The in-studio regionals and national finale of the 3rd annual College Battle of the Bands, presented by Chegg and sponsored by AKG, among other distinguished partners such as Grammy U, AT&T, and SESAC, has staged events around the nation to give deserving bands and music artists of all genres the recognition they deserve.
Co-founded by music and video producer KamranV, who has worked with artists including Beck, Nine Inch Nails and Sting, among others, College Battle of the Bands is a talent competition that reaches over 100 colleges and universities around the country.
The contest kicked off around the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and will conclude with a national finale battle in Los Angeles on June 24 at the legendary Echo, with a global live webcast at stickam.com. The competition is open to student musicians and bands of any genre, battling for cash, prizes and the chance for an opening spot on the upcoming Textbooks & Tickets Tour with Live Nation.
The first rounds of the competition were live “battles” played in front of local audiences and industry judges at venues such as the House of Blues Foundation Rooms to the Vera Project (Seattle, WA) to the Studio at Webster Hall (New York, NY).
The winning bands advanced to a regional competition, where they further developed, recorded and mixed their top songs in studio sessions with KamranV and Nick Tipp at MeTelevision (Austin), Bedrock (Los Angeles), Open Sky Studios (Atlanta), and Stadium Red (New York).
Competition producers, along with each studio’s owner, handpicked winners who will head to the final stage at the Echo in collaboration with its popular Club Underground night.
Each regional winner was awarded an AKG P420 condenser recording mic and AKG’s Perception Groove Pack Kits, which include one P2 dynamic bass microphone, two P17 (Perception 170) overhead mics and three P4 mics for snare and toms. All participating regional competing artists also received D5 dynamic vocal mics.
Stadium Red owner Claude Zdanow already boasts three AKG C414 XLS, two D112, two C1000, one C4000 B and a C451.
The regional winners compete for a prize package including an iMac computer, iPod and Final Cut Studio software, a free year of textbooks from Chegg.com, and more.
Battling for the national title this year are: Southwest Region winners The Mohicans (Texas Tech), North Region winners Old Abram Brown (Emerson), West Region winners Land of Pines (Washington), Southeast Region winners The John King Band (UGA) and a wild card winner Rozzi Crane (University of Southern California).
“It’s an exciting time for HARMAN’s AKG to see the dedication and hard work each musical group brings to the College Battle of the Bands,” states Alfred Reinprecht, VP marketing and product development, AKG. “We understand the needs of these college musicians and hope our Perception Groove Pack will help them save on expenses, while allowing them to completely express themselves with quality performances and recordings.”
“With our partners, we’ve been building great national awareness for College Battle of the Bands and we are very happy to work with AKG, offering students meaningful and useful prizes for all of their hard work,” said KamranV. “We are looking forward to crowning this year’s champ, as well as continuing the contest for years to come with AKG’s help.”
