The period of time covered in voting for the 2009 TAMMIES was May 1, 2008, through April 30, 2009. Here's a look back at some significant events from that time span.
May 2008
The Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association presents the 23rd annual Tucson Folk Festival, featuring more than 100 acts, including a slew of local artists and national headliners Marley's Ghost, Ruthie Foster and Billy Jonas.
Metallica is signed to headline KFMA Day, then drops out when the station announces the band's appearance too early. Lars and the boys reconsider and wind up playing the festival after all.
Renowned blues guitarist and member of the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame Danny Rhodes passes away.
Notable releases: Flagrante Delicto; Piss and Ink; gHosTcOw, Vistas; Michael P., Hungry Like a Hound Dog; the Hounds, Bonafied; the Distortionists, Coloring the Distortionists EP; Amy Rude, Heartbeast; Crossing Sarnoff, Lessons From the Soul.
June 2008
After a decade of hosting Locals Only, the local-music radio show he founded, on KXCI FM 91.3, Don Jennings passes the torch to "Dr. Dan" Twelker. Jennings is feted with his farewell wish: an acoustic performance by Chango Malo.
Golden Boots give collector scum everywhere hard-ons by releasing a 12" that merges two of the band's EPs, Coyote Deathbed Surprise and EV. Side A plays from the inside-out, while Side B has double grooves that run parallel, which means that the songs you hear depend on where you lay the needle down.
Notable release: Blue Collar Criminals, Kindred Spirits and Unheard Cries.
July 2008
Founded by current and former UA students, Worry Dolls Records releases Everyone! Everyone! Everyone!, a local compilation CD featuring songs from ... music video?, Young Mothers, Feel Good Revolution and many others.
Synth-punks Digital Leather release Sorcerer, a half-live, half-studio album, on Memphis' Goner Records.
Notable releases: Tongue Dried Sun, Zero Hour; A Breath Before Surfacing, Death Is Swallowed in Victory.
August 2008
The unofficial cultural-exchange program and all-around love-fest between Nantes, France, and Tucson results in the "Some French Friends: From Ouest to West, Nantes in Tucson" festival, which pairs local acts—including Al Foul, Golden Boots, the Solace Bros. and Jeff Grubic—with French ones, including French Cowboy, Katerine, Françoiz Breut, François Ripoche, Dominique A, The French Tourist and Papier Tigre.
The Tucson Weekly's 15th annual TAMMIES ceremony/show is held at the Rialto Theatre. Big winners include the Wyatts (Band/Musician of the Year), the Dusty Buskers (Up-and-Coming Artists of the Year) and Mostly Bears (Best New Release). The Sand Rubies are inducted into the TAMMIES Tucson Music Hall of Fame.
Neko Case and Crooked Fingers perform at a benefit show at the Rialto Theatre for Tucson's Greyhound Adoption League.
The Fourth Annual HoCo Festival starts at Hotel Congress, featuring more than 40 touring bands—Meat Puppets, the Devil Makes Three and Centro-Matic among them—and local acts, including Blackwood and Co., Howe Gelb, the Deludes and Al Perry.
Mel Mason, host of KXCI's The Road Show (and a Weekly contributor), organizes the third annual No More Homeless Animals Day concert, which is held at the Udall Park Amphitheater and includes performances by Courtney Robbins, Serpe, Jeremy Michael Cashman and the Hounds.
Mostly Bears win the third round of the 2008 Zig Zag Live competition, netting them a prize package worth $30,000.
Notable releases: Kevin Pakulis and Larry Lee Lerma, self-titled; the Fell City Shouts, Music Is Medisin EP; Tom Walbank, Sugarmama (vinyl-only LP); the American Black Lung, Good Vibrations 7".
September 2008
Giant Sand releases proVISIONS on their new label, Yep Roc Records.
Calexico releases Carried to Dust on Quarterstick Records. It will go on to be voted the Best New Release in the 2009 TAMMIES. Along with Jimmy Eat World's Jim Adkins and Mariachi Luz de Luna, they perform at a fundraiser for U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at the Rialto Theatre.
Clay Walker headlines the KIIM Country Music Festival at Tucson Electric Park.
Tracy Shedd releases TAMMIES finalist Cigarettes and Smoke Machines on Teenbeat Records.
The second annual Shorty Stubbs Memorial Concert, which includes performances by the Last Call Girls, the Cochise County All-Stars and the Determined Luddites, takes place at The Hut.
Pennywise headlines KFMA Day at Tucson Electric Park. Other performers include Atreyu and Atmosphere.
Notable releases: Bricktop, Born to Brawl; AV, BeLIEve Me; Greg Morton, When Pigs Fly; Evil Fudd, self-titled; Marianne Dissard, L'Entredeux; Rich Hopkins and Lisa Novak, Loveland; Molehill Orkestrah, Language of Bones.
October 2008
The Tucson Film and Music Festival, which combines live performances from local and national acts with screenings of movies such as Nerdcore for Life, Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Slide Guitar Ride—a documentary about Tucson native Bob Log III—takes place at venues all over town.
Chicago-based punk-rock marching band Mucca Pazza headlines the Weekly's Fall Club Crawl®, which features more than 80 acts.
Frankie Bones headlines Dub Crawl, Tucson's first electronic-music festival. The event takes place at a number of downtown venues and is the inaugural event at the new Centro Lounge.
The Southern Arizona Blues Heritage Foundation presents the Blues Heritage Festival, a day-long affair at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park that includes performances by the likes of Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys, Stefan George and the Grams and Krieger Band.
Notable release: Jo Wilkinson and Grains of Sand, self-titled.
November 2008
Community radio station KXCI FM 91.3 celebrates its 25th anniversary with a series of events including the Local Folk for Local Folk concert, an Al Perry-hosted surf-rock concert at El Casino Ballroom, and a guest DJ stint each Tuesday for a month at (Weekly contributor) Carl Hanni's Scratchy Records at The Red Room at Grill.
Rich Hopkins holds the seventh annual Casa Maria Thanksgiving Benefit, which raises funds for the local soup kitchen, at Club Congress. Performers include the Jons, Leila Lopez, Triple Double Band and Hopkins' Luminarios.
Notable releases: Gaza Strip, All About the Lincolns; the Kate Becker Project, self-titled; Ash to Dust, Circle of Death.
December 2008
The 11th annual Great Cover-Up, which benefits the Tucson Artists and Musicians Health Alliance (and which I help organize), is held at Club Congress over three consecutive nights. About 25 bands, including Spacefish, ... music video?, the Static Session, and Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout, perform tribute sets to acts like Michael Jackson, Flight of the Conchords and Cheap Trick. The event also marks the debut of Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta, who perform an homage to mambo king Perez Prado. They quickly rise to become one of the biggest draws in local music and win 2009 TAMMIES honors for Up-and-Coming Artist of the Year.
KXCI FM 91.3 broadcasts its annual Sonic Solstice holiday show, in which local musicians, including Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl, Namoli Brennet, Space Over Desert and Caliche Con Carne, perform live holiday songs, old and new.
Calexico performs at its annual year-end benefit for KXCI at the Rialto Theatre, along with special guest Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta.
Notable releases: the Dusty Buskers, The Life and Times Of ... ; the Silver Thread Trio, self-titled.
January 2009
Almost 1,000 people show up at Whole Foods when Tool singer Maynard James Keenan makes an appearance to sign bottles of his Arizona Stronghold wine.
Over two nights at Club Congress, Chris Holiman hosts his longstanding, annual Wooden Ball; performers include Sunday Afternoon, Nick Luca, Marianne Dissard, Cheepness and Fish Karma. Proceeds are donated to the Tucson Community Food Bank and its Community Food Security Center.
Bluesman and former Tucsonan Sam Taylor passes away in Islandia, N.Y., at the age of 74. His former violin player Heather Hardy hosts a tribute show at Boondocks Lounge that includes other musicians who played with Taylor, including Marx Loeb, Danny Krieger and Sabra Faulk. Another tribute occurs in February.
Golden Boots release The Winter of Our Discotheque, their second album for Park the Van Records.
Other notable releases: Jeremy Michael Cashman, Spine; Mariachi Static, self-titled; J. Daniel Twelker, Recycled Love; Sleeping Violet, Holding Back.
February 2009
The 17th Street Band, which features legendary bassist Harvey Brooks as well as Tom Walbank, Arthur Migliazza, Darryl Roles and Tom Kusian, releases its debut album, Positively 17th Street.
The fifth annual Tucson Gem and Jam, a three-night festival that coincides with the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show and features performances by national acts (Ghostland Observatory, Prefuse 73, Greyboy Allstars, Mad Professor) and locals (Corbin Dooley, ... music video?), is held at the Rialto Theatre and Plush.
Sunday Afternoon drummer Ryan Janac organizes Bands for Breasts, a three-night (and one-day) local music festival that takes place at The Hut and boasts about 25 bands, including La Cerca, Love Mound, the Holy Rolling Empire, Planet Jam and The Tryst. Some of the proceeds go toward treatment for Janac's mother, and the rest go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Local percussionist Will Clipman's album Pathfinder is nominated for, but does not win, the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Idella, The Kingsfoil, Monterey, Soñar, Steff Koeppen and We Draw the Tide are the finalists in the annual Arizona Daily Star Battle of the Bands for high school students, at the Rialto Theatre. Monterey takes home the grand prize.
The Tucson Weekly celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Notable releases: Space Over Desert, Stjukshon EP; Rosano Bros. Virtual Quartet, Live at Dante's House; a Stands With Fists DVD.
March 2009
Two years later than they expected, the Holy Rolling Empire finally release Gigantis, the group's long-delayed debut full-length album.
Tucson native and comedian Craig Gass records a comedy special and companion live album at the Rialto Theatre.
West by Southwest, a music festival that takes place intermittently over several weeks at Solar Culture Gallery, Plush and Club Congress, piggybacks on bands traveling to and from the South by Southwest music conference in Austin. It features acts such as Viva Voce, Telekinesis, Rafter, Say Hi, Delta Spirit, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Bishop Allen, Marnie Stern, Crystal Antlers, Monotonix and Jason Lytle.
Tucson resident Neko Case releases Middle Cyclone, recorded largely at Wavelab Studio with Craig Schumacher, on ANTI- Records. It peaks at no. 2 on the Billboard albums chart, just below U2. Case moves to a farm in Vermont around the time of the album's release.
Other notable releases: Tony Redhouse, Deep Within; Blackwood and Co., Bald as Love.
April 2009
After recording intermittently for three years with big-time producer Ross Hogarth, Ryanhood celebrates the release of The World Awaits with a near-sold-out show at the Rialto Theatre. They debut a new song, "Will You Teach Us to Dance, Ellen?" which Ellen DeGeneres later tweets about. Ryanhood goes on to become 2009 TAMMIES Band/Musician of the Year.
Al Perry releases The Three Track Sessions EP, recorded with legendary engineer Jack Miller on the same 1957 recorder used for Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser."
The second Dub Crawl event takes place at Hotel Congress and Maynards.
M. Ward and Rootz Underground headline the Weekly's Spring Club Crawl®, which features about 100 acts scattered across stages and venues on Fourth Avenue and downtown.
The Black Lips and TAMMIES finalist Mike Superhero perform at Zia Records on Speedway Boulevard for national Record Store Day.
Bret Michaels and Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are among the acts taking the stage at the Pima County Fair.
Tucson resident and veteran jazz saxophonist Bud Shank passes away two weeks before a scheduled performance as part of the Tucson Jazz Society's Jazz Under the Stars series.
The Provocative Whites begin selling promo copies of their Steve Albini-recorded album EVOLYM, since they're short on cash to manufacture the album.
Nearly 32 years after the last concert held there, Jay-Z, Kelly Clarkson, Third Eye Blind, the Veronicas and Ryanhood perform at Arizona Stadium, thanks to UA student-body president Tommy Bruce. The show loses nearly a million dollars.
Korn headlines KFMA Day at Tucson Electric Park. In 2009.
The Tucson International Mariachi Conference features the return of a very special guest: Linda Ronstadt performs at the conference for the first time in 13 years.
Notable releases: Cathy Rivers, Gloom Cookie; the Runaway Five, Raygunomics; the Monitors, Two; 8 Minutes to Burn, Giant Master Control Knob; the Besmirchers, Besmirch and Destroy; Eb's Camp Cookin', Plain Green Wrapper.
