On Arts Center

The Arts Center of the Capital Region

265 River St., Troy

Without a doubt, the most comprehensive and state-of-the-art facility of its kind in our area. Painting, drawing, ceramics and jewelry-making studios are just the tip of the iceberg at this brand-spanking new locale, where budding artists can try their hand at any number of disciplines through the center’s class offerings.

Best Multimedia Art Experience

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

87 Marshall St., North Adams, Mass.

“Impressive” is the best word for describing this rehabbed old factory that’s now a world-class, funky, mecca for the arts. The gallery spaces are vast and varied; the performance spaces range from rooftops to courtyards to conventional stages. But what’s even better are the offerings—exhibits or works by contemporary masters, dance and music concerts, dance parties and new-media extravaganzas. It seems the possibilities are endless. And a big bonus: Mass MoCA put some life back into downtown North Adams, as restaurants and shops have sprung up to cater to the tourists the museum brings to town. (photograph by Martin Benjamin)

Best Artist

William B. Schade

William B. Schade is a rarity. He’s an artist who exhibits expertise in every medium he employs. Whether he’s working with hand-stitched muslin to making sculptures or drawing and painting on handmade paper, and whether he’s making large or small works, he consistently excels. Better yet, his work is engaging, humorous, childlike and intelligent. He’s one of the few artists who makes us want to read all the writing he scrawls onto some of his whimsical creations.

Best Activist Arts Organization

Time & Space Limited

434 Columbia St., Hudson

In a world where arts organizations try to stay above the fray for fear of offending benefactors, the folks at TSL—founders Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce—are all about getting into the thick of it, whether by joining forces with community activists to take a stand on tough issues or presenting politically charged and socially conscious art that makes us question the way things are.

Best Roadside Art

Taconic Sculpture

Stever Hill Road, Spencertown

There’s a spot along the Taconic, not far out of Albany, where, if you look up at just the right moment, you can glimpse Roy Kanwit’s monolithic sculptures, which are scattered atop the hill he calls home. A 20-foot-tall, three-ton face looks out at the roadway, with a slew of large half-women keeping it company. A closer look reveals sculptures of all shapes and sizes scattered throughout a 30-acre field that abuts the sculptor’s hand-built fieldstone home. Call ahead, and you may get a private tour.

Best Bad Art (Group Effort)

Sculpture in the Streets

Downtown Albany

Every year at about this time, the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District plunks down a cool $40,000 to rent these godawful, “lifelike” statues of hokey folks hanging out in downtown Albany. Even if the “aw shucks” quality of this particular artform appealed to us, we’d be sick of it by now, because we’ve seen it for for three years in a row. Enough is enough!

Best Bad Art (Individual Achievement)

Statue of Guy Dropping Rag into Wastebasket

Sculpture in the Streets, Downtown Albany

Where are the Bad Taste Police when you need them? One of the aforementioned Sculpture in the Streets statues depicts a portly, mustached gentleman in a rumpled, gray suit dropping a rag into a wastebasket. Is this art? Couldn’t we have opted for those cute cow statues that are all the rage in every other city in America?

Best Equity Theater Company (Summer)

Berkshire Theatre Festival

Now in her third year as producing director, Kate Maguire has gathered a top-flight group of directors, designers and actors, all of whom share her sense of perfection and her artistic vision of theater as a place to enlighten as well as entertain. The production values are consistently excellent; the choices of material are challenging and include a refreshing array of new works that are among the best in the area.

Best Equity Theater Company (Year-Round)

Capitol Repertory Company

The crowd-pleasing musicals are nicely done, but the serious fare (Nora) is a welcome relief.

Best Community-Theater Troupe

Albany Civic Theater

From an original musical to middle-brow comedies to popular chestnuts, A.C.T. offered the most variety in community theater programming.

Best Theater Company (Educational)

New York State Theatre Institute

Schacht Fine Arts Center Theatre, Russell Sage College, Troy

Other theaters have educational programs (and some for rather suspect purposes, such as qualifying for grants), but NYSTI was founded with a mission to bring the best theater possible to young audiences. Every year, the teacher-artists mount shows with production values that other companies only reserve for their adult audiences, and they find exciting ways to make their shows relevant to the classroom—all at ridiculously affordable prices that should put some others to shame.

Honorable Mentions: Berkshire Theatre Festival; The Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Greylock Program.

Best Theater Venue

Unicorn Theatre

Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, Mass.

The intimacy of the comfortable Unicorn, with its superb sightlines and intelligently leveled stadium seating, makes it a place that one looks forward to visiting without any anxiety about getting a good seat. There also is a choice of stimulating material and a stage that is flexible enough to accommodate virtually any show.

Best Eclectic Theater

The Egg

Empire State Plaza, Albany

From professional touring improv to one-person shows, from touring theater productions to musical revues, the Egg has been a standout this season.

Best Community-Theater Venue

Steamer No. 10 Theatre

From its original children’s theater to Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, from recitals to acoustic sets, the eclectic Steamer No. 10 offers diversity like no other venue in the region. In fact, 173 productions took place there last season.

Best Actor

Richard Easton

Without resorting to tricks, Easton combines the clean craft of a classically trained actor with a visceral quality that makes his every performance heartfelt. In the past year, he has given five memorable, peerless performances: Casanova in the WTF’s Camino Real, King Pellinore and Merlin in the BTF’s Camelot and the double roles of a grandfather and his rival in the WTF’s Ancestral Voices. Three of the roles were men who maintained a certain dignity while their statures were compromised, and Easton found three very different ways, ranging from comic to near-tragic, to attack the problem.

Best actress

Susan Preiss

She shows up in various venues and consistently gives believable performances, even in otherwise mediocre productions (Six Degrees of Separation at Albany Civic Theatre, for example).

Best Director

Eric Hill

Hill’s work at the BTF is among the most stimulating and inventive to be found anywhere. Last year, he gave us a Moby Dick: Rehearsed that conjured up gales, whales and the greatest white of all time on a stage that constantly kept reinventing itself; this year, he brought a new, arresting vision to Camelot and restored the dignity, charm and grace to what had become a cumbersome spectacle. Whatever he does, he guarantees intelligence, vitality, and, quite likely, a bit of sorcery.

Best Ballet Company

Albany Berkshire Ballet

OK, everyone is familiar enough with this troupe’s take on the hackneyed holiday favorite, The Nutcracker. But where this company really shines is with the works from its repertoire, as we saw during its summer 1999 season, which featured a few shows at UAlbany as an aside to a more extensive calendar in Pittsfield, Mass. We only wish there were enough support to sustain more such performances, especially in the Capital Region proper.

Best Modern Dance Company

Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company

Not much competition in this field, but Sinopoli and her dancers get the nod this year for boldly conquering new territory and being, well, crazy enough to risk their necks in the name of art with their site-specific work, Beating a Path, which was staged before sold-out audiences in a vacant storefront in downtown Troy and featured a moveable stage set created by architect Frances Bronet and her students from RPI. (photograph by Joe Putrock)

Best Author

Penny Perkins

How’s this for nerve? In mid-1999, Albany graphic designer Penny Perkins conjured a hilarious novel about a real-life Y2K bug—a super-intelligent cockroach who travels from the future to 1999 and describes how insects took over the world after the Y2K computer crash—then printed it herself when publishing houses said it was too late for a Y2K book. Even better, Bob Bridges: An Apocalyptic Fable was far more than just timely fare; the witty sci-fi farce is filled with touching human details, thought-provoking philosophizing and trippy fantasy.

Best Movie Theater

Spectrum 7 Theatres

290 Delaware Ave., Albany

We’re still crazy about the Spectrum after all these years, because where else in the area can a cinephile pay a reasonable ticket price, get popcorn slathered with real butter, and enjoy the latest indie or foreign film? The Spectrum smartly programs a steady stream of Hollywood blockbusters to subsidize their more adventurous booking, and we’ll love them as long as they keep offering movies about addiction, alternative lifestyles and other burning social issues. (Props, too, for the recent addition of chocolate-and-mint brownies . . . yum!)

Best Second-Run Movie Theater

Proctor’s Theatre

432 State St., Schenectady

This grand dame of theaters just gets better with age. Proctor’s opulent interior has been beautifully refurbished with one important modification: It now has air-conditioning. More proof that Proctor’s takes its gilded past seriously are the ticket prices—two dollars, three for the balcony. Popcorn and soda? Even less.

Best Film Series

New York State Writers Institute Classic Film Series

Classic-film programming is such a dying art that even New York City boasts only a handful of repertory houses, yet every year the New York State Writers Institute launches a sophisticated series of free screenings and guest appearances. (In recent months, the screenwriter of Election and novelist Elmore Leonard, to name two luminaries, visited Albany under the series’ auspices.) By presenting free movies at UAlbany’s spacious Page Hall, the series offers ideal entertainment for an ideal price at an ideal location.

Best Filmmaker

Jack Abele

It takes chutzpah to put your own money into a feature film with no guarantee that anyone will want to see it when it’s done, and it takes even more chutzpah to build such a project around an understated character story about loneliness and connection. Because homebuilder Jack Abele did both of these things as the writer-
producer-director-star of The Only One, which premiered earlier this summer after a torturously long postproduction period, he gets our nod as the local auteur with the boldest independent spirit.

Best Resource for Local Filmmakers

Upstate Independents

Because founder Mike Camoin is stepping down later this year from his post as president, we’re anxious to see how this 100-member-strong organization will grow under new leadership. The accessible group provides a crucial forum in which area artists can discuss their cinematic aspirations and adventures, and has an open-door policy that welcomes neophytes as well as professionals.

Best Band

The Wait

It’s been a breakthrough kind of year for the Wait, as the popular quintet issued a superb debut album, got three different songs onto regional radio and offered consistently polished, intense concerts before an ever-more-enthusiastic fan base. We don’t know where these things will take the Wait—but we know that right here, right now, nobody can hold a candle to them. (photograph by Joe Putrock)

Best New Band

The Kamikaze Hearts

We haven’t heard a fresher, more unified sound this year than that made by singer-guitarist Troy Pohl, singer-drummer Gavin Richard, mandolinist Matt Loiacono and bassist T. Malachi. As the Kamikaze Hearts, these soulful musicians brew acoustified rock & roll magic that blends sharp but offbeat songwriting, rootsy instrumentation and quirky harmonies—and their collective vibe is so loose that whether you catch them on a good night or a bad one, you’ll get the same groovy mix of spontaneity, enthusiasm and nervous energy.

Best Live Band

Arc

Jack Nemier is the very Spirit of Onstage Charisma made flesh—and in Chris Osborn, Dave DeMott and Andy Hearn, he’s found a trio of musicians who play so hard and so tight and so beautifully that Jack can just focus on being Jack, which is a very good thing indeed. And did we mention consistent? Catch ’em every Monday night at Valentine’s if you need proof.

Best Pop Band

The Orange

Infectious pop doesn’t come any fresher than the indie-spirited ditties squeezed out by this audience-
friendly quintet. The college-age faves recently expanded their fan base; they were signed to Trinity Booking Group, who sent the band on a tour of New England. The Orange also are considering a slew of offers from indie record labels.

Best Rock Band

Small Axe

Every Small Axe show includes someone shouting, screaming, dancing, stripping, twirling, hurling, bumping, grinding by someone else who’s gotten out of control while doing so themselves. Great fun, in other words, as is the home version of the Small Axe game: Their CDs provide the perfect rock for whatever sex and drugs you plan to explore.

Best Hard-Rock Band

The Bruise Bros.

This Latham-based quartet started out swingcore, but quickly burst through the limitations of the genre to produce a snazzy metallic amalgam that sizzles just as powerfully as it sledgehammers; in the process, they were taken on by high-powered Upper Cut Management. Vegas, the Mike Hammer-inspired front man, is arguably the best lyricist in town (and inarguably the most sinister crooner), expounding on the experiences of the modern male with film-noirish élan.

Best Hardcore Band

One King Down

The Capital Region’s venerable straightedge quintet went through three singers over the course of three albums, then broke up just as their last full-length disc was topping CMJ College Music Monthly’s metal charts. But they’re back now—and absence appears to have made many hearts grow fonder of the things this group does, including maybe the group’s members themselves.

Best Punk Band

The Nogoodnix

The die-hardest of punk impresarios, Duane Beer (Plaid, Trauma School Dropouts) has reinvented this stalwart genre once again—the new Nogoodnix hark back to punk’s roots in British pub rock, with a nod to the traditional Irish anthems that came before that. But be warned: If you want to sing along with Beer, you’ll need a powerhouse baritone and a hilarious Irish accent.

Best Death-Metal Band

Skinless

They’re so far underground that corpses have to be planted face down to see them, but in their own necrotic circles, Skinless are truly the bomb. Or maybe they’re just the carnage left after the bomb was dropped—it’s hard to tell with music this powerful and unsettling. It’s a good thing they tour nationally, ’cause that gives us time to recover between local shows.

Best Prog Band

Acoustic Trauma

String-master Paul Maceli has added mandolin to his battery of things that go twang, and the group’s forthcoming third elpee goes heavy on the violin—but it’s Maceli’s world-class, Steve Howe-style acoustic-lead-guitar work that continues to define modern prog as it could, would, should be played. This is not your father’s Rick Wakeman.

Best Acoustic Band

The McKrells

Still touring harder than just about anyone else in the area, this bluegrass-Celtic-folk combo fronted by singer-guitarist Kevin McKrell are a local treasure who continually produce spirited recordings and present ferocious live shows.

Best Alt-Country Band

Carbondale Shafts

We’re stealthily annexing Oneonta for this category, but as singer-guitarist Wayne Carrington and guitarist Brian Wilkens are both ex-Subduing Mara—whom we always considered our own—we feel fully justified. In this new project, they’ve softened the rock with more traditional folk and bluegrass elements, but have retained the melodicism, intensity and heart of their previous outfit. Add to this mix the solid bass rhythms and high Carter Family-style harmonies of Rebecca Carrington, and you’ve got music that is as provocative, poetic and relevant as it is comforting and recognizable.

Best Retro Band

Rocky Velvet

This young rockablilly foursome just keep getting better, although their hair has lost some collective height; when they play with abandon to their adoring fans one could feel lost in a time warp. Rocky Velvet are a band you can bring home to meet your parents—just don’t let them sing their own version of “Red Hot” or any of their own euphemism-laced originals. Ma and Pa just might take offense.

Best Post-Toastie Jam Band

Jocamo

Most jam bands do scruffy-beard-world-music-lite-noodle-dancing music. Big Dave Macks and his band go the other way—George Clinton is their Jerry Garcia, and their oeuvre is filled with hammer-down, take-no-prisoners party-funk.

Best Latin Band

Alex Torres y Los Reyes Latinos

This year found the pride of Amsterico digging deeper into the jazz vein, and getting serious national attention, including major airplay in New York and Miami. And with a killer double-CD on the way, 2000 may be the breakout year we’ve all been waiting for.

Best Big Band

Empire Jazz Band

With two great CDs in the past year and a bunch of brilliant and wildly eclectic live performances, Dr. Bill Meckley’s horde of swingin’ dudes takes the cake.

Best Side Project

Holiday Ramblers

Oh, those Ominous Seapods. First they suck us in with their own infectious, jam-band grooviness. Now several of their members—Dana Monteith, Todd Pasternack and Tom Pirozzi—have gone off and created another hip, jammin’ side project called the Holiday Ramblers, and we’re hooked again. It’s not quite the hippie-esque jam-fest that is a Seapods show, bur rather a chance for these guys to showcase their individual talents. And of course, their shows are outrageously obnoxious, spontaneous and funny—we’ll spare you the sordid details of how the boys once dared drunken male audience members to prove their manliness with some spicy chicken-wing sauce—so even if you’re not into the whole jam-band thing, you’re bound to have a good time, despite yourself.

Best Band Name

Lincoln Money Shot

This brilliantly evocative cut-up nails the American obsession with sex, death and hero worship in a way infinitely more subtle, and therefore more enjoyable, than such blatant attempts as the Dead Kennedys. If William Burroughs had been in a band, it would have been this one.

Best Worst Band Name

Two Broads With a Lotta Sound

So brilliantly awful it leaves us speechless. We have to know how this name came about. Call us.

Best Singer-Songwriter

Mike Barron

MP3.com describes Mike Barron’s particular brand of songwriting as “fun lyrics about sex and hell.” While this is an apt description of his songwriting, it doesn’t do justice to the acrimonious, caustic and oh-so-captivating noise-rock that is Barron’s live show. Armed with nothing but an electric guitar and a distortion pedal, Barron sucks you into his torment, feeds your scorned and insecure inner child, and spits you out feeling strangely gratified and craving more—sort of like S&M, but with music.

Best Folk Performer

Rosanne Raneri

Blessed with a colossal voice, a boisterous performance style and the sunniest persona in local music, Raneri has fans drooling for her sophomore release, Parhelion, which is due this fall after a long, long wait. Expect the disc to showcase the introspective songs and explosive singing that have made her a favorite among fans and fellow musicians alike for the last several years.

Honorable Mentions: Meg Hutchinson. Fresh from a performance at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the soulful singer-songwriter from the Berkshires is poised for a national breakthrough.

Best Anti-Folk Performer

Paddy Kilrain

What does “Best Anti-Folk Artist” mean? It means that Paddy Kilrain sings and plays acoustic guitar all by herself, and she doesn’t bore us to tears while she does it. Quite the opposite, in fact, as this wee small fiery and feisty slip of a human being packs a huge, titanic, important sound that leaves us thoughtful for days every time we see her. Anti-Dull, for sure.

Best Male Vocalist

Johnny Rabb, D. J. Miller (tie)

Great voices are born and made, and these two vocalists—regional rockabilly king Rabb and Small Axe-man Miller—are not only naturally gifted, but consummate craftsmen as well. Rabb, a pitch-perfect traditionalist, can rouse rabble with his rebel yodel, then leave crowds misty-eyed with his bluesy warble. On the other end of the spectrum, Miller’s mind-bending, octave-warping baritone can send unwary listeners on an intergalactic head trip.

Best Female Vocalist

Siobhán Quinn

The world is filled with technically great singers who lack soul, and heartfelt singers who lack technique, so it’s rare to encounter a vocalist whose ability to express emotion matches her jaw-dropping control. Siobhán Quinn is that rare singer, and she excels at blues, folk, rock and whatever other genre she samples, roaring or gliding through songs with elegance and power. Whether singing alone or blending her voice with that of her equally talented partner, Ben Murray, Quinn constantly proves that she’s got one of the most supple instruments in the region.

Best Electric Guitarist

Mitch Elrod

Mitch Elrod uses his guitar less as a euphemistic “axe” than as a lightning rod. Though he lacks nothing in ability, Elrod plays more from inspiration than from rote technique. His spiritual explorations are given voice and definition by the guitar, but his desire to chart the frontiers drives him past predictability and 12–bar rut.

Honorable Mentions: Super 400’s guitarist Kenny Hohman continues to knock us out with the soulfulness and the fluid lyricism of his fretwork.

Best Acoustic Guitarist

Maria Zemantauski

A true student of her instrument, Maria Zemantauski continues to build her repertoire by studying the masters—then takes what she learns and extrapolates, creating blindingly creative original work in the process. The disconcerting thing about what she’s doing? She gets better every time we see her. One day, she’s just gonna make our heads explode.

Best Bassist

Brendan Slater

Brendan Slater proves that a bass player in a rock band can and should be something more than the third-worst guitar player in the group. He’s also the Midas of bass in these parts, as everything he’s touched (Subduing Mara, the VodkaSonics, and now the Clay People) has been golden—at least while he held it in his very-able hands.

Best Percussionist

Brian Melick

Whether playing with the McKrells, doing pickup gigs with local musicians or spreading the joy of rhythm through such projects as his drum-instruction videos, Melick lends tasteful nuances, intense propulsion and consummate musicianship to everything he does.

Best Drummer

Dan Dinsmore

We know some drummers who play fast and some drummers who play hard and some drummers with great technical proficiency and some drummers with an innate touch and sense for rhythm. And we know Dan Dinsmore, who displays all of those traits while serving as the dynamo behind the Clay People’s well-oiled, high-powered machine.

Best Saxophonist

Nick Brignola

Duh.

Best Pianist

Adrian Cohen

To call him a jazz pianist probably doesn’t do Cohen justice because, really, he does it all—from tickling the ivories at Capital Repertory Company to solo jazz endeavors to piano lunches at Savannah’s to his current stint manning the keyboards for local party band the Burners U.K. We especially liked his work when he was spearheading a weekly jazz trio at the Yorkstone Pub in downtown Albany; unfortunately, the Yorkstone is now defunct and so is Cohen’s jazz project. But we look forward to hearing more from this young, undersung, hardworking pianist.

Best Jazz

Savannah’s Monday Nights

Every Monday night, a loose confederacy of musicians assembles behind guitarist George Muscatello in the dark, comfortable interior of Savannah’s: Danny Whelchel, Dave Calarco, Brian Patneaude, Steve Lambert, Tim Reyes, Steve Candlen, Adrian Cohen, Eric Johnson . . . the list goes on. In the freewheeling and supportive environment, the players experiment with both lineup and repertoire (you’re as likely to hear hard fusion improvs as “Caravan”), trying out any number of hyphenated sub-genres: jazz-rock, jazz-funk, jazz-hip-hop, and so on. It’s a constantly evolving environment that reminds you that jazz is not only the hummable stuff played at your sister’s wedding.

Best Musical Multitasker

Matt Loiacono

Drummer Matt Loiacono’s responsibilities keeping the beat behind Paddy Kilrain, Bryan Thomas and George Muscatello might alone qualify him for the work-ethic award, but factor in his full-time gig on mandolin and backing vocals with new local faves the Kamikaze Hearts—as well as his occasional forays into the solo singer-songwriter spotlight—and you’ve got a shoo-in. We haven’t yet seen him perform songs from his impressive limited-run release Eye Scream, but his killer slack-rock cover of Britney Spears’ “One More Time” keeps us from nitpicking.

Best Musical Director

Mark Emanation

There are good reasons why Ernie Williams & the Wildcats are named after their seasoned front man, but we think the band owes its longevity and consistency to electric-guitarist Mark Emanatian. As the group’s bandleader and spokesman, he makes sure this local institution doesn’t grow stagnant or lose momentum; as the Wildcats’ most incendiary player, he fills his solos with soul and precision.

Best Freakout(Highbrow)

Bone Oil

Guitarist Tom Burre, bassist George Muscatello and drummer Todd Hinman combine a mindbending blend of styles and techniques in their presentation of Burre’s compositions: Free-jazz tangents, slow-swinging Latin lounge, and vicious metal squall are shot through with Beat poetry, wry observational humor and political outrage to produce the Bone Oil sound. The influence of Frank Zappa is readily apparent, but so too is that of Mr. Bungle, Gil Scot-Heron, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Rage Against the Machine and David Torn. This is heady music for headbangers.

Best Freakout (Lowbrow)

Beef

There’s only one thing funner’n swallowing malt liquor, paint and sweet codeine while watching Sanford and Son on video with Johnny Cash dubbed onto the soundtrack—and that’s listening to Beef scream about doing those things themselves.

Best Freakout (Meister Bräu)

The Lawn Sausages

While the world may never know just who put the “ram” in the “ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong,” the Sausages could definitely make a case for putting the “ding-dong” there.

Best Jason Martin

Jason Martin

We were unable to categorize Mr. Martin. And our attempt to create a Best Singer-Songwriter-Bandleader-Multimedia Artist-Creative Genius category seemed too limiting—we just couldn’t narrow it down. Let us just say that what Martin does in the fields of experimental and pop music, video and computer images—and whatever else he puts his mind to—he does with such originality and character that we feel grateful he shares his art with us.

Best Record Label

Cacophone

“Kickin’ Your Punk Ass” is the motto of this attitudinal Albany label, and they’ve got the primitive rock & roll goods to back it up. This year’s releases include primo slabs from the Lustre Kings and the turbo-charged Frampton Brothers; the hotly anticipated CD debut of Rocky Velvet is coming soon. We especially like the kitschy, B-movie-style art direction—where do they find those mondo hotrods and brazen pin-up girls?

Best Online Music Resource

C.R.U.M.B.S.

For a full and always updated list of area bands and other musical resources, C.R.U.M.B.S.—Capital Region Unofficial Musicians and Band Site—can’t be beat. This site, www.crumbs.net, has a new featured artist every month, band Web-site information, a jukebox section with MP3 downloads and RealAudio streams, a huge links section—which includes venues, music stores and more band Web sites—a calendar of events, a forum for musicians at which musicians can chat, yadda yadda yadda. We love and refer to it often.

Best On-Air Music Resource

Sounding Board

Fridays at 8 PM, Time Warner Cable Channel 9

We’ve lost count of how many new faces we’ve discovered via Sounding Board—and who knows how many times we’ve thrilled to seeing fave bands broaden their audience by stepping in front of the program’s cameras—so we’re hopeful that this local-music showcase is on its way to becoming an area institution.

Best Club (Booking)

Valentine’s

17 New Scotland Ave., Albany

OK, so it’s not the swankiest joint in town, but if you’re more interested in what’s onstage than where to park your beer or your butt, this is the place. Over the past year, owners Howe Glassman and Mary Kay Connors showcased the diverse talents of Warren Zevon, Run-DMC, Murphy’s Law, Mike Watt, Superdrag and Tony Levin, to name just a few, as well as providing a home for local music of all denominations. Now if only we could prevent the return of Hank, the Angry Drunken Dwarf . . .

Best Club (Ambience)

Positively 4th Street

87 Fourth St., Troy

This is just a fun club to be in, and even more so when there’s live music. With its rathskellar-like ambience and eclectic booking policy—you never know what you might stumble upon, but chances are you’ll like it—you’re surrounded by coziness as soon as you descend from the sidewalk to get in the door. It’s Troy, but it could just as well be Hamburg. And, who knows, that band you’re kinda diggin’ while you’re swiggin’ might be the next big thing.

Best Indoor Music Venue (Tie)

Pepsi Arena

51 S. Pearl St., Albany

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

State and Second Streets, Troy

We adore the Troy Music Hall for all the familiar reasons—great history, great acoustics, great sophisticated vibe—but we acknowledge that we’ll never see AC/DC or Bruce Springsteen perform there. For that reason, we’re also giving a nod to the Pepsi Arena, which consistently offers great sound and clear sightlines for massive national tours. But for intimate shows by folk, pop, jazz and classical acts, there’s no beating the Hall’s gorgeous ambience.

Best Outdoor Concert Venue (Urban)

Agnes Macdonald Music Haven Stage

Central Park, Schenectady

A giant shell facing a chair-and-blanket friendly hill, this welcoming performance space has all the features necessary to accommodate nationally touring artists and such supple acoustics that folk acts sound as good there as large bands. The stage’s fab location makes it an oasis in the middle of Schenectady, and the terrific free concerts programmed at the stage all summer make it a regular haunt for music fans.

Best Outdoor Concert Venue (Rural)

Tanglewood

Lenox, Mass.

The natural surroundings are as majestic as the symphonies performed by the Seiji Ozawa-led Boston Symphony Orchestra. And while sitting inside the shed close to the stage is a real treat, there’s also nothing quite like a starry evening on a blanket out on the lawn. Wine, baguette, cheese and significant other are optional—they’d all make nice accompaniments, but the music and the setting alone are magical enough.

Best Dance Club

The Power Company

Find your way to the back room of the Power Company, and you’ll experience the area’s wildest variety of dance music (from techno to two-step) and dancers (gay, straight and in-between). On Wednesdays, the checkered floor heats up with a mix of alternative and house; every other Thursday, urban cowboys mosey over for line-dancing lessons and a hoedown; on Fridays, darkness falls for Reverence, where the dress-in-black crowd writhes in ecstasy to goth, industrial and new wave; Saturdays get en vogue with a gay rave party. And although we dearly miss those chic banquettes, we still love the lounge-style layout.

readers’ poll results

Best Theater Group

1. Capital Rep

2. Park Playhouse

3. New York State Theater Institute

Best Dance Troupe

1. Ellen Sinopoli

2. EBA

Best Visual Artist

1. Michael ACE Russo

2. Joe Bonarrigo

Best Filmmaker

1. Joe & Dan Mascucci

2. John Sayles

Best Author

1. William Kennedy

2. Kit Haines

Best Local Band

1. The Refrigerators

2. The Lawn Sausages

3. Burners UK

Best Solo Musician

1. John Brodeur

2. Paddy Kilrain

Best Music Venue

1. Valentine’s

2. SPAC

3. Northern Lights

Best Dance Club

1. Jillian’s

2. The Fuze Box

3. Studio 64

Best Movie Theater

1. Spectrum 7

2. Crossgates

3. Norma Jean

Best Art Gallery

1. Albany Center Galleries

2. Fulton Street

3. Albany Institute

Best Classical Music Ensemble

1. Albany Symphony

2. NYS Youth Orchestra