Best of Atlanta 2009

It’s just like Ponyboy Curtis said when he laid that Robert Frost poem on Johnny in The Outsiders: “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” When it comes to pomp and pretense, Atlanta’s music scenes have long since popped that cherry. From Buckhead to Bankhead, we’ve been known to ball till we fall. But many of this year’s After Dark Critics Picks share a thread of another color — they’ve chosen the less traveled road to riches.

Be it a transplant MC who’s garnered underground buzz without dropping mixtape the first, or a homegrown DIY label busily spawning the city’s next generation of errant rock, there’s something pure and full of expectancy about this moment in time.

With all the overexposure our city gets for pumping out commercially successful, somewhat disposable pop, it’s refreshing to take note of the burgeoning scenes and rising talent reimagining Atlanta’s musical identity. Indeed, we’ve got plenty to celebrate. And it ain’t trickin’ if you got it.

— Rodney Carmichael