So says the Boston Phoenix, an alt-weekly that chose to celebrate the nation’s most cacophonous holiday by selecting the best all-time band, solo artist and new artist in each of the 50 states. In fact, Truman Sparks is the only Charlottesville act that won big in Virginia: "All-time Best Solo Artist" went to Patsy "Crazy" Cline, while Virginia Beach beatmakers The Neptunes received "All-time Best Band," upsetting more obvious choices like DMB and Pavement.
Thing is, you can make pretty easy arguments for both The Neptunes and Cline—one is a hugely influential force in modern hip-hop, and the other sang "Walkin’ After Midnight" and had a tragic country singer’s early death. But the selection of Truman Sparks among all new and new-ish bands leaves a few questions, among them "How?" and "Why?" Because the strangest thing about this announcement is that it may be absolutely right.
Is Truman Sparks the best new band in the state? Leave your comments below.
My guess: Connectivity.
1. Truman Sparks has opened for a slew of fair to fantastic bands with strong critical reputations, among them Mogwai and The Constantines. And in the Internet screaming contests of MySpace and Facebook, who you know or have encountered matters. It’s like that essay Malcolm Gladwell wrote about an unassuming New York woman who is immensely powerful.
2. The Phoenix is an alt-weekly and so are we. Former staff writer John Ruscher rightly gave a lot of love to Truman Sparks’ semi-recent Gentle Laxative Demonstration EP. I’m not saying they read his review, but I wouldn’t doubt that one paper looks to a similar paper in a different market as a resource.
3. The Sparky’s Flaw example: Sparky’s Flaw exists in a pretty slim genre of inoffensive rock acts, and will probably only perform with other bands that sound like Sparky’s Flaw. Truman Sparks not only invented its own genre, but has spent a good deal of time writing songs uninhibited by a singular style or influence. As a result, "Truman Sparks" is more likely to come up in a conversation related to a wildly different band than Sparky’s Flaw.
Of course, the Web is littered with the bodies of bands that know how to hype themselves but make awful music. Maybe musicianship is the only common denominator for making decisions like this and The Phoenix really evaluated a slew of Virginia bands before settling on TS. So, you tell me—is Truman Sparks the best band in the state?