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Best Goth Night

Disintegration

Club Boca might not seem like much when you first walk in, but it's the ideal spot for a goth night. Then again, it could also work for an opium den or a high school makeout party. Dark, moody and decked out with plenty of couches, it's the type of place where engaging in heavy petting is almost a prerequisite. For those who'd rather kick back and embrace their inner vampire, however, DJ Slave1 and her crew darken things up with sinister tunes from vintage goth, new wave and industrial acts such as Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Tones on Tail, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb, among others. And for the clove-smokers, Boca has a covered patio that's perfect for some aroma therapy.

Best Jazz Club

Dazzle

Mark Payler
Going strong for a decade now, Dazzle has become synonymous with jazz in the Mile High City. Whether the club is spotlighting dynamic local talent like weekly residents Ralph Sharon, Rehka Ohal and Pat Bianchi or showcasing internationally renowned artists such as Slide Hampton, Richie Cole and Bob Dorough, the club is bursting at the seams every night of the week. Owner Donald Rossa has worked tirelessly to create what has consistently been recognized as the ultimate destination for jazz lovers -- not just by Westword, but by Downbeat magazine, which has once again hailed Dazzle as one of the 100 best jazz clubs in the world. Anyone who's been there can tell you that the accolades are well-deserved. Plus, Dazzle has a great menu and a killer happy hour. Best jazz club in Denver? This one's a no-brainer.

Best Jazz Jam

The Meadowlark

Evan Semón
Joshua Trinidad has a handle on jazz. As host of the Thursday-night Jazz Odyssey show on KUVO, the guy regularly gives spins to cats like David Murray, Matthew Shipp and the Bad Plus. The inventive trumpeter and his Sputter bandmate, drummer David Kurtz, have teamed up as Cougar Legs to host Monday-night jam sessions at the Meadowlark, in which like-minded players come down to improvise together. Monk and Dizzy once turned Minton's Playhouse on New York's 52nd Street into a bebop laboratory, and the Meadowlark just might be the Denver equivalent. It's the type of place where cats who've never met can vibe off each other in an exploratory setting. The jam has grown by word of mouth over the past few months, even attracting non-jazz-centric players.

Best All-Comers Jam

Tantrums Jam

As if musicians needed another reason not to make it into work. The Tantrums Jam, hosted each Wednesday night at Kokopelli's by Tempa Singer and her Tantrums bandmates, has become the mid-week gathering place for local players to get loaded and get down. While guitarists currently make up a majority of the jammers, a fair share of drummers, bassists and singers also make it out for the impromptu performances. So whether you're itchin' to unleash your pipes on jump-blues cuts like "Caldonia" or jonesin' to shred on tunes like "The Sky Is Crying," there's bound to be someone who's willing to throw down. And if that weren't enough to entice you, catching an eyeful (and earful) of the fiery Singer should seal the deal. The stunning homegrown diva has shared the stage with legends like B.B. King and Jeff Beck -- and she might share it with you, if you've got the chops.

Best Drummer Jam

Denver Drum Collective

The drummer is the backbone of a band, holding everything together, and the Denver Drum Collective wants to make that spine stronger. Think of it as a chiropractic session for any drummer interested in sharing ideas and gaining new skills. The DDC has already brought legends Stanton Moore and Zoro to the Walnut Room for clinics, and future events are in the works. DDC also welcomes bass players, guitarists and anyone else to stop by and feel the beat.

Best Jam Flashback

Colorado '88

Hard to believe, but as recently as nineteen years ago, very few of the ski bums negotiating the slopes of Aspen and Telluride gave a damn about Phish. Hence, some of the mountain-town club gigs documented on Colorado '88, a three-CD set available at www.jemprecords.com, were attended by fewer than ten people, as is obvious by the paucity of clapping at the conclusion of epic jams like "The Curtain With" and "You Enjoy Myself." Despite the small crowds, though, Trey Anastasio and his fellows exhibit so much youthful exuberance that even Phish haters may find themselves grudgingly giving props. Throughout, the sound is much better than typical '80s bootleg quality, and the liner notes, complete with a shot of the players mugging beside the rustic road sign that marks the state's border, will spur instant nostalgia among local fans -- not to mention regret that they missed these shows the first time around.

Best Recording Studio

8 Houses Down

In punk-rock years, 8 Houses Down is like a dinosaur. The recording studio, headed by engineers Jeff Merkel and Matt Van Leuvan, has been a staple in the underground scene for over a decade. Its client list reads like the index to a scenester yearbook, with such alumni as Planes Mistaken for Stars, Pinhead Circus, the Gamits and a long, long list of others. Just about every notable punk/hardcore band that has ever called the Mile High City home has banged out a couple of tracks at the 8 Houses studio at one time or another. With a recent move from its longtime digs in Five Points to a shiny new space on Walnut Street, 8 Houses shows no signs of going extinct anytime in the near future.

Best Record Label

Needlepoint Records

Needlepoint Records is less of a label than a collective of bands and friends working together to produce top-notch rock and roll. Based in Denver, the little label that could has chugged out a number of stellar local discs by acts as varied as Everything Absent or Distorted, Rabbit Is a Sphere and Cat-A-Tac. Employing the basic principles of a utopian communist regime, every bandmember acts as an owner, operator and financer of the label. On its MySpace page, Needlepoint sums up its musical objectives in one concise sentence: "Art should never be about competition." Damn straight.

Best Record Label With Grammy Ties

Silver Wave Records

For the past five years, a local indie label has been quietly filling its mantel with Grammy awards for its Native American recordings. Last year, Boulder-based Silver Wave Records took home a Grammy for its compilation Sacred Ground -- A Tribute to Mother Earth, while this year, the multi-talented Mary Youngblood picked up a statue in the category of Best Native American Music Album for Dance With the Wind. Founded two decades ago, Silver Wave has carved out a niche with its Native American music, issuing recordings by artists such as Peter Kater, R. Carlos Nakai, Joanne Shenandoah and Robert Mirabal, among others. And while those recordings remain its bread and butter, the imprint also offers a number of world-music and new-age recordings.

Best Recording (Since March 2006)

If This Thing Should Spill

Although Born in the Flood's debut full-length was one of the most hotly anticipated local discs in years, few expected the quartet to top the watermark it had already reached with The Fear That We May Not Be. The act had all but cemented its renown by delivering
transcendent live shows with stunning regularity, and most listeners predicted that Flood had peaked. If This Thing Should Spill, released this past February on Morning After Records, proved them wrong by being the band's finest work to date -- fit to be included in the pantheon of all-time greatest local albums. Yeah, it's that good. Spill's guitars careen and caress with equal abandon, and together with the robust bass lines, dynamic drums and vibrant keys, they form a solid and captivating foundation for Nathaniel Rateliff's enthralling, emotive vocals to reach skyward. These days, "brilliant" is a word that gets thrown around indiscriminately -- but in this case, the term couldn't be more apt.

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