EDITOR’S NOTE: This weekend, organizers say, brings the 25th and final Underground Music Showcase “in its current form.” To mark the occasion, Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore – who started The UMS in 2001 – is bringing back the poll that started it all.

In 2001, Moore surveyed local music experts about the underground bands and artists they felt were most worthy of more mainstream recognition. The results became the basis for an annual live showcase of local bands that grew into The UMS, which this weekend will feature 200 bands across 12 indoor venues and four outdoor stages along a 1-mile stretch of Broadway in the Baker neighborhood.

Moore stopped conducting the poll in 2010. But with the festival now coming to a probable end, here’s one final introduction to 10 local bands and artists our panel of industry insiders recommend you check out. In all, nearly 100 bands received votes. Over the next five days, we will be counting down the top 10, two per day.

NO. 10: WHEELCHAIR SPORTS CAMP

Kalyn Heffernan, a self-described queer, disabled, rabble-rousing activist and rapper, is MC for the local hip-hop band Wheelchair Sports Camp – and a 2019 Denver mayoral candidate.

Heffernan was arrested in 2017 for staging a three-day sit-in at Republican Sen. Cory Gardner’s office demanding disability rights. In 2022, she was hired by the Underground Music Showcase as its first-ever Accessibility Team Lead.

In 2021, Heffernan composed the score for the disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company’s original stage adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.” And earlier this year, she created the score for “Jack and the Beanstalk,” one of six commissioned short film adaptations celebrating Warner Brothers’ 100th birthday.

Heffernan was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, often referred to as “brittle bone disease.” She has playfully referred to herself as “the little brittle.“

In essence, Wheelchair Sports Camp – aka Heffernan and musical partner Gregg Ziemba – creates music that is both thought-provoking and sonically engaging, pushing boundaries and challenging expectations within the hip-hop genre. Heffernan calls her combo “Denver’s biggest, smallest band.” 

• Website: wheelchairsportscamp.co

• Year started: The end of 2009… ish?

• Members: Kalyn Rose Heffernan (big head, vocals, computers) and Gregg Ziemba (drums, coach)

• What makes you local? “Born and raised, baby! We both went to CU Denver before we really hung out, but we have both attended many of the same concerts since middle school.

• Seminal single: “Yess I’m a Mess”

• Describe your music: “Mostly rap, sometimes punk, always a middle finger up and a blown kiss.”

• Video song sampler: You.Tube

• Your musical influences: “TLC, Missy Elliott, The Mars Volta.”

• One favorite fellow Colorado band or artist: Jello Biafra

• When did you know your band was for real? “Wait, are we for real?” 

• Next live show: “On Friday (July 25), we are the featured insurrectionists for the Denver Art Museum’s ongoing ‘ Untitled: Artist Takeover’ series, which this month is themed ‘A Real Spectacle: Fit in with the Freaks’ in celebration of Disability Pride Month and the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We promise a different kind of night with a different set of rules. Among the contributing creatives for the evening will be Jello Biafra, Alice Wong, Lady Godiva, RAREBYRD$, Cripple Punk Alliance, Regan Linton and a whole lot of Phamaly Theatre Company artists. You can expect immersive experiences, interactive opportunities, live performances, videos, artmaking and offbeat art tours, all designed to challenge perceptions and shine a light on the real-world barriers for people with disabilities. We’re taking it all over from 6-10 p.m., and we have a very big event planned at the end of the night. And then you can still head over and catch the UMS late night.

• Next music drop: “There’s an LP coming out on Alternative Tentacles, but we can’t say when.”

• Our live shows are like “… WTF was that?”