80 Proof (5 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Cover Band
www.myspace.com/80proofrocksyou

You never know what happens when you get on Craigslist. You might hook up for one of those infamous "casual encounters," or you might wind up in an '80s cover band that owns the Lounge on Montrose Saturday night, and the rest of the week can be found anywhere from Pearland to Katy. At least as far as we know, that's what happened to these five guys and one girl when they came together last year, and have been growing their song list ever since. Could this be the year Molly & the Ringwalds finally goes down? — C.G.

Lee Alexander (6 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Local Song ("Mr. Walker's Epilogue"), Best Neo-Folk
www.myspace.com/alexanderlee

Lee Alexander's eponymous quintet proves there's a place for polished, Elliot Smith-style pop songwriting in the ranks of the often rough-and-tumble Houston music scene. Best Local Song nominee "Mr. Walker's Epilogue" is a sugary appetizer for this summer's Mayhaw Vaudeville CD, which Alexander describes as "almost entirely acoustic and saturated with a distinctively rustic Texas flavor by drawing on the grass-roots forms of ragtime jazz, country swing, blues and folk music that dominated the Southern music scene in the '20s and '30s." — C.G.

Black Math Experiment (7 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Local Album (All You Need Is Blood), Best Local Song ("Everyone Is Gay"), Best Unclassifiable Band
www.myspace.com/theblackmath­experiment

For a band that professes to be broken up — okay, on "indefinite hiatus," because bands never really break up for good anymore — multiple nominees Black Math Experiment could cart home a lot of HPMA hardware this year. That helps ease the sting somewhat, because a scene without BME's Devo-esque puckishness and Cure-sharpened hooks is going to be a lot less fun. So until the inevitable reunion show (this one doesn't really count), at least the quintet has left us with a wealth of material to remember them by, of which Best Local Album nominee All You Need Is Blood (actually an EP) and a forthcoming live DVD are just the latest, and surely not the last. — C.G.

Beetle (8 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Tribute Band
www.myspace.com/beetleband

"We don't try too hard with the costumes, wigs and fake accents," admits Beetle bassist/vocalist Paul Beebe, but Houston's fab foursome still brings the mop-topped '60s to life most Thursdays at the Continental. And though instrumental limitations force Beetle to focus on early Beatles material, the band is just as apt to break out rarities like "Bad Boy" as "A Hard Day's Night." Beebe, who also does time in about 20 other local bands, describes Beetle as simply "Beatles. Rock. Roll." We couldn't have said it better. — B.R.

John Evans Band (9 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Songwriter
www.myspace.com/johnevansband

John Evans has been around so long and been to so many of these Press awards affairs we can actually refer to him as "venerable." He's been nominated for songwriting and performances, and taken home several statues over the past decade. Never one to shy away from changing style and direction, Evans has taken a musical scalpel to everything from honky-tonk to punky rockabilly to preppy Old 97's pop-rock, each time with class and muscle. He could've moved to Austin a hundred times but hasn't; 'nuff said. — W.M.S.

Whorehound (4 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Metal
www.myspace.com/whorehound

As familiar and welcome a sight at Rudyard's as the Montrose pub's famous burgers, Whorehound describes itself as "Texas roadhouse metal, diesel, one-legged dog, pickup trucks with nails in the bed and FM roads you don't much want to change a tire on after sundown." And also, "heavy...freaking...metal." They're not wrong: The veterans of Houston bands like Dinosaur Salad, Drunken Thunder and Transmaniacon MC apply the lessons they learned from Black Sabbath and Slayer's Reign in Blood well indeed. Look for an album soon — C.G.

Brian's Johnson (5 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Tribute Band
www.myspace.com/briansjohnson666

For those of us not old enough to have seen the late Bon Scott live or watched Brian Johnson make out with our mom backstage at the Summit in 1982, Brian's Johnson will adequately and rather awesomely feed our hunger for the definitive AC/DC experience. Featuring members of locals Awake, 30footFALL and local sludge crew Bowel, BJ howls like the men from Down Under as only a group of hardcore guys from Montrose could. Let your big balls bounce to the left and to the right; those big balls, as you (and the band) well know, should be held every night. — C.H.

Dine Alone (6 p.m.)
Nominated in: Best Alternative Rock
www.myspace.com/dinealone