2007 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

Live Sports Cafe 407 Main 713-228-LIVE The Allen Oldies Band Nominated in: Best Cover Band www.allenoldiesband.com 4 p.m. "We'd love to be considered the Orange Show of Houston bands," says Allen Oldies Band near-namesake Allen Hill. "Something so bizarre, magical and fun that you have to be there to truly understand what's going on." From Yo La Tengo's famous club Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Minute Maid Park, the ever-expanding band — now with horns! — is one of the Bayou City's surest crowd-pleasers, something Chuck Berry, Roy Head, Archie Bell, Barbara Mason and Andre Williams learned firsthand. Book them at your next backyard barbecue or corporate function and help them buy the bright green suits they want so badly.

Whorehound Nominated in: Best Metal www.myspace.com/whorehound 5 p.m. What's that beast snarling and drooling in the corner over there, fangs bared, eyeing you and yours with a heart full of pure malice? It's Whorehound, an "old-school original metal" supergroup of scene vets (bassist Trevi Biles, singer-guitarist Jon Black and drummer Cory Jackson) from H-Town staple bands such as Dinosaur Salad, Simpleton, Drunken Thunder and Transmaniacon MC. Fueled by Satan and Lone Star Beer, this trio will melt your face like that Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark who dared gaze at Moses's Law.

Opie Hendrix & the Texas Tallboys Nominated In: Best Roots Rock/ Rockabilly www.myspace.com/opiehendrixandthetexastallboys 6 p.m. Lord help whoever tries to pry a definitive answer out of Opie Hendrix. Or any answer, really. Best gig ever? "Haven't had it yet." Worst gig ever? "Haven't had it yet." Weirdest gig ever? "All of them." Favorite club? "I love 'em all." Then again, perhaps Hendrix's brevity and diplomacy is born out of necessity. He can't share his favorite backstage story because "my lawyers advised me not to talk about it until after the trial." Hendrix allows he's partial to Jesus, Lightnin' Hopkins, the Rutles, Carrie Ann & the Apocalyptics, and the El Orbits' "Haul, U-Haul, Haul," but the restÉwell, the rest you'll just have to discover on your own.

dUNETX Nominated In: Best Traditional Rock www.dunetx.com 7 p.m. dUNETX have been together since 1995, when "flannel was all the rage," remembers Chris Sacco, and have been nominated for multiple Press music awards every year since 1999. "We know how to tune our guitars, so it sounds a little better," Sacco promises. Thanking the Judys, Van Halen circa Fair Warning and whoever it is playing guitar on the corner of Jensen and Cavalcade, Dune hopes to one day record the theme song to Flip This House and discover the ideal feng shui for their practice space. "We floss after every meal and tend to rock a little," Sacco says.

Satin Hooks Nominated In: Best Experimental/Avant-Garde www.myspace.com/satinhooks 8 p.m. Satin Hooks' local influences, word for word: "The polluted air, exercise, books, films, museums, the Houston Police Department, broken streets, graffiti, bicycles, friends, caffeine, tetrahydrocannabinol, women, life, alcohol, mental illnesses, fun stuff, historic homes, furniture and architecture, art, Verb, Yar, them dudes." These dudes aren't even sure they're in the right category. "We write catchy pop songs," they insist. "We're not so experimental, unless you call minorities playing rock/pop/punk/dance songs experimental. We'd like to be written into other categories." That's not up to usÉ

Million Year Dance Nominated In: Best Alt Rock, Best Male Vocalist (Jonathan Welch), Album of the Year (Liberation) www.millionyeardance.com 9 p.m. "Million Year Dance implies connectedness, the wave energies that connect all that exist, the great expanse of the universe," offers singer Jonathan Welch. So naturally, the only band in this year's nominees to cite Patty Griffin, Tool, Nina Simone and Sri Karunamayi as influences began at a supermarket. "Doyle and Steven were forming a band and needed a singer," says Welch. "They came to me to play an acoustic set at Whole Foods. They liked it to a degree, and I said we could work together." Identifying the group with parts of Memorial Drive and Allen Parkway — "Not really enough hills and valleys, but beautiful scenery, twisting and turning roads, sometimes you don't know what to expect next" — Welch says a Notsuoh gig at 4 a.m. was right up MYD's alley. "We definitely drew out the weirdoes — our kind of crowd."

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