Okay, just a real quick plug for our people at BoxStateMusic -- and by people, we really mean our dude Big Joe Thunder. Cat's a one-man wrecking machine, a seemingly omnipresent figure when it comes to hip-hop in Denver. Joey T's got his ear to the streets, which is why we tapped him to co-host our hip-hop stage at Showcase. Not content to just hype the crowd, though, he also captured it in living color. Hop on over to BoxStateMusic for fresh set of flix from Showcase and stacks of stacks of killer graf shots like the one above.

Kate Levy

Check out the slideshow for more pics from last night.

Whoo boy! What a time we had last night. Every year, I'm always so energized after hosting the awards ceremony -- not to mention hungover (more on that in a minute). As I mentioned last night (numerous times, apparently), I'm really in love with this town, with this scene and with the gifted artists who make this the place where I want -- actually, scratch that -- where I choose to live.

Here's our massive, multi-page report/travelogue of the Westword Music Showcase from (in order) Tom Murphy, Cory Casciato, A.H. Goldstein, Jef Otte, Jon Solomon and Brian Frederick. Let us know in the comments what you saw and loved, saw and hated, or missed and hated yourself for missing.

While walking to Vinyl in time to just miss Night of Joy, I ran into people who informed me that the Showcase had already sold out -- a fact that became more obvious as the day went on. On the rooftop of Vinyl, the hip-hop showcase was underway, and Extra Kool laid down some of his better songs -- mostly the sunnier material from Even's Dead. Joining Kool was lyrical wunderkind Chris Steele, aka Time, throwing in some phases and otherwise handling the electronics. Despite the swelter, Kool put in a spirited performance.

Holy goddamn! Same beard, different band. Here's another clip shot by the fantastical Jim Huck, featuring the one and only Kingdom of Magic. This one here's a little ditty called "The Flame Draws the Honey Bee."

If you can get past the crackly sound (a detestable drawback of Flip-style cameras, whose condenser mikes are easily overwhelmed), here's a brief but enjoyable clip of Dirty Projectors shot by our pal Julio Enriquez from Cause=Time at the Showcase this past Saturday.

Cats like DJ Chonz still practice? For real? Who knew? At this point, guess we just assumed that dude's a Jedi who doesn't require dry runs anymore. Shows you what we know. Clearly he still got respect for the game. After the jump, listen and download Jefe's final practice from his crib before he took the stage on Vinyl's rooftop at Showcase and made jaws drop.

Here's another semi-headache inducing video for ya' from this year's Westword Music Showcase. This one features the Knew electrifying a capacity crowd at Sutra. Props are due to ColoradoKid. While the rest of the us were popping Ibuprofen and feverishly trying to rehydrate while shaking off the remnants of the night before, or taking time out yesterday to pay homage to pops, the Kid was evidently editing his little heart out. After the jump, see the fest through his shaky lens, and while you're there, get a first peek at the Knew's brand new video for "United," shot and directed by Drummond West with additional live footage by Daniel Ito.

Aaron Thackeray

Single File frontman Sloan Anderson

Reprise might have given up on these guys, but judging from the massive crowd assembled for its mid-afternoon set, the local fans haven't given up on, nor forgotten about, Single File. Leave it to a major label to drop the ball, eh? And as you'll hear after the jump upon downloading the second of our exclusive post in The Denver Boot, Sloan Anderson and company sound as good as ever. Happy downloading!

Though these clips are rather headache-inducing at times -- we presume because PieHole2000, the person filming, is either being jostled by the dancing throng or barely resisting the urge to trip the light fantastic -- here's Superchunk displaying some of its choices gems for all the boys and girls at this year's Westword Music Showcase, including "The First Part," and after the jump, "Slack Motherfucker." Ah yeah.