Best Local Male Vocalist
Best Local Live Show

Mark Sandman, Morphine

Smoke Implosion Sometimes, as in the romance-noir "Thursday" or the shaggy-dog story "Empty Box," it's all deadpan cool with a wry edge that can make even a large clubful of people feel as if they're in on some sly joke. Other times -- on moodier tunes like "You Look Like Rain" -- it's a soulful croon connecting the dots between the swamp and the city, deep rural blues and urbane cocktail jazz, generating a different sort of intimacy. And occasionally it's full of hedonistic bluster, as on the mature party anthem "Early to Bed." But it's always deep, languid, and a little smoky -- the perfect finishing touch to the spare yet robust combination of two-string slide bass, baritone sax, and drums that has become Morphine's ingeniously unique calling card. It's been said countless times, but nobody ever expected Mark Sandman, who had previously played low-end guitar in the RCA-signed Treat Her Right, to move much beyond weeknights at the Plough and Stars or upstairs at the Middle East with a no-guitar band like Morphine -- especially in the guitar-dominated atmosphere of 1992, when Good came out on the local Accurate/Distortion label. But six years, countless gigs, and a DreamWorks deal later -- with Sandman, saxist Dana Colley, and drummer Billy Conway currently working on their next DreamWorks CD -- it seems natural to find Sandman's unmistakable voice on film soundtracks, TV shows, and H.O.R.D.E. tours, and to see him beating out Lou Barlow, Bill Janovitz, and new-kid-in-town Rivers Cuomo (of Weezer fame) in the Best Local Male Vocalist category. And natural is also probably the best word to describe the instinctive interaction of the band on-stage, whether they're playing a secret show for friends upstairs at the Middle East, headlining a big room like Avalon, or gigging outdoors at the Central Square World's Fair. Which is more than enough reason to explain their triumph in this year's poll over more theatrical acts like the Upper Crust, Amazing Royal Crowns, and Elevator Drops in the Live Show category.

-- Matt Ashare