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The Show(case) Must Go On!

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PROJECT 12:01
NOMINATED IN DJ/DANCE/ELECTRONIC
7 P.M., THE CHURCH
When Melissa London was in high school, her parents hired a private vocal coach to help develop an already beautiful voice. A member of the choir who'd done some community theater, London was being groomed for a life on the boards. Things didn't turn out that way.

"My vocal coach had it in mind that I would go to Broadway and perform in Les Misérables," London says, laughing. "I said, 'Nah. I think I'll start a band instead.'"

It was a good choice: London, after all, is not the type to follow a script or sing someone else's songs. She's the lead vocalist, programmer and keyboardist for Project 12:01, an electronic combo she co-founded with Noel Johannes three years ago. A siren of a singer with a touch of goth romanticism, London has a stylistic and spiritual link to the Sisters of Mercy, Siouxie Sioux and the Cocteau Twins' Liz Frazier - artists she cites as influences on her vocal style as well as her songwriting. She and Johannes claim most songwriting credits, but new members (and brothers) Devin Connolly and Brendan Connolly have also made contributions to a new full-length album London hopes to release later this summer; the recording will follow Project 12:01's debut release, Time for a Taste.

"We've been progressing more into a band collaboration, and our sound is really beginning to evolve," London says of Project 12:01's ethereal pop. "We know that in order to try to make it in the industry, we've got to get a certain pop essence into our songs. We're consciously making an effort to attract labels. Otherwise, the band will just be a great, expensive hobby." -- Bond

THE RAILBENDERS
NOMINATED IN COUNTRY/BLUEGRASS/ROOTS
7 P.M., SERENGETI
Jim Dalton turns on his TV and sees the dilemma his band faces. "Rascal Flats?" he spits, watching the latest pop-act-in-country-disguise on Country Music Television. "God, this makes me cringe. We're nothing like the country you hear on the radio today."

Indeed, if Nashville's pop-saturated slop is your idea of great music, the Railbenders are too tough, too smart and too country for you. The Johnny Cash-style wonders created by the band (stand-up bassist Tyson Murray, drummer Graham Haworth, and pedal-steel player and part-time member Glenn Taylor) are hard-driving, beer-soaked tales that recall Cash, Waylon and Willie. Dalton's own gritty sensibility plays a big role as well.

The Railbenders' no-BS sound -- and brooding good looks and outlaw appeal -- has made the band the top-drawing alternative-country act in a town warming to the genre. "It's still an underground scene here," Dalton says, "but I think it'll only get better once people realize that what Denver has to offer is good, original country music."

The Railbenders are doing their part to speed that realization. The band has laid down tracks for its second CD, a thirteen-song collection that will see a fall release on local twang label Big Bender Records. (The disc's special guests will include the Supersuckers' Eddie Spaghetti.) In the meantime, Dalton will hold his stomach in the face of the crap country he sees on his television set. Like CMT favorite Emerson Drive, for instance: "I saw them the other day; I almost puked." -- Marty Jones

RAINVILLE
NOMINATED IN ROCK
RAINVILLE'S JOHN COMMON, WITH MARY BETH ABELLA
6 P.M., DAZZLE
With a sound as gritty and soulful as a pair of tar-stained overalls, the still-evolving foursome Rainville claims a diverse set of influences that range from classic rockers such as Led Zeppelin to little-known indie outfits like Wheat or Karate, from the Jayhawks to Neil Young. And while the group has worn the tag of alt-country well, things are changing.

"Our sonic path has altered a bit," confesses lead singer/songwriter John Common. "We started as an alt-country-type band, but now we're headed towards what I'll call American rock. It's not unlike what happened to Wilco. They started as an alt-country band, but now, if you listen to them, their sound is closer to indie rock. For us, it's the same kind of evolution."

The quartet has been working the local music scene for a little over four years and has two albums, Collecting Empties and The Longest Street in America, under its belt. Rainville is currently working on a new disc and enjoying its expansion into the rock realm.

"We still like song-oriented roots stuff, but we're getting a little more aggressive with our sound," Common says. "You're still gonna hear some of our old stuff when we play, but we've worked up a ton of new material. I don't want to keep making the same album. It's not that we're getting rid of our alt-country influence; it's more like we're making room for different styles." -- Hutchinson

ROGUE
NOMINATED IN HARD ROCK
Few Denver musicians can hold a candle to the work ethic of Rogue vocalist Bill Terrell. He makes hundreds of promo calls and puts up a minimum of 10,000 handbills for every show, all while juggling two jobs and a family (he's married with two kids) and managing affairs for the band and his own indie label, Infexious Recordz.

"If my band put as much into it as I do, they'd probably die," Terrell says, laughing. "I'm a workaholic, a severe workaholic."

A hard-hitting metal quartet, Rogue was born in 1996; the current lineup -- Terrell, guitarist John Bollack, drummer Devon Kimzey and bassist E.A. Schuster -- entrenched itself a year later. The band plays 100 shows a year and has opened for such metal icons as Megadeth, Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. The third Rogue Album, Rogue Nation, came out in 2002, and its release party set alcohol sales records at the Ogden Theatre. "Our friends are all dysfunctional alcoholics," notes Terrell.

Built like a cannonball and focused like a laser, Terrell studied opera in college but doesn't sing like it; vacillating between gruff, booming and emotive vocals, he eschews Dio-esque theatrics. His backing band is a metallic juggernaut -- fierce and raw, but technical.

"Success motivates the band," says Terrell. "I have a total fear of dying normal. I'm from a small town in Indiana" -- Terre Haute, where he might well be the second-most-famous former resident after basketball legend Larry Bird. And he's confident he's picked a style with staying power. "Metal will never die," he says. "I think it's coming back tenfold." -- Peterson

SISTA D
NOMINATED IN HIP-HOP
5 P.M., DAZZLE
When hip-hop first started to move west after germinating on the East Coast, Sista D was a preteen girl busting moves and breaking out beats with her friends on the 16th Street Mall.

"They called me Lady D back then," she says. "I was a rapper and I was a breakdancer. We were like the '80s version of the B-boys and B-girls. The boys were the Spin Masters, and I was the Spin Masterette.

"Music has always been part of my life," she adds. "If there was something going on musically in this city, I was there."

Two decades later, Sista D is still here. This month, she'll drop Rapstar, her second full-length album for the local production team Kut-N-Kru; it's her first release since 1999's Sista D in the Mile High City. Produced with her friend and DJ, Scratch G, the album is a hometown shout-out with plenty of Brown pride: One of Denver's only female Latin MCs, Sista D flows with the streetwise swagger and deft rhymes of one who's spent more than a few rounds in the game.

"I think the new album really shows the maturity in my music, that I'll be able to hang with the big boys in the rap industry," she says. "I listen to the radio and hear Lil' Kim, Trina and Foxy, and I think, 'I can give all of them a run for their money.' I hear 'em and it's like, 'I could do that. I do do that.'"

Rapstar coincides with the release of an as-yet-untitled compilation CD of works from other Kut-N-Kru artists; in Sista D's view, the double dose is proof that she's an MC who can lead the charge for Denver hip-hop.

"I see Denver grow. I used to walk the 20th Street viaduct with my mom; it isn't even the same now," she says. "I'm here to stay, and I've been here since the beginning. If anyone's gonna make a claim to fame in this town, it's gonna be me." -- Bond

SONS OF ARMAGEDDON
NOMINATED IN ECLECTIC
7 P.M., LA RUMBA
A nine-piece outfit that trades in "post-apocalyptic electro-jazz," the Sons of Armageddon blend a heady brew of trip-hop, acid jazz, porn-style funk and just about everything under the stylistic sun. First taking the stage in early 2002, the Sons "meld the organic and the inorganic," says Mark Prather, aka DoctorP, the band's drummer and production man.

After leading Denver's acid-jazz pioneers Groove Kitchen throughout much of the '90s, Prather took a few years off from performing to work in production and sound design. When the itch to gig struck again, he didn't want to take the beaten path; he wanted to blaze a new one. "I didn't want to be a DJ," he says. "I wanted that live jazz feel."

So he went on to recruit a veritable who's who of the Mile High City's jazz and funk scenes: keyboardist/bassist Geoff Cleveland of the Emergency Broadcast Players, the horn section from the Psychedelic Zombies, and other top players who man samplers and electric piano. The result evokes everything from Bootsy Collins-style funk to Zappa jazz with a sci-fi edge.

After gigging all over Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs, the Sons released their self-titled debut in January, swerving all over the place with such amusingly titled tracks as "Charlie's Angel Dust" and "Monk Meets the Addams Family."

Obviously, the band has a sense of humor. So what's with that sinister-sounding name? Prather explains that it's a political joke: In the band's collective eyes, George Bush Senior represents Armageddon, which means that George W. and his siblings are the Sons of Armageddon. Laughing, Prather says, "We had no idea how prophetic we were going to be." -- Peterson

SOUL THIEVES
NOMINATED IN ROCK
As ambitious purveyors of airtight groove rock with an occasional comedic edge, the Soul Thieves wander the Rocky Mountain region relentlessly, performing more than 200 gigs annually. In addition to touring the Midwest and Southwest in support of Microphone in the Sugar Bowl, the quintet still finds time to record humorous culture-based anthems such as "Red Wings Suck" -- which became an instant classic among crowds at the Pepsi Center.

"How do we explain the music?" asks singer/guitarist Michael St. James rhetorically. "It's butt-shakin', heartbreakin', love-makin' music. We really try to give the audience the full spectrum; from a great dance tune to a funny, tongue-in-cheek song, all the way to the affecting ballad. A lot of bands tend to categorize themselves and box themselves into a corner. It's like they feel that the heartfelt ballad will detract from the big-ass rock song. I guess we aren't afraid to give you everything."

St. James shares fronting duties with Greg Ferguson, with whom he has been singing for nearly fifteen years. During this lengthy stretch, the pair has honed its harmonies and arrived at two distinct styles. And the group boasts a rhythm section that any rocking ensemble would be proud to call its own: Dani Hofer-Harrison on bass and Jeff "The Hitman" Martin on drums.

"What sets this duo [Hofer-Harrison and Martin] apart is their gift for taking technical ability and turning it into amazing grooves and a solid backbone," offers lead guitarist Ryan Donely. "When these guys lock it in, you can't help but start dancing." -- Hutchinson

JILL STEVENSON
NOMINATED IN SINGER/SONGWRITER
Colorado native Jill Stevenson recently shook off the dust of Denver, packed up her acoustic guitar and left her band behind. She's currently pounding the pavement in New York City; her first gig in Babylon was at CBGB, the epicenter of the original punk-rock explosion. It's a bold move for a young player who's still one year away from being able to legally purchase a drink in the venues she plays.

"I started singing before I could talk, and I always remember loving music and making it," Stevenson says. "My mom is a pianist, and my father is a singer/songwriter/guitarist who taught me how to play by ear, although I think I just inherited that gene from him."

Stevenson's first full-length CD, Underway, highlights her relaxed, soulful and passionate style. A folk-flavored effort, the recording helped boost her profile among local listeners and other Denver-based players. She promises that those who miss her will see her again: Stevenson plans to continue working with drummer Matt Amundson and single-monikered bassist Tex when she comes back to visit her home town. "It's funny how things work out," says Stevenson, "but I will be coming back to Colorado as often as possible. I certainly won't leave my home and my loyal fans behind." -- Patrick Casey

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