Westword Music Showcase 2006

Personnel: Erica Brown (vocals); Scott Rivera (drums, vocals); Rich Sallee (bass, vocals); Jim Ayers (keyboard, organ, vocals); and a stellar cast of star guitarists!

Releases/Discography: Body Work (2000); Rough Cut Stone (2003). We have a new CD in the works.

Describe your music in a sentence: If blues is whatcha need, we got a lil' somethin' fo' ya' a*#!

Do you think you can make it out of Denver? Anywhere Greyhound goes...

What's your ideal of "making it"? Candlelight, soft music...oh, wait -- making it! Well, touring, recording, playing in front of thousands...no, wait, we're doing that already...shoot! Guess we've made it! Ha!!

What local artist(s) are you most excited about? All of them!

What albums have had the biggest impact on you? You'd get a different answer from every one of us!

What artists have had the biggest impact on you? Ditto!

Myspace: godsend or the devil? We haven't had time to delve into myspace much -- even though we started a profile that we haven't finished!

Do you have an iPod? I don't -- don't know about the guys, so I can't answer this question!

FIVE STYLE FIST
NOMINATED IN HIP-HOP -- GROUP
9 P.M., VINYL ROOFTOP

Website: www.fivestylefist.com

Native or transplant? Native.

Releases/discography: Five Style Fist (2002); Ambient Frequencies (2003); Left Right in the Middle (2005).

Describe your music in a sentence: Five Style Fist makes you feel sexy on the inside.

Do you think you can make it out of Denver? Not sure we want to make it out. Denver just seems like the best place to be.

What's your idea of "making it"? When everywhere you go, everyone knows the words to your songs.

What local artist(s) are you most excited about? P-Nuckle, Boondok Saints, Optimal Frequency and the Life Crew. These are the bands and artists that have supported FSF from the beginning.

What albums have had the biggest impact on you? This could go on forever, but how about: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik; System of a Down, Mezmerize and Hypnotize; the Roots, Things Fall Apart; Incubus, Science; and most 311 albums.

What artists have had the biggest impact on you? Five Style Fist has a really wide scope of influences, but we would have to say that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, 311, Tool, Incubus, the Roots and System of a Down have had the most impact on the band as a whole.

Myspace: godsend or the devil? Best free promotional tool we have found.

Do you have an iPod? If so, who's on it right now? RHCP, Stadium Arcadium.

FLOBOTS
NOMINATED IN HIP-HOP -- GROUP
4 P.M., OUTDOOR STAGE

Website: www.myspace.com/flobots

(Note: This survey was completed by Jonny 5 on behalf of, but without the approval of, the other Flobots.)

Name: The name of our band is "the Flobots" or just "Flobots" for short. No "w."

Personnel: Brer Rabbit (vocals); Jonny 5 (vocals); Andy Guerrero (guitar, vocals); Mackenzie Roberts (viola); Kenny Ortiz (drums); Joe Ferrone (trumpet); Jesse Walker (bass).

Native or transplant? As a band, we are natives. As individuals, we are also natives. So I guess the answer is yes. Except we think the trumpet player is from Chicago.

Releases/discography: The Flobots crew has existed since time began in the spring of 1996. We reached bandhood in January 2005 and birthed an EP nine months later. We named it Flobots Present...Platypus. We thought that was a pretty good name.

Describe your music in a sentence: Seven strangers living in a band, that stop being nice and start getting real -- and then you get to find out what happens.

Do you think you can make it out of Denver? One thing a band really needs in order to make it out of Denver is gasoline. This is the single most important factor. In our case, because there are seven of us, we will need a lot of gasoline. And we'll have to ration it carefully -- one gallon per person, per day.

What's your idea of "making it"? When I think of "making it," I think, "I Want to Make It With You," by Bread, because the Flobots also want to make it with you, and we also want to make bread. We want enough bread that we can spend all our time making music like Bread did. Also, a lot of times, at restaurants, you can just eat the bread, and it's free, and that's a good way to save money.

What local artist(s) are you most excited about? Ed Stein, Mike Keefe, Galen Shoe.

What albums have had the biggest impact on you? Albums thrown at me.

What artists have had the biggest impact on you? It was actually just the case, though. I think it might have been one of Eminem's pre-"I don't-care-about-the-listener" albums. My roommate threw it at me because he thought I was awake, and it hit me in the eyelid.