Yo, Kansas City! It's time to rock the vote!

Grupo Muralla
Latin America has long been a melting pot of musical influences, a volatile mixture of its Spanish heritage, African influences and indigenous rhythms. Likewise, Ulises Torres and Grupo Muralla craft their sound from their proud ethnic ancestry and their kinship with Kansas City. History and lineage aside, this outstanding octet dedicates itself to inciting the furious footwork and sensuously swaying hips that make the KC salsa scene sizzle. (www.kcsalsa.com)

Descarga KC
Descarga KC won't be back until the next Día de los Muertos, for the band is no more. But don't put on black just yet, grandma -- percussion troubadour Pablo Sanhueza and some of the original members have rambled on to found Makuza, which will no doubt deliver the same reckless yet refined big-ensemble Latin music. We weren't too worried anyway; Descarga passes its torch to Makuza at a time when the salsa-merengue scene in Kansas City couldn't be much hotter. (www.kcsalsa.com)

Grupo Candela (Mambo Orchestra)
"El Mambo" DeLeon y su Grupo Candela -- now called El Mambo Orchestra -- is the latest salsa-mambo incarnation led by Miguel DeLeon, a veteran of almost 30 years in Latin music. The group's all-star cast of Kansas City musicians (including several from Mambo-X, DeLeon's previous group) includes trumpeter Al Pearson (of every big band in town), percussionist Pat Conway (BCR, NewEar Ensemble), sax man Carl Bender, keyboardist and composer Gary Nelson and distinctive vocalist Ramon Terrada. Other mambo bands may be bigger, but few have this much experience. (www.elmamboworld.com)

Best Live Act
Shots Fired
See Rock.

Superargo
See Electronic.

The Esoteric
See Hardcore/Metal.

The Litigators
See Rock.

The Ssion
See Punk.

The Wilders
See Country/Roots/Bluegrass.

Best Male Vocalist
Jeff Wood
There's a reason so many fans of the Sound and the Fury know the band's lyrics by heart. Jeff Wood, the band's singer, actually sings. No angry, indecipherable gurgle here -- the dude actually has a working set of pipes. (His weekly solo gig at Harpo's, when he sings over the sound of roughly 137 sports conversations, has to help.) There are plenty of other bands out there with a Faulkner-inspired nom de guerre, but nobody else in town makes "loud and heavy" so articulate. (www.thesoundandthefury.com)

Matt Pryor (The New Amsterdams)
See Pop.

Matt Dunehoo (Doris Henson)
See Rock.

Jordan Geiger (Minus Story)
See Pop.

Ben Grimes (The Golden Republic)
See Pop.

Best New Act
In the Pines
For a band that's still mixing its first album, In the Pines has already attracted a pretty big buzz. Maybe it's the bizarre yet strangely cohesive stage set (two acoustic guitars, a violin, a viola, drums and a 1940s pump organ). Maybe it's the local-supergroup status. (ITP features members of To Conquer, the Hearers, Federation of Horsepower and the Des Moines Symphony, to name a few.) Or maybe it's just because it's unlike anything else in town. (www.inthepinesmusic.com)

Veda
To say a band has exploded onto the scene is lazy cliché, but in the case of Veda it's just plain true -- an understatement, even, considering how the year-old band has already snagged a couple of tasty tours, not to mention opening slots for Hot Hot Heat and the Get Up Kids' farewell-to-Lawrence show. But credentials aside, Veda's sound consistently causes Kansas City's audiences to swoon with ambitious, sweeping instrumental swells and Kristen May's heartbreaking voice. A debut LP on Second Nature proves that Veda not only can grab fans but also write songs. (www.weareveda.com)

Flee the Seen
See Punk.

Sidewise
One of the first Lawrence bands to invade Kansas City's heavy-music scene, Sidewise celebrated at the Beaumont Club in November 2004 after winning the fifth edition of Club Wars. A few months later, it released its debut disc, Digest the Moon, which contains some of the finest regional rock-radio-ready anthems in recent memory. Sidewise is already tooling around on new material, some of which it unveiled at a recent high-profile gig with Life of Agony at the Bottleneck. (www.sidewisemusic.com)

The Litigators
See Rock.

The Afterparty
One autumn day at sunset, six young musicians were lounging on a grassy hill, passing around a bottle of bourbon, their best girls by their sides, when over the hill strode the departed spirit of Richard Manuel, resplendent in glowing abalone snaps and a halo of golden wheat. The young men -- knowing that, despite the uncanny resemblance, the angel was the late pianist of the Band and not Jesus -- sat bolt upright and bent their ears to the grievous angel's command: to go forth and make divine, bluesy country-folk. The Afterparty's true origins are far less supernatural, but the results have been about the same.

Best Pop
The Belles
Originality is a rare commodity in the world of rock, where imitators are spawned like rednecks at a NASCAR convention. But KC duo the Belles have innovation to spare, crafting simple pop songs that are crammed with clever sonic ideas and wry formula twists. Last year, the group mostly bypassed the United States in favor of heavy touring in Europe, where it has amassed a sizable following. The band is now prepping for a U.S. trek and putting the finishing touches on a full-length follow-up to last year's Idle Hands EP. (www.thebelles.com)