All the Rage

Everybody knows how Truckstop Honeymoon, a married couple with a penchant for mean pickin', escaped a thrashing by Hurricane Katrina with nothing but a few instruments and their kids. What people forget is that Mike West and Kate Euliss aren't just survivors — they're savvy country-music aces whose work twangs with Johnny Cash thunder and folksy love ballads. truckstophoneymoon.com

With a nonstop summer schedule that includes Brooklyn, Scotland and Winfield, Kansas, the Wilders might book more gigs than any band in town. That's what comes from cornering the market on pure, old-time country music. With pristine layers of fiddle, guitar, banjo and bass, the band doesn't just offer music — it offers time travel. Even the Wilders' original music seems too old to be new. These folks are the gatekeepers of true Americana. wilderscountry.com

DJ/Dance

Bill Pile

He may be a joker in real life, but Bill Pile takes house music seriously. Here's a DJ who understands the difference between filling the room with beats and crafting a set that flows between crest and trough with an artful smoothness that's downright lyrical. Someday, Bill's eardrums may burst from overexposure to the 808. When that happens, he'll probably make like Beethoven, put his ear to the floor and keep on mixing — and he'll still be one of the best house DJs and producers in town. Download his exclusive mixes at mp3.umove.net. myspace.com/billpile

DJ Just

Mike Just's musical palette is as colorful as the guy's many tattoos. Under the moniker Team Scorpio Soundsystem, he and fellow PMA nominee Billy Smith (Best Male Vocalist) roll out sleepy dub and reggae joints by the likes of King Tubby and Bunny Lee. Scorp's Monday gig at the Record Bar dried up awhile ago, but DJ Just still keeps busy. On Saturday nights at the Empire Room and at his newly restored weekly residency at old haunt the Hurricane, Just keeps the meat market cookin' with crunked-up '80s jams. myspace.com/djjust

Nomathmatics

In 2002, a collective of artists, musicheads and one America's Next Top Model contestant (KC expat Shandi Sullivan) married their love of the audio and the visual, and Nomathmatics was born. Now, with members having moved to Los Angeles and New York, it's up to remaining DJs Sheppa and Johnny D to drop the 'Math on Kansas City. And when they do, legions of hot young things in terrycloth rompers and wristbands sweat to the sounds of MSTRKRFT remixes and Peaches mash-ups against video backdrops of 1980s aerobics instructors and educational films about meat. Download entire sets for free on the group's MySpace page. myspace.com/nomathmatics

Spinstyles

This amazingly versatile turntablist killed it at the Pitch Ultra Music DJ Contest, and it was with full confidence in his abilities that we sent Spinstyles to rep our town at the Winter Music Conference in Miami. With his cool command of the Serato turntable-laptop combo, Spin turns the club into an ant farm of twitching legs and gyrating abdomens. Sure, he can rock the crowd at Blonde, but it was Spinstyles' command of hip-hop DJing that prompted Tech N9ne to take him on the road and have him scratch on the rapper's latest solo album, Everready. Spin's a chic dresser, too — creds and threads, baby. myspace.com/djspinstyles

Superwolf

The best DJs know how to insinuate themselves in any environment. Booze helps, sure. But it's intuition that makes a reputation, as with Superwolf (James Trotter), who spins scuff-surfaced soul and funk 45s Fridays at Chez Charlie. Dredging up honeyed soul and welt-inducing, hard-funk bass jams, the man makes the place hum. Granted, the dive's stalwart jukebox is one of its many charms, but whereas the only thing that a fifth playing of "I Loves You, Porgy" ever did was get people all weepy over their whiskey-and-Cokes, Superwolf's weekly overriding of the machine's weathered roster actually incites people to get up and move. myspace.com/61423426

DJ/Hip-Hop

DJ Ataxic

On his Web site, DJ Ataxic claims, "I really don't feel like my style is fully developed yet." That's hard to believe, considering his name is so often dropped when discussing top-shelf KC turntable types. How he got to that level is no secret. He's been backing up household names (LL Cool J, the Roots) and spinning full time for local hero Reach and other members of the Soul Providers Crew for years. If this is what underdeveloped sounds like, we can't wait to hear the finished product. djataxic.com

Joc Max

Joc Max usually isn't one of the first names that comes to the mind of the average music fan when pondering who's the best DJ in Kansas City. But he could be. Having worked with numerous big names in underground hip-hop on the East Coast and at home, Joc is easily the most revered figure in Kansas City hip-hop. Come what may, Joc will go down as a legend among the pros. This man has been spinning records since before he could even walk. No joke. myspace.com/jocmax

Miles Bonny