Music Awards: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Stay

• Smaller is better. Less competition means more space for creativity and collaboration. Identifying the key players and then networking is fairly easy.

• San Francisco remains riddled with misfits. You and your band can get as weird as you want to be.

• Proximity to Northern Cali means weed is cheaper.

• San Francisco's great network of small- and medium-sized venues continues to support local bands. Add in the constant flux of warehouses, basements, and galleries, and there are plenty of places to play.

• Late-night postgig Mission burritos.

•Different music festivals promote local acts on practically a monthly basis.

Go

• Bigger is better. More competition means more creativity, cross-pollination, and opportunity.

• The scene often operates like a high school clique. If you can't penetrate tightly guarded social circles, you just might be shit out of luck.

• Every Bay Area jazz club would fit on one block in Brooklyn. Every Bay Area rock club would fit on the next two blocks.

• San Francisco's cost of living is already ridiculous, but factor in paying for equipment and practice space on top of sky-high rents and overpriced food, and the city isn't exactly artist-friendly.

• People nationwide don't pay attention to our local media the way they do to outlets in New York and Los Angeles.

• Look at the Bay Area bands that have "blown up" over the past decade: Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind, Train, Trapt ... yikes. (Punk rockers can point to Green Day and AFI. E-40 gets props outside the Bay, but the hyphy movement went nowhere and the rest of the rap world just steals our lingo and gets paid.)

Music Awards Feature

Music Awards intro by Jennifer Maerz

Music Awards: Lazer Sword by Shawn Reynaldo

Music Awards: Crown City Rockers by Ezra Gale

Music Awards: Jukebox Roundtable by Dan Strachota

Music Awards Program Guide

Music Awards intro by Jennifer Maerz

Music Awards program guide