2007 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

Once the amps are unplugged, this year's HPMA Best DJ nominees start setting up their tables for a late-night showcase after-party. 2006 winner DJ Red (1 a.m.) is back to defend his crown, and certainly has his work cut out for him. Local collective [tha-group] earns its bragging rights with three nominees on its roster: James Reed (10 p.m.), Josh Dupont (11 p.m.) and Jessica Lozano (11:30 p.m.). San Francisco native Reed, a professional dancer with the Houston Ballet, shares a residency with ten-year house-circuit veteran Dupont at the Davenport's "Choice Sundays." The two vie for the title against Lozano, a DJ/producer with a taste for and expertise in an expansive array of house genres, yet only one of these comrades can win. Or, with 19 years of DJing experience, maybe Red Door resident Ethan Klein (10:30 p.m.) can make a comeback this year for the Scooby Doo Crew. He and 2006 nominee Sean Carnahan make up the SDC duo, dishing out only the best house and old-school funk. Speaking of funk, Ill Set (12 a.m.) is a very busy girl. Rebel Crew member, B-girl and Crome's "Sundae Fundae," she spins everything from hip-hop, funk, soul, reggae and Latin to breaks while brokering real-estate deals by day. Last but certainly not least, it's no surprise if this showcase feels like déjà vu for DJ Sun (12:30 a.m.). The six-time winner recently made his recording debut with the Monday Drive EP, with a full-length album due later this year. Perhaps Sun will make it lucky seven in 2007.

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The Octanes Nominated in: Best Roots Rock/ Rockabilly www.myspace.com/octanes 4 p.m. Adam Burchfield, long a guitar-slingin' sideman for some of the city's top old-school blues and rock bands (Snit's Dog and Pony Show, Tony Vega, Sonny Boy Terry, among others), steps front and center to helm this hep little rockabilly trio. (A stand-up bass ace — either Nick Gaitan or Buddy Demon — and drummer Steve Candelari help constitute this high-grade fuel.) While the band's music retains a time-warp quality, Burchfield sings well and writes very good lyrics. His guitar prowess has never been in question.

Ninevolt Nominated In: Best Traditional Rock www.myspace.com/ninevoltrocks 5 p.m. Ninevolt dates back to the early '90s, when Angela Sexton and Lucky Trujillo passed many an hour as a guitar duo playing originals and Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Velvet Underground songs. They meandered through various bands (Rainbones, The Murder of Crows) until around 2003, when they hooked up with a rhythm section, broke up for a while, then reconvened, overhauling their earlier punk sound with "screaming stadium rock that hasn't been heard since the days of Led Zeppelin and Guns 'N' Roses." Look for Ninevolt to pop up at an open mike or dive bar near you. Maybe they'll tell you about the time they all pissed in the same toilet as Billy Idol, Robert Plant and Robert Smith, "and didn't wash our hands for a week."

Cl'che Nominated in: Best Local Rap/Hip-Hop www.myspace.com/clche 6 p.m. They used to call teen pop sensation Brenda Lee "Little Miss Dynamite." In Cl'che's case, better make that "Little Miss W.M.D." Five feet tall and nothin' but curves, class and fire, this southside MC is a dynamic live performer who never leaves her showgoers feeling cheated. As she says in the video for "Ghetto Blues," "See once they nominated me in the Houston Press / I showed 'em all the Cl'che is known as the best."

LL Cooper Nominated in: Best New Act, Traditional Rock www.myspace.com/llcooper 7 p.m. Enduring several shows "on par with 'Puppet Show and Spinal Tap,'" LL Cooper has been busting out its roots-rockin', beer-battered, country-fried Texas rock and roll since late 2005. It all started, says Larry Cooper, when "I started writing some decent songs again, and was stupid enough to believe folks would want to hear me this time around." Soon to start recording El Penguino, a concept album about Hunter S. Thompson, Cooper says the quintet aspires to "conquer the world, or just get lit up during the last set at Henry's Hideout in Plantersville."

Drop Trio Nominated In: Best Jazz www.droptrio.com 8 p.m. Prog-rock fanatics who formed a funk-jazz combo and wound up on the sound track to the 2004 Cedric the Entertainer vehicle Johnson Family Vacation (thanks to the patronage of costar and fan Solange Knowles), Drop Trio provides the ideal "spaceship jazz" sound track for a chill night out at Brasil, Luna or the new AvantGarden. Well-seasoned by frequent touring, they have a Web site that's well-stocked with a streaming "Drop Trio Radio," tons of live tracks and easy access to their three CDs: 2003's Big Dipper, 2004's all-improvised Leap and 2005's live Cezanne.