Congratulations to MayDay! for collecting the most online votes this past week. That wins them a spot in the upcoming BOOM live showdown at the end of this month.

This week we offer the Screaming Jeans vs. Swill. Visit boom.artvoice.com to check them both out and vote for the band you prefer.

Congratulations Round 4, Week 2 Winners: MayDay!

Round 4, Week 3:

Swill
vs.
The Screaming Jeans

Vote Now at the BOOM Website!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with our Battle of Original Music—or BOOM—here’s how it works: Local original music acts visit the boom.artvoice.com website. There, they can learn how easy it is to enter the contest. Number one, it’s free. That out of the way, all a band has to do is supply a digital photo, a digital song track, and answer a few questions about themselves. This is all done in a matter of minutes.

Each week from those submissions we choose two acts to go head-to-head against one another. Then, local music fans visit boom.artvoice.com where they can click on the band they prefer.

The most successful bands are those that not only have created a cool sound, but have also cultivated a loyal fanbase that will go to the website and vote for them. Fans only have from Thursday when the paper hits the street until the following Tuesday at midnight to register their vote. By the following morning, those votes are counted, and the band with the most votes wins a spot on the bill at the next live BOOM Bash. The next one happens to be scheduled for Friday, May 31 at Nietzsche’s—one of the area’s top live music venues. There, audience members are issued a ballot at the door which they can then cast for their favorite act. At the end of the night, the band that garners the most votes wins a spot in the BOOM Grand Finale—an event that will be described in a moment.

The process then repeats three more times—two bands facing off against one another—until we have four finalists for each upcoming BOOM Bash. Along the way, a total of eight local original acts get exposed to a wider audience every month by simply participating in the contest.

But the fun doesn’t end there. For, once we have the four winners from these live preliminary BOOM Bashes, we send them all into the crucible of public opinion known as the live BOOM Grand Finale. This year, the big show takes place at the Sportsmen’s Tavern Music Hall on Friday, June 14. There, the cream of the crop will go all out in one last heroic effort to blow the audience away and coax the most ballots into their pile—because, at the end of the night, the band with the most votes wins the right to call themselves Artvoice BOOM Grand Champions. Randle and the Late Night Scandals, Den of Lions, and Well Worn Boot have already won spots on that bill by being the winners of our first three live showdowns.

Oh yeah, we should also point out that the Artvoice BOOM Grand Champion wins $5,000.

Sounds good? That’s ’cause it is good.

A word of warning however: Bands attempting to stuff the ballot by submitting multiple votes will be rooted out using the most sophisticated intelligence software available on the black market. (Well, okay, that’s a bluff, but if you try to fool our IT guy you will be caught. Just ask the FBI…he’s that good. And if that happens, you will be disqualified with nowhere to appeal our decision.)

IF YOU’RE IN A BAND AND WOULD LIKE TO ENTER BOOM IT’S NOT TOO LATE, BUT YOU MUST APPLY BY MAY 12! Visit boom.artvoice.com to find out how to join the fun.

And, as always, may the best band win.