Battle of the Bands Update

The Standells

Yesterday was the 300th episode of Dr. John's Record Shelf, so we were in a bit of a celebratory mood. In addition to playing a lot of great music and some favorite bits of the past, we added an extra Battle of the Bands contest and welcomed "celebrity" judges the Rock Doctor (who you may recall inspired the Battle in the first place), the Blue Collar DJ (another great KDWG personality), as well as the return of Squeegy Beckenheim and, of course, Art Vandelay (for a total of five instead of the usual three judges, counting me).

The Beach Boys

In the first matchup, pitting no. 2 seed the Beach Boys against no. 15 the Mothers of Invention (Southwest Bracket), we had a mild blowout, with the favorites, behind "Good Vibrations," moving up rather easily. The Mothers were competitive with "Trouble Every Day," but it just wasn't enough going against the the powerhouse surfer dudes (well, one of them anyway). The other two bouts went to the underdog, with the Standells (15) surprising Paul Revere & the Raiders (2) in the Northwest Bracket on a split 3-2 vote, and the Shadows of Knight (9) tripping up the Buckinghams (8) in the Midwest Bracket.

Shadows of Knight

The Standells won with "Dirty Water" vs. "Kicks" for Paul Revere & the Raiders; and the Shadows, you can probably guess, advanced behind "Gloria" while the Buckinghams went with "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (and may be kicking themselves that they didn't put "Kind of a Drag" on the floor instead).

If you are a newcomer to the blog, and want to see all the regional brackets in our little competition, you can find them here, here, here, and here. In earlier action, The Byrds, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Gants, the Cowsills, the Outsiders, Steppenwolf, and Spirit all advanced to round two. The whole competition will unfold over the next few months, on my radio show, which can be heard at 90.9 fm if you happen to be in SW Montana.