Which album has had the biggest impact on you? Nowhere - Ride.
File-sharing: Godsend or the death of music? Let it die.
Who's on your iPod right now? Westside Connection and Steely Dan.
Parting shot: Practice.
SWEET SUNNY SOUTH
NOMINATED IN BLUEGRASS
Website: www.sweetsunnysouth.com
Personnel: Rob Miller (guitar, vocals); Shelley Gray (upright bass, vocals); Cory Obert (fiddle, vocals;) Bill Powers (mandolin, banjo, vocals).
Native or transplant? All transplants.
Releases/discography: Showtime (2007); Live From the Radio Room (2006); Wild-n-Swingin (2005); Bell Creek Dance Club (2004).
What three adjectives best describe your music? Dusty, rusty and real.
Favorite place to play a show: Good-sounding rooms with enthusiastic crowds; theaters, not bars.
Favorite place to hang out/drink: Grass.
Best artist/band to come out of Denver (that's not yours/you): Cowhause.
Best song to come out of Denver (that you didn't write): Any Cowhause song.
If you were a street in Denver, which street would it be and why? Colfax, 'cause it's gritty and feels right, and Tom Waits agrees.
If you had to choose one act to represent Denver, who would it be and why? Gov. Bill Ritter. Give that boy a guitar and let him protect the sweetness of my state.
Which artist has had the biggest impact on you? Frapehoopers, Garcia, Zappa, Wesley Willis, B. Monroe, Violent Femmes, Michael Doucet, the Wilders, for one and for two.
Which album has had the biggest impact on you? PersuasivePercussion - Enoch Light.
File-sharing: Godsend or the death of music? Relax...
Who's on your iPod right now? Gurf Morlix.
TARMINTS
NOMINATED IN ROCK
Website: www.myspace.com/tarmints
Personnel: Class A Bobby J (guitar); A.J. Hathaway (drums, low frequency tremors); Sonya Decman (bass); Kurt Ottaway (shouting, spitting, ranting, guitar).
Native or transplant? Half and half.
Releases/discography: Toil Like Devils (2006); Black One EP (2004); East of Erie (2000); Tarmints (1998).
What three adjectives best describe your music? Talk minus action equals zero.
Favorite place to play a show: Our warehouse, tar shack.
Favorite place to hang out/drink: See above.
Best artist/band to come out of Denver (that's not yours/you): Bright Channel, far and away.
Best song to come out of Denver (that you didn't write): Nothing...yet.
If you were a street in Denver, which street would it be and why? Kmart parking lot — where the action is.
If you had to choose one act to represent Denver, who would it be and why? Cowboy Curse — too much darkness in Denver anyway, and Mitch Easter loves them.
Which artist has had the biggest impact on you? The Scientists, from Australia.
Which album has had the biggest impact on you? Outburst - the Nomads.
File-sharing: Godsend or the death of music? People need to break out the wallet for new artists.
Who's on your iPod right now? Bauhaus, Lords of the New Church, Wipers, Bad Luck City.
Parting shot: Live for today. It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." — President Theodore Roosevelt (cf. Hamilton Club speech on the strenuous life, Chicago, April 10, 1899).
TEMPA AND THE TANTRUMS
NOMINATED IN BLUES
4 P.M., DAZZLE
Website: www.myspace.com/tempaandthetantrums
Personnel: Tempa, Joseph Barton, David Foret, Peter Gregory.
Native or transplant? Both.
Releases/discography: Tempa and the Tantrums, Foo Ya live, Angels & Voodoo (to be released soon!).
What three adjectives best describe your music? WildAssBluesJazzZydefunk.
Favorite place to play a show: RED ROCKS!!
Favorite place to hang out/drink: Kokopelli's, Wednesday nights, Tantrums Jam!!
Best artist/band to come out of Denver (that's not yours/you): The Fray is making us proud!
Best song to come out of Denver (that you didn't write): We really love "Words," by Angie Stevens, and Michael Hornbuckle's "Baton Rouge."
If you were a street in Denver, which street would it be and why? Colfax, always an adventure.
