And the results are in. The vote was very tight – 52% to 48% – and the victor in the finals of the Tournament of Rock: The 5280 is the late great Space Team Electra. Congrats to Myshel, Bill, Greg and Kit, who are without questions one of the best bands I have ever heard. Many of you might not have heard of them, sadly, and if that’s the case you owe it to yourself to get your hands on a copy of The Vortex Flower or The Intergalactic Torch Song.

Major props are also due to runner-ups Fiction 8 – Mardi, Heather and our good friend Michael. As noted before, I am not objective on the subject of F8, given that I have been fortunate enough to co-write songs with them on the last three CDs (as well as on the forthcoming one, which Mike swears is due out any day now).

Colorado is not a hugely populous state and given the wide dispersal of population out west it’s hard for bands to really make a name for themselves if they’re from this part of the country. If you live in New York there are a million clubs within a four-hour drive. If you live in Denver, four hours gets you Ft. Collins, Pueblo. Colorado Springs and a lot of empty ranch land. As a result, the 5280 has never exactly been a major scene.

But it has, as evidenced by the music featured in this contest, more than compensated for its lack of quantity with a remarkable amount of quality.

Next time you’re looking to explore new music, I hope you’ll come back and give some of these artists a listen. Thanks for playing and voting, everybody. See you next time.