WINNERS of the 2024 Colorado Sound Music Awards

Congratulations to the winners of our 3rd annual Colorado Sound Music Awards – and thanks to all who voted and attended the in-person ceremony!

The 3rd annual Colorado Sound Music Awards ceremony and concert took place Wednesday, Sept. 18 at the Boulder Theater, where we announced the winners of this year’s awards. All winners were based entirely on your votes.

The 2024 Colorado Sound Music Awards are brought to you by Initial Capacity and the Lazy Greyhound Cocktail Lounge.

The Trujillo Company won the On the Rise category, which highlights a band that is busting onto the Colorado music scene and gaining attention and traction. Swallow Hill Music earned the most of your votes to win the Colorado Spirit category, highlighting an artist, venue, or institution that truly embodies the spirit and soul of Colorado. In a first-ever occurrence, Los Mocochetes and the Swashbuckling Doctors tied to both win the category for Outstanding Stage Presence for their tremendous live shows. The Fort Collins Musicians Association (FoCoMA) won for Outstanding ‘Secret Ingredient,’ based on the group’s many avenues of support (including the annual FoCoMX) for Colorado musicians. And the fifth was a write-in category open to any active Colorado artist, and you chose to honor 2MX2 as the Band You’d Drive 105.5 Miles to See. 

The show also including live performances by Alysia Kraft (who won a Colorado Sound Music Award in 2023), Ritmo Cascabel, and Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, who gave a rare solo acoustic performance.

More photos from the event are below.

Thank you for supporting the Colorado music community!

Meet the 2024 Winners

Below is a list of the winners in each category, with links to an exclusive interview and write-up on each artist. 

On The Rise – The Trujillo Company

The Trujillo Company began its rise in Denver six years ago as a sludgy hard-rock duo featuring Mike Trujillo (vocals/guitar) and Leny Trujillo (drums), who aren’t related by blood but often joke on stage that they’re “brothers from different mothers, but brothers through and through.”

Mike likens the Trujillo connection to the White Stripes, both musically and “the myth of it”…. read more

Colorado Spirit – Swallow Hill Music

Swallow Hill is the winner of this year’s Colorado Spirit award, and there’s not much more embodying of Colorado spirit than a Denver-run, music-forward nonprofit headed by a Denver native.

“You know, music is what we do, and music is what The Colorado Sound does, right?” says Swallow Hill CEO Jessy Clark. “I feel like it’s just this great unifier for people, regardless of their backgrounds or political affiliations. You can have a conversation about music that is just about music, and I feel like Colorado’s got that vibe. It’s just this big mix of all these people that live in different communities, and we all hang out together and enjoy live music and learn together”…. read more

Outstanding Stage Presence (tie) – Los Mocochetes

Though known for its “chicano funk,” vocalist and percussionist Jozer Guerrero of Los Mocochetes says the Denver-based band has made it a point, for its almost 10-year history, to never get painted into a musical corner by sticking to a specific genre.

“Anytime things feel a little too comfortable,” he explains, “there has to be a curveball in there somewhere, because it feels too normal.”

Guerrero says the word “chicano” is important to him not just personally but musically, because it represents a melting pot rather than a group of outsiders, like “Latino” might suggest for some people.

“We are American, and we are Mexican; we’re Mexican-American,” Guerrero says…. read more

Outstanding Stage Presence (tie) – the Swashbuckling Doctors

Swashbuckling Doctors is much a band as a mythos, and a really weird one. The pirate-ska of Swashbuckling Doctors is zany and fun. Lead Doctor, singer Scott Slusher, says he’s been heavily motivated by groups like Fishbone and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to have so much fun on stage it could turn out dangerous.

“When it’s on, it is,” he says. “Those bands are a big influence on me, personally, both in their songwriting and their performances. And we are 100% energy from start to finish, particularly in the front-line: We have me, Mackenzie [Sutphin] and Sterling [Swanson] on vocals, trumpet and trombone. And it is non-stop activity from the first beat to the last. I feel like I don’t give a good show until I am just drenched in sweat at the end of it, and I’ve lost my glasses.”…. read more

Outstanding Secret Ingredient – FoCoMA

The Fort Collins Musicians Association (FoCoMA) started informally in 2007 with local-musician meetups and new-talent showcases at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins. A year later it became a nonprofit and continued to host great events, from concerts and workshops to peer awards.

Executive Director Peggy Lyle explained how it all really came together in 2009, when FoCoMA found its missing piece.

“We realized that the thing we really needed to do was throw a huge music festival, to celebrate all the amazing bands that help support our venues,” she says. “So, in 2009, we had the very first Fort Collins Music Experiment”…. read more

Band You’d Drive 105.5 Miles to See – 2MX2

Denver hip-hop group 2MX2 – who incorporate rap, electronica, Latin music, and rock – performed at last year’s Colorado Sound Music Awards at the Boulder Theater. Now, one year later, 2MX2 has been voted the Band You’d Travel 105.5 Miles to see by Colorado Sound listeners.

Unlike the other awards, this one is write-in only, and that meant a lot to 2MX2 according to rapper and producer Owen Trujillo, a Zacatecas native also known as O1.

“When I heard that,” Trujillo says, “I was telling the guys ‘that’s pretty crazy,’ because it almost feels like a little bit more surprising and interesting, that people actually wrote it in. That’s super sweet. It’s not a multiple-choice question; it’s an original thought.”…. read more

Congrats to all our winners – and to all our 2024 nominees – who represent some of the most talented and supporting artists and organizations in Colorado.

Also, a huge shout-out to everyone who voted in this year’s Colorado Sound Music Awards – and who came to celebrate with us at our first-ever in-person award ceremony! This incredible music community would not be the same without each and every one of you.

Meet all of the 2024 Colorado Sound Music Award winners

On the Rise – the Trujillo Company

Colorado Spirit – Swallow Hill Music

Outstanding Stage Presence (tie) – Los Mocochetes

Outstanding Stage Presence (tie) – the Swashbuckling Doctors

Outstanding ‘Secret Ingredient’ – Fort Collins Musicians Association (FoCoMA)

Musician or Band You’d Drive 105.5. Miles to See – 2MX2

Meet all our incredible 2024 Colorado Sound Music Award nominees

Meet past Colorado Sound Music Award winners from 2023 and 2022

Photos from the 2024 Colorado Sound Music Awards

Images below by Backstage Flash.

Images below by Lisa Siciliano/Dog Daze Photo.

The 2024 Colorado Sound Music Awards are brought to you by: 

Initial Capacity

The Lazy Greyhound Cocktail Lounge