Congrats to the New Faces of music.
Sound OFF! – the under 21 battle of the bands – wrapped at the beginning of this month. Not Surprisingly, New Faces from Port Townsend, walked out of the EMP’s Sky church with the much coveted trophy. (Can I say I told ya so?) They won the first round, beating out heavy rockers The Batteries, The Dead Are Judged and Southgate in a pretty stiff, if not ear blasting, night of competition. They were the most composed and professional of the lot and I had been taken by the sampling of songs posted on their site from the get-go.
The other semi-final winners to stack up against New Faces for the big prize were The Nextdoor Neighbors from r.2 who ended the competition in second place and Man Down Medic from r.3 placing third. For taking the cake, New Faces get a spot on stage at Bumbershoot and The Nextdoor Neighbors will be playing at Folklife for their #2 victory. Keep an eye out for other local shows by these guys. I’m sure they will be lighting up the radar a bunch in the near future.
Kudos to the EMP for putting together such a great platform for bands to leap from, and for everyone involved in getting these packages to the winners.
First Place – New Faces
* Performance at Bumbershoot 2008
* Live on-air performance on KEXP’s Audioasis
* Performance at the Gibson Seattle Showroom
* Production of one song by producer Glenn Lorbecki
* $600 gift certificate for studio time at Soundhouse
* Studio Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Les Paul Double Cut and an Epiphone Valve Junior amp
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Second Place – Nextdoor Neighbors
* Performance at Northwest Folklife 2008
* Live on-air performance on 1077 The End’s The Young & The Restless
* 2 Days Studio Time at Orbit Audio Studio
* Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Epiphone Sheraton II.
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Third Place – Man Down Medic
* 2 Days Studio Time at the Redmond Firehouse studio
* Shure microphones
* From Gibson: Kramer Vanguard FR-440
* Industry Consultation from the Recording Academy
Finals Audience – New Faces
* 2 Days studio time at The Vera Project
I saw New Faces two nights ago at Chop Suey and it’s easy to see why they won. They were fantastic. The drummer is a blur of motion. Fans of The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand (especially FF) should check them out.
As for the EMP, I wish they did more things like Sound Off to benefit the local music community.
[...] HANDS NEW FACES – (Kevin’s take) BORN [...]
[...] and melt it off. Bring it on Dan and Pat! Thurs Apr 10 The Shackletons THE HANDS NEW FACES – (My’s take) BORN ANCHORS $8 ADV, 8PM DOORS, 21+ @ Neumos This is easily the show of the month. [...]