$10,000 I’m With The Band V2.0 Finals Set For June 5th!
After 16 weeks of preliminary rounds and another 4 weeks of semi-final rounds, the finals of TNT’s 89X I’m With The Band V2.0 have been finalized with the addition of 1 wildcat band, set to go down on June 5th at TNT’s Bar & Grill in Clinton Twp. What a wild ride it has been as allegations surrounded the “OnLine” vote phase of this competition that accounted for 1/3 of the point total during the prelim rounds, then was reduced to 20% during the semi-final rounds to being completely eliminated for the finals. (late breaking news- it appears that contrary to what we've reported, 89X on line voting has begun for the finals! We are trying to confirm this and what portion it will count as, and will update as soon as we find out, so go ahead and vote, ONCE per day!) So it goes without saying that in order to win this battle, the winner must do 2 things, 1st pack the place to win the door vote, & 2nd, knock us out with their performance. With TNT’s supplying the $10,000, Metro Recordings supplying the 5 song EP, and 89X supplying the non stop PR, look for one hotly contested finale where one band will be crowned the winner! It will be no easy task either, 
considering the 4 finalists have outlasted all their competition, along with the just announced addition of Herd as the wildcat finalist! That’s right, that big old band from little ole Houghton Lake has consistently drawn a mega dose of door paying fans at each round they have competed in, largely due to what is passionately referred to as “The Herd Bus”! Look for these guys to painlessly deliver a high energy set of progressive / alternative rock & roll that pleads to be Herd on the radio! Joining them will be the winner of Semi-Final #1, Band With No Name, another high octane rock & roll band that literally squashed everyone they’ve met to date. Fronted by former Warner Brothers recording artist Jeff Gutt, Band With No Name crosses Linkin Park-ish melodies with
Papa Roach type riffs, topping it off with Gutt’s spectacular vocals, producing a sound that is all their own that is worthy of airplay on any radio station across the nation. Look for these guys to fill TNT’s to capacity on their own as the have a huge local following. Local Metal Hard Rockers Lithium, winners of Semi-Final #2, will also be there. Winning SF-2 wasn’t easy in and of itself, probably the closest round in the semi’s, and also where the wildcat addition Herd performed, Lithium will need to bring it all for the Finals. Lithium takes the hard road and nails it like no other, a definitive metal band fronted by the charismatic bad boy Pauly, Lithium tends to “pound” the competition and can certainly fill TNT’s on their own. Winners of Semi-Final #3 was 
another Detroit Metal band, Ghosts of August who played their way into the semi finals by winning week 16 of the prelim rounds. In another highly controversial round, Ghosts of August finished in second place to Impossible Tuesday in the online voting segment, yet won the overall week to get them here. In what is the major upset of the entire competition, Facture won Semi-Final #4 after finishing 2nd during week 7 to wildcard selection Herd, knocking off week 12’s 2nd place finishers InGray (InGray 
got into the semi’s due to week 12’s 1st place winner Free Element dropping out), week 13’s winner Mic Lordz & The Sauce Funky, & week 15 winners NuRocSol! Talk about back door! Facture is another local Detroit area Metal band that can rock the house themselves and will almost certainly draw a huge crowd to TNT’s for the finals. We’re sure all of these bands will be coming to TNT’s June 5th for the Finals with the same purpose, to win it all! Check out all the bands for yourself over on the Dr2 MySpace page where they’re all listed in our “Top Friends”. Dr2 will be in the house for this ultimate battle, bringing you all the angles as they go down next Thursday night June 5th at TNT’s Bar & Grille in Clinton Twp so get there early as we expect not only a full house, but from what we’ve seen of all these bands, it may be standing room only, in the parking lot! Thanks to all who have participated and Good luck to all 5 bands, may the best band win! Detroit Rock Review, The ONLY Place For Local Music News & Reviews. Support Local Music Before It’s Gone for Ever!
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Ok. On a side note here, Dr2 would like to take a minute and wonder out loud as to “WTF” is up with this band shit going down around here lately? One thing we can say that is quite Ironic is that with one exception, all the bands that have made it to the finals have done so without inflated online voting! Good thing that the organizers of this competition recognized this was going on during the early rounds and reduced the weight of these online votes in how they're counted towards the final tally. What’s even better is that it has been eliminated all together for the finals to ensure that this goes down without any controversy (hopefully). We all realize that it is a competition so no matter who wins or loses, there’s bound to be the normal accusations flowing afterwards. But with that being said, Dr2 has brought up this issue before, only to be swamped by emails, messages, comments etc, agreeing with us along with a very few that disagreed. The sad part about it was that the few disagreeing were the bands that somehow remarkably rendered 1,500-2,000 votes plus during the weekly and/or semi-final rounds, only to vehemently deny any shady doings. Again, We must wonder out loud how it is that at a minimum, they have at least 200-300 people voting for the 7 days of that segment, yet visit their site. Where are all those “Friends” other than Tila Tequilla and the likes, who we all know do not vote. It amazes us here that if you supposedly have 200-300 “tight” friends/fans who would go to great lengths to guarantee that you get their vote for 7 days straight, that somehow, out of the blue, they are no where to be found when these bands get up on stage to play out! Then there is the case of the “missing bands”. It was bad enough to see certain bands loose the online vote during the weekly competition, only to fail to show up for the “Performance” & “Door Vote” segments. OK we heard from a few of these bands, and some had good viable reasons, we accept that and thanks for setting us straight. But we are referring to a number of bands who either didn’t show up after losing the weekly vote, and these bands who dropped out after winning their weekly round. Why would anyone who is half ass serious about their music drop out of a competition that is paying out $10K & a free 5 Song EP? So say what you will, but the fact is, Dr2 has been there and we have seen, week in & week out, so we are going to stick by are original statements, controversial or not! See ya Thursday!
Hometown Honky Tonk Hotty, Sarah Lenore, reportedly (has been confrimed) will be featured on NBC’s summertime hit series America’s Got Talent this Tuesday Night @9pm. Produced by Simon Cowell (American Idol) and hosted by Jerry Springer, America’s Got Talent also has an all star set of celebrity judges that includes Sharon Osbourne, David Hasselhoff, & Piers Morgan. The third season kicks off with audition episodes shot on location in theaters across the nation, including a "virtual audition city" on MySpace, with the judges selecting the best acts who will advance to the Vegas Callbacks. The acts that make it through the Vegas Callbacks will then move on to the live semi-final performance episodes where the American viewing audience will vote for their favorites each week. The series culminates with a live finale where one act will walk away with a million-dollar prize. Due to the standard signed “confidentiality agreements”, Dr2 has been unable to confirm whether our 20 year old starling makes it through the audition rounds, or even makes the cut to appear on TV during the premier (Dr2 Has confirmed she was at the Atlanta auditions, you'll have to watch to see if she makes it through). Suffice to say that if you’ve followed the career of Sarah, then you know what we mean when we say “Sarah’s Got Talent”, and on top of that she has that all important “look” that everyone so adamantly admits is necessary in today’s media driven music world. Tune in to NBC this Tuesday and see for yourself whether or not our not so Jack like “Nashville” transplant makes it through to Vegas Baby! Until then check her out on the Sarah Lenore MySpace Page and as always, remember Detroit Rock Review is The Only Place For Local Music News & Reviews!
Wrif & 1320X have teamed up to bring us a new contest that looks for local bands to play Milan Dragway on July 4th! Brought to you by the guys behind PINKS, this contest ask Wrif Cyber Crew members to nominate their favorite local band that they’d like to see headline this event! The band with the most nominations will be declared the winner and will headline the show, receiving $1,000 for the gig!
In their short time together One Man's Opinion has already made a huge impact on the regional music scene. The band's undeniably catchy first single Crawl Into Bed with Me has currently received almost 1000 spins on 89x, a remarkable feat for an unsigned band. Across the pond, Crawl Into Bed With Me landed on London's 96FM “Out of the Box” Hall of Fame after 10 consecutive on-air victories. No one hit wonders, One Man's Opinion second single Without Eyes has consistently cracked 89x's Top 9 at 9 -a nightly show reflecting listeners' most requested songs.