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My band makes suck.
All my friends suck.
All my friends suck.
It's so too long.
Yeah, the first rule.
You know, that is all my friends suck.
And I am so excited because the first rule
is going to be playing next Saturday,
February 21st at the Burr Oak for the Battle of the
Bands.
And I've loved the first rule.
So I'm really happy to see them come on here.
They're from Kenosha, I believe.
They'll be traveling to Madison for that show.
And speaking of that show,
Soundcheck Entertainment and the Wisconsin
area music industry have partnered
to grow their annual Battle of the Bands
to include Madison in 2026.
And Madison's Battle of the Bands showcase
will take place Saturday, February 21st
at the Burr Oak on Winnebago Street here in Madison.
On the phone with us from West Dallas, Wisconsin
is Soundcheck Entertainment's Michael Grasman.
Michael, welcome back to MagSync Radio.
It is so great to be back.
Things are having me again.
Oh, man, how you been doing?
I mean, I think we last talked
when you were having the Battle of the Bands last year.
We were doing, it might have been that one a year ago.
So we were doing the first one.
And we had bands coming in from all over the state,
which is kind of what fueled it to become
instead of Battle of the Bands Milwaukee.
It is now Battle of the Bands, Wisconsin.
And we've got bands coming from all over the state.
Like you said, you get the first rule coming up from Kenosha.
Oh, yeah, we got bands all over the area.
And they did it last year.
They participated last year and they drove up
and played in, I want to say,
we'll kind of walk is where we have them.
Oh, that's killer.
Yeah, this is their bands are from all over the state.
Michael, Soundcheck Entertainment does a lot more
in Milwaukee's music scene than put on a Battle of the Bands
Tell us about what you do at Soundcheck Entertainment
and what you guys do in the Madison and the Milwaukee
music scene out there.
So me as a working musician and a production guy,
you know, that's kind of how this whole thing got started.
And then that parlayed into working with music venues
and booking their bands and all that stuff.
And then getting really invested into that
and creating events and creating ideas
and creating things that draw people out.
That's kind of where this company has gone
in the last couple of years.
That's what the Battle of the Bands is now.
That's we've got a, from the Battle of the Bands,
we've got another festival that kicked off this year
called Guitar Town Festival in Walker Shaw.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, let's Paul, let's Paul relate it.
I'm imagining.
It is what, let's Paul endorse.
Wow, wow.
Yeah, with Gibson guitars, let's Paul, the Chad,
the Chad Smith Foundation from Red Hat,
Chili Pepper, these, this all
came out of the first Battle of the Bands.
Wow.
Two guys, one judge and one performer,
and they approached me about this idea
and we were like, this is what we're doing.
Wow.
We're taking, we're taking whatever this event can give us
and make it the next thing.
That's really exciting.
Now, sound check entertainment, they all,
you guys do lessons, PAs,
and you also book a couple of Milwaukee clubs.
I do, I do book music for Paulie's Pavanita,
which is one that was in the music industry,
venue of the year, three years in a row.
That's my, that's our little flagship idea of a venue,
you know, how we do it, we kind of take that model
and we suck it to three other venues
and that's really proven to have some sustainable
live music.
And the, obviously, the goal from book
and music and venues is how do we make it
incorporate original music as well.
And I love Paulie's club because one of the,
one of the ways that you guys do things
is you book bands at the bar,
but then there's shuttle buses that take people to concerts
or summer fast or, you know,
all these different events are on Milwaukee.
But then you end up back at the bar
where this band is playing, right?
Yeah, not, we call it a Paulie's mass transit system.
God, he's got four school buses,
seven, 15 passenger bands now.
Wow.
Do you think that there anything that there's
an event going on around town,
even going to other big live music shows
at other bars and clubs, you know, we're not afraid,
we're not afraid to say we'll take you there
and we'll bring you right back to where we are
because you're going to go spend money there,
you're going to spend money here
and we're going to get you there, you know,
safe and reliable.
What a concept.
Soundcheck entertainment and the Wisconsin
music industry are partners in the
Battle of the Bands in the first round
was held at Oak Brewing in West Dallas.
Tell us about the first round and who won to move on
to the finals that are going to be
at Rally Point Station in a kind of like in March.
Yeah, so the first one was at Oak Brewery,
which is a music venue that does book original music.
So they have in-house production a great sound guy
that night, Nathan and then from Canaver,
Canaver Land Productions.
He was our sound guy after there,
but we had six bands perform.
The band that won that round with the high score
that's moving on to the finale was called Whiskey in the Devil
and they were signed up to do last year
and they had a conflict and couldn't do it.
And I was really excited that they came back
and then sailed right through.
They're super talented trio.
And the other band that moved on is called Benjamin Trick
who is a local five-piece, just rock and roll,
a little pop punk kind of band.
Yeah.
So, you know, they're both totally different bands.
I think the cool thing about the Battle of the Bands
is that every band that participates is stage ready.
These aren't bands.
They're just hammering around in their basements.
This is going to be a show.
This is going to be nine.
The Burlacle have nine bands.
We did have one drop out from a concert illness.
But we will have nine phenomenally great
Wisconsin original bands.
Now, what inspired sound check in Whammy
to bring around to Madison?
Well, last year when we did this,
we had all these bands coming from all over the state.
All the way from O'Clayer and Green Bay in Kenosha.
So, we saw it.
I mean, the writing was on the wall.
Like, we got to bring this to more cities.
And obviously, if we do it in the same city every year,
it's going to eventually, you know,
you're going to run out of bands.
So, the idea was to keep going, keep expanding.
So, even by the time we did the finale last year,
we knew we were going to go bigger.
And obviously, you got the Wisconsin area
and music industry.
It's Wisconsin.
It's not Milwaukee.
Yeah, that's right.
This can go with their partnership.
They endorse our event.
They are partnering with us in the way
or that they are just endorsing it
by helping us reach more bands.
The whole goal of this whole thing
is not just a competition.
It's not.
If this is a vehicle towards collaborating,
networking, we've got professional videographers there
taking video creating content for these bands
so that they do have something in their hands
just by participating.
And then there's, we've got judges coming in like you guys
to give us the best feedback that they can
to go on to the next level.
That is awesome Saturday, February 21st.
At the Baroque is the Madison Round
of the Battle of the Bands.
Tell us about this next round.
What can we expect at this show?
And like you said, myself and Sean Michael Dargen are judges.
Yeah, well, we're good.
It's going to be fast-paced.
It's going to be a long show because we've got nine bands.
We were quite honestly blown away
by the reaction we had from Madison.
So it's going to be a pack night.
We'll start at 7.30.
So doors will probably open at 6.30 I believe.
There's a $5 cover.
It kind of helps put on the whole show.
But then every band is going to have
a little presentation behind them
so that we can all find them.
Find their followings.
We'll have TVs up with QR codes every band.
So I hope people are ready to scan QR codes
because that's my goal is to make sure
that everybody is finding these bands to follow them.
Find their music at Spotify.
Find them on social media.
And then come out and see them again
when they have their actual shows.
And now two bands will advance from Madison.
And then the finale is that's how
the rally point station in Akonawa coming up in March.
Tell us about that.
Yeah, we did our finale there last year.
We're good friends with the production team at rally point.
In my opinion, they're one of the best in the state.
I mean, the rally point was owned
and operated by a well-known musician
from the band Disturbed.
And Mike Wangerin, the drummer of Disturbed
is going to be a judge at the finale.
Oh, wow.
So we're going to get some heavy hitter,
some rock stars in there as a judge.
But they designed a room that was tater
to the best sound quality you can have.
And the walls have been sprayed
with sound absorption material and the PA there
and the sound guys are just my good friends of mine
with Dan Hensey and Michael Hart
are just amazing sound techs.
So it's going to be a phenomenal big show.
Sounds like a lot of fun.
March 27th at the rally point station in Akonawa
is the finals.
And of course, the next one, the final finale.
And Saturday, February 21st is the Madison edition
of the Battle of the Bands.
How do we keep up with the bands online
and how do we find out more about the bandal of the bands?
Yep. So the sound tech entertainment,
my social media, Facebook and Instagram
is continuously promoting over the next nine days
who the bands are where you can find them.
We'll be tanking them.
So you can find them, you can look at them.
We're going to try to share more content by those bands.
But yeah, social media is where we're at right now.
We're kind of allowing ourselves into the animal
of trying to push everything out there
as much as we can for people to find.
Well, let's see who's fighting for this crown here.
And Madison, I see Dolt is playing Valley Kill,
The Greatation, Venus Drug, Rose from the Dead,
Thor Grim, the Syops, Stray Bales,
the first rule at Mildoo, one of those bands.
Which one canceled?
You know, I don't have my lesser primary right now.
Well, one of them canceled.
So yeah, $5, 9 bands, stakes are over $5,000 of prizes
on the line, including Studio Time at Treehouse Studios
and a slot at Summer Fest.
You know, Michael.
And the Wisconsin Area Music Industry award show,
we, the winner last year, got a spot performing at that award show
and they're going to do it again this year.
Oh, very cool.
The opportunities that have spurred from this thing,
it's just too many, too many to even list right now.
And the Whammy and Warts ceremony is going to be here in Madison
at the Atwood Music Hall coming up in May.
And I'll be there too.
Awesome. Well, that sounds really good.
Michael Grasmin, Soundcheck Entertainment,
The Battle of the Bands happened in February 21st at the Burrow.
Thank you so much for talking to us tonight from West out.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you. We'll see you next week.
Sounds good.
All right. Well, you know what?
We have a song from one of the winners that's going to be
at the rally point station here in March.
It's Benjamin Trick.
They're from Milwaukee.
This is called Stitches.
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We are Local Music.
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This is Maxing Radio.
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