Friday night the folks over at EMPSFM will be hosting a concert featuringMt St Helens Vietnam Band and Sound Off! competitorsUs On Roofs as part of their After Hours series. If you aren't familiar with the After Hours program, it's a series of all-ages events put on by teens for teens.
The EMPSFM crew was kind enough to offer up a couple of pairs of tickets for Ear Candy readers to win along with a screen printed poster for the show. All you have to do is drop Ear Candy an email at travhay@gmail.com with the subject Mountain Rock and your name in the body. Winners will be chosen randomly and notified Friday afternoon. Deadline to enter is Friday at noon.
I wrote the below post about Sound Off! 2010 for Crosscut.
The kids are alright.
Those words of Pete Townshend rang true during the finals of Experience Music Project’s Sound Off! competition, which showcased some of the brightest rising stars in Northwest music Saturday night (March 6).
The final round of the four-week, underage battle of the bands featured four groups that showed remarkable talent, musicianship, and poise, all delivered with the passion and vigor of youth.
Sound Off! is more than your typical battle of the bands. The contest focuses on young musicians who are 21 and younger, and at stake is more than just getting to be the cool kids in the cafeteria. The winner of Sound Off! gets a slot at Bumbershoot 2010 (although I suppose that might earn you popularity points in the lunchroom, too).
You know how they say third times a charm? Well, it looks like the third round was a charm for a pair of bands that performed during Saturday's final semifinal round.
Great Waves, from Sammamish, Wash. won Saturday's Sound Off! competition and automatically earned a slot in the finals round this weekend. Runners-up from last weekend's Sound Off!, SEACATS, from Kelso, Wash., won the wildcard bid to the finals round. SEACATS was chosen by EMP's Youth Advisory board as the wild card winner. The band, which has a poppy, Weezer-meets-Tea Cozies sound, beat out melodic indie rockers Sea Fever from Seattle and Bellingham instrumental jazz group Pan Pan for the wildcard spot.
The first two semifinal rounds of EMPSFM's Sound Off! competition are in the books, which means in less than two weeks a winner of the annual battle of the 21-and-under bands will be crowned. It also means that in less than two weeks we'll find out one of the acts slated to play Bumbershoot this summer.
Bellingham guitar-drum duo Candysound won the first week's battle and Sea Fever, from Seattle finished in second place. Saturday night Hooves and Beak, from Seattle by way of Kansas, took home the top prize and another Bellingham group, Pan Pan, got second place. The second-place finishers from each of Sound Off's three rounds are considered wildcard contenders for the finals on March 6. The wildcard process involves EMPSFM's Youth Advisory Board voting one second-place finisher into the finals, which will consist of the three first-place finishers and the one wildcard winner.
I was lucky enough to catch the last two weeks of Sound Off! It was fun to see a younger crowd appreciate local music and it was equally fun to get exposed to lots of young musicians and bands I had never heard of before across a wide range of genres. It is safe to say the local music scene will continue to be filled with a diverse range of styles and sounds for many years to come if Sound Off! is any indication of what to expect from Seattle's musical future.
I took a few notes of what I saw in preparation for being a judge during this week's semifinal round which takes place Saturday at 8 p.m. Here's a peek into my notebook with some thoughts on each of the eight bands that have perform so far:
EMP|SFM's annual all-ages battle of the bands, Sound Off!, kicks off Saturday and Ear Candy has a pair of passes to give away to one lucky reader.
During Sound Off! 12 bands will battle it out over a four-week period. The winner gets recording time, a spot at this year's Bumbershoot and other nifty prizes. Expect to read weekly coverage of Sound Off! here on Ear Candy (In full disclosure, yours truly is honored to be a judge for the Feb. 27 Sound Off! round, which is something I am extremely excited to be doing.)
I haven't been able to attend a Sound Off! because I used to live on the other side of the mountains the past few years which made it tough to get to Seattle in the winter, so I am very much looking forward to checking out this year's event. It's a great way to catch some of the best youthful local talent and Sound Off! has a history of helping usher some pretty killer bands into the local music scene. Past Sound Off! participants include Schoolyard Heroes, The Lonely H, Dyme Def, The Lonely Forest, Mon Frere, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head and New Faces just to name a few.
A new photography exhibit will be opening at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum this weekend.
Titled "Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock 'n' Roll Photographs," the exhibit features 98 photos from 40 photographers, each capturing a moment in time with pop music icons. I had the opportunity to catch a preview showing of the exhibit yesterday and it is one of the more visually striking installations involving music that the museum has hosted in recent memory.
The exhibit is not just something that will appeal to professional shutterbugs. Some of the images are outtakes from classic album covers, some show iconic musicians having candid moments while others capture the action from the stage. I'll be writing more about "Taking Aim" in the coming days so look forward to seeing some words about the exhibit on Ear Candy and Crosscut soon.
To mark the opening of "Taking Aim," which was curated by Graham Nash, EMPSFM is hosting some great events this week. Here is the list of what will be going down at the museum this weekend along with a few shots from the exhibit itself.
More than 130 bands applied to be a part of this year's Sound Off!, which is the most submissions ever for the competition. Those entries were narrowed down 12 talented acts including: (Sui-Generis), Apache Chief, Candysound Sea Fever, A Cozy Kitchen, Hooves and Beak, Pan Pan and The Cat From Hue, Great Waves, SEACATS, Subtle Like A T-Rex, and Us on Roofs.
I haven't been able to attend a Sound Off! because I used to live on the other side of the mountains which made it tough to get to Seattle in the winter, so I am very much looking forward to checking out this year's event. It's a great way to catch some of the best youthful local talent and Sound Off! has a history of helping usher some pretty killer bands into the local music scene. Past Sound Off! participants include Schoolyard Heroes, The Lonely H, Dyme Def, The Lonely Forest, Mon Frere, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head and New Faces just to name a few. The winner of the competition not only gets the privilege of being a part of the Sound Off!'s alumni, they also get a coveted spot at Bumbershoot.
Along with the Bumbershoot slot, prizes for the first-place winner will include a live on-air performance on 107.7 The End’s The Young and the Restless and gear from KORG and Epiphone. Prizes for the second-place winner include a performance at Northwest Folklife 2010 and gear from KORG and Epiphone as well. Prizes for the third-place winner include a performance at the Gibson Seattle Showroom. All winners receive a consultation with The Recording Academy.
Here's the schedule of events for Sound Off! 2010 including links to the band's Web sites:
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ou know how they say third times a charm? Well, it looks like the third round was a charm for a pair of bands that performed during Saturday's final semifinal round.
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