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The Show(case) Must Go On!

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It's been several years since the release of Late for School, the combo's most recent CD, and Buckner would like to put another recording in the can. In the meantime, though, he wants to perfect the act's blend of classic covers and finger-popping originals. "We might play straightahead jazz during our first set, and during the second set throw in some Maceo and funk and Latin and our own stuff," Buckner says. "It's like a good stew, man. We mix it up." -- Michael Roberts

CABARET DIOSA
NOMINATED IN ECLECTIC
David Sherman was born with a fairly ordinary name, and he lives in the 21st century -- but he doesn't let these troublesome details cramp his style. As Juan del Queso, self-proclaimed "minister of the New Mambo Revival and professional man of leisure," Sherman fronts Cabaret Diosa, which is less a band than an alternate worldview. As he puts it, "I never really know where the myth ends and the reality begins."

Life became a Cabaret in 1995, and since then, the collective has featured a rotating membership whose recruits receive an eccentric pseudonym just for joining; current players include lead singer Montana del Fuego, trumpeter/vocalist/percussionists Don Grandisimo de la Misconception and Dinkis Con Creama. (Dinkis, by the way, is Jon Gray, formerly with Fat Mama, a much-missed Boulder jazz/groove collective.) Thanks to flamboyant costumes, a refreshing love of theatricality and a stage demeanor borrowed from an earlier, snappier era, Cabaret Diosa instantly established itself as a live act par excellence. "We try to get our freak on, but we do it in the context of a 1950s big band," Sherman notes. "We use a lot of psychedelic rock influences, too -- and bastardize the hell out of everything."

Next up for the Diosans is a busy tour schedule that includes festival stops outside the state they're in -- whatever state that is. Also on tap is the recording of what Sherman describes as "a concept album called Apocalypso, which describes how the New Mambo Revival saves the world from destruction." After a purposeful pause, he adds, "It's semi-autobiographical."

Hope that means there's more myth and less reality. -- Roberts

CEPHALIC CARNAGE
NOMINATED IN HARD ROCK
6 P.M., SERENGETI
En route to a headlining slot at a festival in eastern Germany, the members of Cephalic Carnage made a little stopover in Amsterdam, land of the almighty hash bar. It allowed the self-proclaimed arbiters of "Rocky Mountain hydro-grind" a chance to test their THC tolerance before embarking on a full-fledged European tour later this year.

"Amsterdam was like a practice for what's ahead," says guitarist Zac. "We've got four shows coming up in Holland in October. Leonard [aka Lenzig, vocalist] and Steve [guitarist], they can take more than anyone else. The rest of us will be on the floor, and they're always coming up winners."

While some bandmates may excel in the pot-smoking arena, all four members of Cephalic Carnage have been coming up winners in recent years. A brutal blending of ass-breaking hardcore, metal math death jazz has earned the Denver-based quartet -- rounded out by drummer John -- a contract with Relapse Records, a festering following across the United States and abroad, and a confidence behind the wheel: In the past three years, the band has logged nearly 200,000 miles on the road, playing everything from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, to the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest. The group recently got off a headlining stint with the Contamination Tour, a nationwide multi-bill caravan that showcases Relapse artists.

Having first come together in Colorado in 1992, Cephalic Carnage is currently touring behind its latest full-length release, Lucid Interval; since its release in August 2002, the album has sold more than the band's two previous efforts, 1998's Conforming to Abnormality and 1999's Exploiting Dysfunction, combined. Zac credits the increased numbers to the band's non-stop gigging.

"We absolutely love it, and we get to play all these killer shows," he says. "That's the only way that we're ever going to sell records, unless we want to be stuck in this sub-cult subculture. But it does mean that we spend a lot of time away from home. That's the life that we chose. Let the tears fall where they may." -- Bond

CREIGHTON HOLLY TRIO
NOMINATED IN BLUES
Creighton Holly Trio did not respond to our requests for biographical materials.

THE CZARS
NOMINATED IN ROCK
7:30 P.M., ACOMA CENTER
Ask Czars bassist Chris Pearson what the controlling creative idea behind his band is, and you'll get dead silence as a reply. "Um. Uh. I think I'll have to pass on that one," he says. "No matter how I answer it, it'll make someone else in the band mad."

The Czars make tension sound ethereal, chemistry feel tender. Since 1994, the band -- Pearson, Roger Green, John Grant, Jeff Linsenmaier, Elin Palmer and Andy Monley -- has woven a ragged clutch of threads into an elegant sonic fabric. The members cite as personal influences everyone from Hall and Oates to John Zorn, Alice Coltrane to Ladytron. "If you asked each of us to pick a bunch of albums to take on the road, all six of us would show up with completely different albums," says Pearson.

Despite the players' eclectic backgrounds, the music of the Czars is unified and focused -- focused, that is, like a bleary eye through a lens of smoke and depression. On its four albums, including 2002's arresting The Ugly People vs. the Beautiful People, the group boils oceans of loss and regret into a vapor of swaying rhythms and billowing guitars -- not to mention the stratospheric sadness of Grant's vocals. The sound is as constricting and epic as that of Jeff Buckley or Low.

The Czars have garnered reams of critical applause over the years -- including a "Band of the Month" award in the prestigious British music journal Mojo -- and have toured America and Europe with the luminous likes of David Gray and the Flaming Lips. At work self-producing its fifth album, set for an early 2004 release, Pearson and his compatriots have weathered enough of the music industry's wrath and indifference to realize that the act of creation ultimately has to be its own reward.

"Being in this business is tough when you sell just enough albums to keep plugging along, but you don't make enough to be self-sufficient. We're stuck in that limbo between good and bad," he says with good-natured humility. "Maybe that's our creative aesthetic: We're mediocre enough to survive nine years together." One listen to the Czars and you'll realize just how humble he's being. ­ Heller

THE DEARLY BELOVED
NOMINATED IN BLUES
5 P.M., LA RUMBA
Down-and-dirty "hard wild" blues is a hallowed style not to be attempted by the meek. Fortunately, there's nothing meek about the Dearly Beloved, the all-female trio composed of guitarist/vocalist Jennifer Waters, guitarist/vocalist/bassist Whitney Rehr and drummer Laura Coleman. Having formed in Denver last year, the Dearly Beloved boasts one of the city's more power packed woman-centric combos: A longtime member of the local music scene, Rehr currently holds down frontwoman duties for Moonhead, Coleman keeps time for Backbone Velvet, and Waters toils as a solo artist.

In this incarnation, the players channel a rootsy kind of psychedelia that moves from slow-grooving and Morphine-esque to rocking and guitar heavy to playfully traditional. "Big Woman Shoes" is a gutbucket-style slice of the Delta that oozes sexuality and pro-femme stealth. (When played live, the song often ends in a rain of wayward footwear flung onto the stage by audience members.) Rehr and Waters seem like they were made to play together, despite the fact that their stage personas are so distinct: Rehr is wild, unhinged and dervish-like -- a fiery ying to Water's more controlled, tough and determined yang. They get the balance right. -- Bond

DEVOTCHKA
NOMINATED IN ECLECTIC
Impossible to pigeonhole, DeVotchKa has entranced a growing fan base across the Southwest with its unique melting pot of gypsy vaudeville, classical strings, polka, and hooks that sound as if they're barreling straight out of a spaghetti -- or possibly goulash -- Western soundtrack.

The band -- vocalist/guitarist/trumpeter Nick Urata, violinist/accordionist Tom Hagerman, drummer/trumpeter Shawn King and Jeanie Schroder, who plays the sousaphone and upright bass -- recently released its second album, titled Una Volta. Vacillating between haunting and ecstatic, the disc is a revelation, a fitting complement to the band's memorable live shows.

DeVotchKa recorded the CD at Wavelab Studios in downtown Tucson. "We'd wake up, get this awesome breakfast at this historic hotel [the Hotel Congress] and walk to this studio where you're surrounded by killer vintage instruments," recalls King. "Something really clicked; we made a record I'm super proud of."

Urata and company are currently touring the nation as the backup band for the traveling BurlesqueFest extravaganza, but touring Arizona and New Mexico with mariachi/indie-rock fusion act Calexico last year "was pretty epic for us," says King. "We started to hit it big in Arizona -- better than Colorado."

So is DeVotchKa planning to make like the Apples in Stereo and Slim Cessna and trade the Rockies for a change of scenery, in this case the saguaro-speckled desert? "I would love to move down there," answers King. "I really felt like we found home." But mention the triple-digit high temps that dominate Tucson summers, and King waffles. "We'll definitely have to do future recordings in the winter," he says. -- Peterson

DIALEKTIX
NOMINATED IN HIP-HOP
MCs Mest One and Jarvis, the frontmen of Dialektix, have come a long way since the hip-hop combo's formative days recording in the bedroom of Mest's apartment.

In the middle of recording the group's debut album, 2001's The Return of Sid Finch, Jarvis had to pawn one of the two keyboards the musicians had been using, cutting production in half. Then, during the recording of 2002's eponymous EP, their creativity was limited by the constraints of a meager budget and the studio's ticking clock.

Consequently, Dialektix has taken its time within the relaxed confines of its own studio, the Cracker Factory, for its next effort. "We were not pressured by studio time," says Mest. "When we're not flowing, we can take a break and revisit things later." Bolstered by the addition of DJ Destro, whom the MC refers to as "the best DJ in the state," and the confidence amassed from performing over one hundred shows in the past two years (with Atmosphere, Storm the Unpredictable, Black Sheep and Five Fingers of Funk, among others), the band has completed fourteen of sixteen tracks for the new album.

"Everything will be looser, but with a tighter sound on this album," offers Mest. "We're just trying to put together the best product we can, so we can hopefully generate enough cash to keep putting out album after album and tour."

According to Mest, southern Colorado, New Mexico and Texas are all on the itinerary in the near future. A return trip to Texas should be well received: Last year the act played a hip-hop showcase at Elements in Dallas to a packed house. Though the group has plans to take the show on the road, the players are far from making their mark on Denver. The local hip-hop scene, much like Dialektix, has come a long way since its formative years.

"Our fans are wide based, and our music is friendly and fun. People have been really supportive -- like Adict [host of Radio 1190's Basementalism] and the local promoters who keep bringing hip-hop artists to town," says Mest. "And the Denver scene is sick, but I wish it was just a little more organized. The cool thing is, though, everyone sounds opposite of each other." -- Herrera

D.O.R.K.
NOMINATED IN PUNK
9 P.M., SERENGETI
Dishing out radio-friendly bubblegum punk, the members of D.O.R.K. have ears for music and minds for business: In fact, guitarist/vocalist Bryan Knoebel just graduated with a finance degree from the University of Colorado at Denver. "And he can play the shit out of the guitar," notes bassist Donovan Welsh.

The year 2002 was a big one for D.O.R.K., and 2003 is shaping up pretty nicely, too. Last September, the band traveled to Los Angeles and recorded three songs with producer Geza X, whose client list includes Primus and Sonic Youth. "We were extremely excited," says Welsh. "But we were extremely intimidated to work with the multi-platinum producer, being a young band." D.O.R.K.'s members range in age from nineteen (guitarist Schuyler Ankele) to 25 (Welsh). For all but drummer Jimmy Blair -- Knoebel, Ankele, Welsh, and vocalist Dylan Martinez -- D.O.R.K. represents a first band experience.

Tunes like "Friday Night" ("The cops show up, everybody turns to run/Running from the police is half the fun") unapologetically target the pubescent, adolescent and I-refuse-to-grow-up demographics. "Most of our fans are kids...ages twelve to 25," says Welsh. "We did the bar scene here in Denver, and then we started doing all-ages shows, and our numbers started getting a lot better." The typical draw boomed from around 100 attendees to more than 500.

D.O.R.K. has just come off a West Coast tour that was capped by two weeks in an L.A. studio and plans to self-release its debut album in the fall, to coincide with a national tour. "We're this close to being full-time with it," says Welsh, holding his forefinger and thumb a quarter-inch apart.

What looks like an acronym actually stands for, well, just dork. "It's just to get you to ask," says Welsh. But D.O.R.K. is soliciting ideas from its fans. Talk about geek love. -- Peterson

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