We were really stoked when we received the e-mail from Greg asking if we’d be interested in playing at the Boston Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands. We had a great time at the Seattle battle, but we really thought that was the end of a fun gig… Traveling out to Boston to play a gig sounded awesome! [Juda's Wake is (left to right): Peter Dixon, James Dixon, and Will Dixon---Eds.]

Booking travel accommodations fell nicely into place, lining up vacation time came through, confirmed with Delta that our guitars/cymbals could be carry-ons, doubled our practice schedule to prepare for the “big gig in Boston,” and we were feeling good about pulling off a respectable set.

I had traveled to Boston a bit for work and actually played some gigs in Boston about 10 years ago with another band (long story), and whenever I brought up Boston, my brothers/bandmates responded with, “Meh… Boston. What’s so cool about Boston?” Sure we enjoyed Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Fever Pitch, but…?

OK, so we had an early flight on Wednesday morning. We get to the gate at SeaTac with 3 minutes to spare, and the clearly metal-fearing gate check attendant exclaimed that bringing our guitars on board was against FAA regulation and they would have to be checked. So we confirm that they would be handled like a stroller and would be handed to us after we arrived in Boston. As we see our guitars dramatically toppling out onto the luggage conveyor at Logan Airport, we cringe at the thought of the damage to our babies that just spent hours freezing in the belly of the plane! Thanks Seattle!

Thankfully they only received some cosmetic scratches to the cases (that’s what they’re for right?), but here’s where the remarkable Boston hospitality starts (not kidding). We go to the luggage desk at Logan to see how we could avoid this on our return… The luggage manager apologizes profusely, files a complaint on our behalf, assures us that there is no FAA regulation against the guitars as carry-ons, gives us all Delta $$ vouchers and stresses that if this were to happen again, make sure to get the PINK check tag, and not the yellow. Luggage with pink tags are handed to you at the door of the plane. Luggage with yellow tags are handed to oversized playful gorillas.

The luggage manager, cabbies, hotel staff, waiters and bartenders—all inquire if we’re in a band, related, where from, etc., and all affirm that the Middle East is THE place to play, especially the lower level. Cool!

Three of the four spots we hit on Wednesday night bought us rounds, did shots with us, shared Boston music and architecture history, tips, and advice. The three of us are out in Seattle all the time, and the whole “Nah, that round is on us—how ’bout doin’ a shot?” just doesn’t happen. Let alone three times in a single night.

There was not a setting during this trip where we spent more than 30 minutes at that a Bostonian didn’t stop to chat with us, take a picture with us, share a story, etc. etc.

Add a really fun gig, big crowd, smooth running operations, at a top notch venue with other great bands… we love Boston—and Xconomy! Thanks guys!

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It’s not every day you get to see three great East Coast rock bands on the same stage with two amazing West Coast bands—so we made a point of documenting our big fundraiser last Thursday, the Battle of the Tech Bands 3: Seattle vs. Boston.

Today we want to share the amazing footage and images captured at the event by our volunteer videographer, Mark Woit, and our photographer Kevin Vogelsang.

CLICK HERE FOR SLIDE SHOW (18 images)

Our video is below. And for even more great photos, you can check out Boston24.com’s awesome coverage of the band battle.

We want to thank all our bands for coming out for the event, including Audience Favorite winner The Dirty Truckers (from Jamaica Plain, MA, representing American Well), Most Innovative Band winner Lions Ambition (from Seattle, representing Boeing), and worthy competitors Deadbeat Darling (from Brooklyn, NY, representing Pictela), Juda’s Wake (from Seattle, representing Microsoft) and McAlister Drive (from Boston, formerly representing Linedata Services). For winning the Audience Favorite prize, The Dirty Truckers took home a seven-hour package of studio recording and engineering time donated by Bristol Studios of Boston. And for winning the Most Innovative Band prize, Lions Ambition was awarded a year of online merchandising services donated by Nimbit, also of Boston, as well as three hours of digital media/strategy consulting from Ten Minute Media, of Holyoke, MA.

We’re donating net ticket proceeds from the event to two great local non-profit groups, Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston. Once all the beans are counted, it looks like we’ll be contributing about $1,100 to each organization.

For helping us to make the Battle of the Tech Bands 3 a big success, we want to thank our event sponsors, Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, McNamee Lawrence & Co., Aerva (which flawlessly handled the audience text message voting for the third year in a row—and this year added interactive photos as well), Bristol Studios, and Nimbit; our band sponsor, Brad Feld; our event partners, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, MITX, and the Mass Technology Leadership Council; and our event supporters, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, American Well, Avalon Ventures, Chen PR, The Computer Cafe, General Catalyst Partners, Google, Google Ventures, Harmonix, H&R Block, Heartland Robotics, IDEO, iRobot, Ten Minute Media, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 3: The Video

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We know, we’ve been holding out on you. But don’t worry, we do plan to reveal the winners of last night’s Battle of the Tech Bands 3, for those of you who couldn’t make it. The evening saw a great turnout of people representing all facets of the tech, life sciences, and venture communities here in Boston. Each band played a riveting set, and captured the attention of audiences and judges alike.

But for all our boasting that we’d settle the battle for coastal superiority once and for all, we did no such thing. The audience chose Boston’s gritty country rock band, The Dirty Truckers, who won in a very tight race (182 votes to 180) against electronica hipsters Deadbeat Darling. But the judges forced an East Coast-West Coast draw when they selected Lions Ambition of Seattle as Most Innovative Band. And few could dispute their choice after hearing the band’s seamless and energetic fusion of rock and hip hop sounds.

In addition to the audience’s affection, the Truckers took home seven hours of studio time, including engineering and production, from Bristol Studios. And the Lions headed west with a marketing package that includes one year of retail service from Nimbit and three hours of consulting from Ten Minute Media, known for designing websites for the likes of Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz.

As it did in its last Battle of the Tech Bands appearance, McAlister Drive went the extra mile (or yard, anyway) to work the crowd, with its lead vocalist jumping down off the stage and out onto the dance floor. And heavy metal band Juda’s Wake showed us that the Pacific Northwest can produce seriously intense sound (and some beautiful rocker locks).

In the end, it seemed the Boston and Seattle contenders were happy to set aside any coast-to-coast rivalry and share the spotlight. Following the competition, Deadbeat Darling returned to the stage to play a closing set for the audience. To our surprise (and delight), they invited the Lions to join them for spontaneous collaboration. If you didn’t think those two musical styles could go together, think again!

Thanks again for all who came. And a big shout-out to our event sponsors, Aerva, Bristol Studios, McNamee Lawrence & Co., Microsoft, and Nimbit; to Brad Feld, who chipped in to help us fly the Seattle bands out for the event, and to all our event partners and supporters. Thanks also to our incredible guest judges: Shawn Broderick, executive director of TechStars Boston, Bob Cramer, executive chairman of Nimbit, Laura Fitton, CEO of oneforty, Jennifer MacLean, CEO of 38 Studios, and Giles McNamee, Managing Director of McNamee Lawrence & Co.

Here’s a few snapshots from last night’s show, courtesy of Kevin Vogelsang. Click on the the images for a larger view. We hope to see you all at our next event!

The Dirty Truckers rock the house.

Lions Ambition roars.

Juda's Wake built a wall of sound.

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Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands has become a welcome wintertime ritual in Cambridge: every January or February we get a bunch of loud, enthusiastic musicians together with a loud, enthusiastic crowd at the Middle East Night Club for a night of hot tunes, bravura performances, and audience voting. But this year—on February 4, to be exact—we’re trying something a little different.

Usually, we invite bands from tech companies around the Boston area to apply to compete, with judges selecting the finalists—and we’ll likely return to that format next year. But this time we decided to bring together past standouts from all three of Xconomy’s previous battles in Boston and Seattle for a grand East Coast vs. West Coast play-off that should put an end to all future questions about which edge of the continent is the most talented.

And believe me, the Seattle bands are ready to strut their stuff for a Boston audience. One of the two bands, Juda’s Wake, offered a dose of trash talk in advance of the battle, while the other, Lions Ambition, is a bit more restrained.

“We’re getting’ prepped for it and can’t wait to bring some Seattle thunder to Boston!” says Jim Dixon, bassist/vocalist for Juda’s Wake, which represents Microsoft. The heavy metal group’s material is loud, edgy, and rhythmically intricate, showing the influence of groups such as Tool, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Rush, and Static X.

Lions Ambition, an upbeat six-member hip-hop/rap/rock ensemble representing Boeing, offers a slightly more lamb-like preview. “I think we do the best as the humble guest,” says Frankie Starr, who shares the group’s MC/vocals role with Marlon Turner. “We’ll let the music and our performance do the talking and have it speak for itself. Looking forward to seeing Boston and competing.”

A big shout-out to Brad Feld, the co-founder of Mobius Venture Capital, Foundry Group, and venture incubator TechStars, for picking up the tab for the two Seattle bands’ travels to Boston. TechStars recently announced, by the way, that it will host a Seattle startup bootcamp session this year—and TechStars Boston executive director Shawn Broderick will be on hand on February 4 as a guest-celebrity judge to help us choose our traditional “Most Innovative Band” prize.

I haven’t seen either of the Seattle bands play, but I have seen their competition, and it will be stiff. The Seattle groups are going up against DeadBeat Darling, a pop/dub/electronica band that won the Audience Favorite award at the inaugural Battle of the Tech Bands in 2008, and The Dirty Truckers, a country-rock-soul band that took the same prize in 2009. Deadbeat Darling formerly represented Akamai and now represents Pictela, a New York cloud computing startup funded by Avalon Ventures through Cambridge-based partner Rich Levandov. The Dirty Truckers represent Boston-based American Well.

You can get tickets for the showdown here. They’re $25 in advance at $35 at the door, and we’ll be donating the net proceeds to two local educational non-profits: Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston.

As always, we’ll be giving away some fabulous door prizes at the battle, including Roomba robot vacuum cleaners donated by Bedford, MA-based iRobot. We’ll have more to announce on that front soon, and we’ll also be letting you know about the prizes for which our four bands are competing.

Buy your tickets now, and be sure to bring your cell phones to the battle, as you’ll be able to vote for your favorite band via text message, using an interactive display system provided by our event sponsor Aerva of Cambridge. Our other event sponsors include Microsoft and McNamee Lawrence & Co., and the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce is an event partner.

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Are you tired of this whole East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry? Do you want it settled once and for all? What better way to do so than with a knock-down drag-out fight— with bass, drums, and guitars. That’s the idea behind Xconomy Boston’s third annual Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands.

The theme of this year’s battle: Seattle vs. Boston. Yes, we’re serious. With the help of a travel grant from Brad Feld of Foundry Group and TechStars fame, Xconomy Boston is bringing out two of the star performers from this summer’s inaugural Xconomy Seattle Battle of the Tech Bands to square off against two previous winners of the Boston battle.

The Seattle vs. Boston smack down is set for Thursday, February 4, at our regular venue: The Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub in Cambridge’s Central Square. As always, we’ll have band prizes and door prizes. And the battle helps some great causes: Net ticket proceeds from this year’s event will go to benefit two local charities: Science Club for Girls and Year Up Boston. You can get tickets here. (They make great holiday gifts!)

We’ll be adding a lot more details after the holidays. But here’s a taste of what’s in store.

From the West Coast, we have Lions Ambition, a six-person hip-hop-rock band representing Boeing. Lions took home the judge’s prize for Most Innovative Band from this summer’s battle “for their inspired rhythms and stratospheric vocals,” as our Seattle editor Greg Huang described it. Also competing is Juda’s Wake, a heavy metal band with roots at Microsoft that many felt was the real star of Seattle battle, even though it finished just out of the prizes. “Killer metal chops, extreme volume, and tremendous hair (from a Microsoft band no less),” said Greg. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that bassist James Dixon started things off in Seattle by announcing: “We’re here to piss some people off.”

They will have a chance to do just that by taking on last year’s Boston audience favorites, The Dirty Truckers, “a hard-driving country-rock-soul band,” in Wade’s words, that represents American Well and Sophos. And joining the Truckers will be the pop/dub/electronica hipsters Deadbeat Darling, which won the audience favorite prize in the Boston battle’s inaugural year representing Akamai. Even though band member Sanjay Jain has since left the Akamai fold and has co-founded a cloud computing startup in New York called Pictela, the band is still deeply connected to the Boston innovation scene. Pictela’s lead investor is Rich Levandov of Avalon Ventures. Levandov, who became famous thanks to The Tale of the Tacoda Tattoo, is based right here in Cambridge.

We’d like to add a heartfelt thanks to Brad Feld who, as I mentioned, provided the funding that allowed us to bring out Juda’s Wake and Lions Ambition. Brad, as most in Boston’s entrepreneurial community know, is a co-founder of TechStars, which opened in Boston this past summer and just announced last week it was coming to Seattle as well. So he, like Xconomy, has strong ties to both cities.

In its first year, the Boston battle drew close to 350 people. Last year, it got even bigger, as nearly 500 people packed into the Middle East. Who knows how big it will be this year—so don’t miss it. Tickets are available here.

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Sometimes we’re so busy doing new stuff here at Xconomy that we don’t have time to actually let you know about it. So here’s a handy list of things that have been happening at the company this summer that you might have missed.

—We published our first premium product, Startup School: The Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators. Here on the site, there’s a free list of the 19 programs we canvassed where early-stage startups can obtain mentoring and seed funding. For $45 (going up to $60 on September 1), you can buy the full report, which contains details about the programs’ application deadlines and procedures, stipend and equity policies, notable graduates, and more.

—With help from Providence, RI-based Mofuse, we launched a mobile version of Xconomy at http://m.xconomy.com. It contains all the same great content as the full Xconomy site, but in a format that’s quick to load and easy to read on mobile devices.

—The first Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepeneurship drew a standing-room-only crowd on June 24. Ryan wrote a nice summary and Bob gave props to everyone who helped.

—We moved our Cambridge headquarters from a funky but tiny former dentist’s office at 10 Rogers Street to a funky and gigantic space in the venerable Foundry Works building at 101 Rogers Street.

—Our first Seattle Battle of the Tech Bands, co-hosted with the Washington Technology Industry Association, was a huge smash on July 30, garnering great reviews from The Seattle Times, TechFlash, and nPost. The winning bands: Indigo Soul (Audience Favorite) and Lions Ambition (Most Innovative).

—As always, we offer many ways to access Xconomy. You can sign up for e-mail newsletters, including newsletters pertaining specifically to subject areas like information technology or life sciences, or to news from Xconomy’s home cities of Boston, San Diego, and Seattle. Ditto for our RSS feeds.

—We’re very active on Twitter. Staffers tweet about a variety of Xconomy stories at @Xconomy. And several of us tweet regularly from our personal accounts: You can follow Bob at @bbuderi, Luke at @ldtimmerman, Ryan at @Ryan_McBride, and me at @wroush.

—If you want to distribute the full text of an Xconomy article to clients, customers, or colleagues, it’s easier than ever to buy a reprint.

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Beneath the friendly, laid-back veneer, the Seattle tech community is a rough-and-tumble lot ready to throw down at a moment’s notice. That’s what you might surmise after the past week, anyway. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. (Though the heat wave might have had something to do with it.)

Here’s a quick update for those who missed the action:

—We’re getting pretty sick of being compared to Silicon Valley. Most of the time, we defer to the sheer number of startups, entrepreneurs, and venture firms in the Bay Area, taking solace in the quality of our talent and companies. But every once in a while, someone really stirs the pot, like UW TechTransfer’s Janis Machala did last week at a public forum on campus. She said Seattle pays a price for its laid-back, outdoors-y lifestyle, and implied that some of our entrepreneurs don’t work as hard as those in the Valley. To which many local observers, including Dave Schappell of TeachStreet, have taken offense (albeit respectfully), arguing that Seattleites work just as hard.

Silicon Valley readers apparently believe they can learn a thing or two from Seattle’s startup efforts. Case in point: Marcelo Calbucci of Sampa and Seattle 2.0 has taken considerable time and effort to blog about lessons learned from Sampa’s demise, and he’s getting a lot of readership in the Bay Area.

—And don’t even get us started on Portland, OR. We Seattleites hate to be ranked behind Portland in anything. Yeah, so they still have a pro basketball team, and a pretty good Japanese garden and bookstore, but that’s about all we are willing to concede, right? So when Entrepreneur magazine ranked Portland as one of the top cities for startups and snubbed Seattle (at least that’s how it was perceived), this meant war. Even though Gerry Langeler of OVP Venture Partners was quoted as saying Portland is “too small to have competing ventures,” and its entrepreneurs tend to lack a “killer instinct.”

TechFlash went on the offensive, calling out Portland for its relative dearth of venture capital and venture-backed public companies. The Oregonian and Silicon Florist came to Portland’s defense; blogger Rick Turoczy pointed out that Portland entrepreneurship is incredibly diverse, with startups not just in software and cleantech, but in food and drink, clothing, books, comics, and other creative arts. In short, Portland is a collaborative, entrepreneur-friendly town, and its culture is separate from Seattle’s. (OK, it’s not quite Red Sox-Yankees blasting each other in the tabloids, but you get the idea.)

—I say we settle all this bad blood with a Battle of the Tech Bands: Seattle Vs. All Comers. Xconomy CEO and editor-in-chief Bob Buderi has already dropped hints that he wants to stage a Boston vs. Seattle band battle. Judging from the quality and tremendous energy of the bands we saw at the Pyramid Alehouse last week, it could shape up to be quite an epic. (See more photos from the Battle and WTIA party here, courtesy of Kevin Pedraja.)

I don’t know about you, but my money’s on this guy (left), Peter Dixon from the metal band Juda’s Wake (representing Microsoft), winning it all… You want a piece of Seattle? Come and get it.

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The rock and roll moment of the night came when James Dixon broke a bass string during the first song from his hard-driving metal band Juda’s Wake. Let me tell you, it’s not that easy to break a bass string unless you really shred it. It’s also not easy to describe Juda’s Wake beyond killer metal chops, extreme volume, and tremendous hair (from a Microsoft band no less). “We’re here to piss some people off,” Dixon said, to the crowd’s delight.

Five bands competed in the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands, hosted at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s annual summer celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. Five bands left as winners in my book. From the first act, the quirky and inimitable Afraid of Figs (representing MorphoTrak and Robert Half Technology), to the closers, the powerful alt-rockers Between These Lines (representing Hewlett-Packard), these performers left it all out on the stage. Check out the comprehensive review of the show from Gene Stout, the former Seattle P-I pop music critic, in TechFlash.

In the end, we gave out two official prizes. Melodic and laid-back rockers Indigo Soul (see photo below), led by Mark Protus of Caiman Consulting (the band also represented Microsoft), took home the Audience Favorite prize—a year of promotional services from Nimbit, a renowned Boston-area firm.

And the Most Innovative Band award, decided by our panel of judges, went to hip-hop rockers Lions Ambition (representing Boeing), for their inspired rhythms and stratospheric vocals—they received free studio time from The Hive Recording Studio in SeaTac.

But I would go see any of these bands again in a heartbeat. And in fact, three of them are playing shows in the area tonight. Afraid of Figs is at the Mix in Georgetown; Lions Ambition is at El Corazon in Seattle; and Between These Lines is at the Manette Saloon in Bremerton.

Great thanks to WTIA for co-organizing the event with us. And thanks to headliner sponsor Lionfish Creative, live-voting sponsor SinglePoint, drink-ticket sponsor Nyhus Communications, and supporting sponsors CCS Printing and ServerLogic, as well as all our raffle prize donors (proceeds went to Technology Access Foundation and Jack Straw Productions). Finally, the show would not have gone on without the hard work of CarToys, Stageworks Productions, and Pyramid to handle the logistics.

We had a great time, and hope you all did too. Drop us a line if you have any feedback on the event. See you next year!

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We’re all still running around covering the fine art of innovation this afternoon, but soon we’ll be heading over to the Pyramid Alehouse next to Safeco Field (see map here), where the stage is being put together for tonight’s big event, as we speak.

Xconomy and the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) are partners on this Battle of the Tech Bands in Seattle, which is happening at WTIA’s annual summer celebration. We’re expecting a fantastic crowd, and a rocking competition. Doors open at 5 pm, and the bands kick off at 6 pm (five groups, five different styles), with temperatures expected to be in the upper 80s. So dress accordingly, channel your inner rock geek, and don’t worry—there’ll be plenty of beer to cool you off as the night progresses.

Thanks to The Seattle Times, TechFlash, and nPost for the great event coverage. And former P-I pop music critic Gene Stout will be in the house—enough said. See you there!

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After a scorching week of 90-degree temperatures, what could be better than kicking back with a nice cold one, catching up with friends and colleagues—and seeing five of Seattle’s top rock bands with tech affiliations duke it out for prizes and the adulation of the crowd?

It’s all happening this Thursday evening at Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands, at WTIA’s summer celebration down at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. The Battle will take place from 6-9 pm. Get your tickets online here, by Tuesday 5 pm, as they are going fast…

The bands (listen to their songs here) will be competing for two prizes—Audience Favorite (voted on by the crowd via SMS), which wins one year of band promotional services from Nimbit, and Most Innovative Band (voted on by our judges), which wins free studio time from The Hive Recording Studio. Both winners will also receive free press releases to promote their shows, tours, and albums with traditional and online media outlets, courtesy of Marketwire.

We’ll also be giving out raffle prizes throughout the evening, including a Seattle harbor cruise for four from Argosy Cruises, museum passes and a gift certificate from the Experience Music Project, Guitar Hero III courtesy of Guitar Center, and Seattle Mariners gift packs (see the event site for a complete list). All raffle ticket proceeds are going to our charitable partners, Technology Access Foundation and Jack Straw Productions. Thanks to all for their generous donations.

And last, but not least, check out Paul Allen and Bill Gates in cartoon-land, as they prepare to compete in the Battle. I’m actually starting to believe they might be there, although I don’t know about the costume (that puts it over the top). It’s the latest installment of Protingent Man by David J. Locher, courtesy of Donn Harvey at Protingent Staffing:

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It’s all about the party. It’s all about the networking. No. For today, at least, it’s all about the rock.

Seattle’s first-ever Battle of the Tech Bands is happening one week from tonight, on July 30, at the Pyramid Alehouse. The music starts at 6 pm. Xconomy is teaming up with WTIA to bring this showcase of bands to our fair city, and it’s going to be one heck of a blast. Tickets are going fast, so be sure to get yours in advance here.

I even know what the prizes are going to be—for the winners of Audience Favorite and Most Innovative Band—but I’m not telling yet. All in good time. For now, I want all your attention on the bands. Why? Because they’re incredibly good, that’s why.

For your listening pleasure, I’ve included one track from each band below, as well as a brief bio from their websites. Enjoy!

Afraid of Figs is a band of talented musicians from previous bands. They share a serious work ethic, off the wall sense of humor, and love of performing. Influences include: Barenaked Ladies, Presidents of the USA, Cake, Ben Folds, and others.

Here’s their incomparable track, “I Ate A Vegan”:

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Between These Lines started rocking in late 2005 as a trio jamming on some of the most popular pop-punk rock songs of recent. In September 2008, Between These Lines began recording their debut EP, Familiar Places, with Producer Brandon Bee in Tacoma, Washington. This highly regarded album has been compared to artists such as Paramore, Acceptance, Jimmy Eat World, and Taking Back Sunday.

The rich and swirling “Confess To Impress”:

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Indigo Soul is the alter-ego of Seattle-based singer/songwriter Mark Protus. Music critics describe the Indigo Soul sound as “very melodic song-based rock that’s in no way enslaved to any current trends.” The band combines smart and thoughtful lyrics with “fresh sounds and catchy and soulful classic-rock styles.”

The haunting harmonies and melodic lines of “Waiting For You”:

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Juda’s Wake is a modern Seattle-based metal power trio. They pull together a penetrating mix of intricate guitar, heavy rhythmic hooks, and edged vocal melodies resulting in a convincing, hard hitting, and articulate noise. Juda’s Wake draws influence from such bands as Tool, Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Rush, Mudvayne, and Static-X, but has brewed a new take on the aggressive sound.

The awesome head-banging thrashiness of “Loggerhead”:

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Lions Ambition is a hip-hop/rock band based out of Seattle, WA. The band mixes together live instrumentation, soulful vocals, and conscious lyrics to blend together a truly unique sound. The band has played in parts of Canada, California, and Seattle at different venues, festivals, and college events.

The soulful and articulate goodness of “Dreams (Don’t Let Go)”:

That’s it for now. Get your tickets, and see you on the 30th!

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With just under two weeks to go until Seattle’s first-ever Battle of the Tech Bands, I thought I’d give you a quick preview of the event. It’s all taking place on July 30 at the WTIA Summer Celebration, at the Pyramid Alehouse (registration and ticket info here). The music will start at 6pm, and we’ll stick to a pretty tight schedule.

Five bands will compete for two prizes—Audience Favorite (voted on by you, the attendees) and Most Innovative Band (voted on by the event judges). Each of the five finalists will get a 15-minute set. I’ll follow up next week with a more extensive preview of the bands, but for now you can check out their music on their respective sites:

Afraid of Figs
(representing MorphoTrak and Robert Half Technology)

Between These Lines
(representing Hewlett-Packard)

Indigo Soul
(representing Microsoft and Adobe)

Juda’s Wake
(representing Microsoft)

Lions Ambition
(representing Boeing)

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And last, but not least, we have an honorary sixth entrant that will be there in spirit—that is, unless Paul Allen and Bill Gates decide to drop in for an unannounced set (one can always hope…stranger things have happened. OK, maybe not). It’s the Protingent Man comic, the latest installment of which appears below, courtesy of David J. Locher and Donn Harvey of Protingent Staffing:
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And then there were five. Here at Xconomy, we have made our selections for the five finalists who will compete at our inaugural Battle of the Tech Bands in Seattle, to be held on the evening of Thursday, July 30 at the WTIA Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse. We are looking forward to putting on a spectacular show. (Registration info is here.)

It’s been a long road. We put out the call for bands more than two months ago. We got a couple dozen competitive entrants (thanks to all the bands who applied). We listened to demos, sorted through band bios and websites, consulted our esteemed judges, and listened some more. After a few days of intensive discussions, we arrived at our top picks.

Five finalists, and five words: They are going to rock.

Their mix of musical styles, personalities, and companies represented (each band has at least one member from a Northwest technology firm) is pretty awesome. Most of all, each of them has a legitimate chance to win. In music, as in business, it all comes down to execution, right?

Two awards will be given at the event on July 30. One will be for Audience Favorite, based on voting by all of you, the attendees. The other will be for Most Innovative Band, which will be decided by a select panel of judges, together with Xconomy and WTIA staff.

So here they are—the five bands—along with the tech companies their members represent, my personal impressions of them, and why each has a real shot at winning. Please check out their stuff, come out and support the local tech-music scene, and cast your vote on July 30. We’ll see you there.

Drumroll, please…

Afraid of Figs
(MorphoTrak, Robert Half Technology)
Light, infectious pop rock reminiscent of Barenaked Ladies and Cake.
Why they could win: With a song called “I Ate a Vegan,” anything is possible.

Between These Lines
(Hewlett-Packard)
Contemporary alt-rock quintet with a polished, radio-ready sound.
Why they could win: With expertly crafted songs and strong stage presence, they might be hard to top.

Indigo Soul
(Microsoft, Adobe)
The melodic intersection of classic rock, 80s pop, soulful lyrics, and rocking rhythms.
Why they could win: Their music might be just perfect for a warm, mid-summer evening celebration.

Juda’s Wake
(Microsoft)
Killer metal chops. Need we say more?
Why they could win: This band would have a chance to win any contest they entered—and I mean any.

Lions Ambition
(Boeing)
Energetic hip-hop, rock, and soul with monstrous hooks and catchy lyrics.
Why they could win: The whole city might be dancing after one song.

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We are in the final stages of selecting the five finalist bands who will perform on July 30 at the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands, to be featured at the Washington Technology Industry Association’s Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse across from Safeco Field in Seattle.

We will announce the finalists very soon, but suffice to say that our esteemed judges were suitably impressed by the quality and diversity of the bands who entered. It is going to be a really rocking show, with a great mix of musical styles and companies represented.

The WTIA has also secured two Seattle-based charitable partners for the event, who will receive the proceeds from all raffle tickets sold. They are Technology Access Foundation, a nonprofit that prepares children of color for academic and professional success through a rigorous K-12 curriculum (Luke profiled TAF here), and Jack Straw Productions, a multidisciplinary arts center that fosters communication of art and ideas to diverse audiences through audio media and artist residency programs. To register for the event, click here.

In the meantime, here’s a quick behind-the-scenes look at Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s exploits in cartoon-land, as they prepared to send in their band demo to the contest. It’s the latest installment of Protingent Man, courtesy of Donn Harvey and David J. Locher:

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Alas, the deadline has come and gone. Finis. At the stroke of midnight on Friday night, the doors officially closed on any new band submissions for Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands. The big event is happening on July 30, at the WTIA Annual Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle.

You can beg, you can plead, but even if you are Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix resurrected to form a startup that’s reinventing the Web or curing cancer, we still won’t accept your submission… OK, well, maybe we would in that case.

Now it’s off to the judges for deliberations. Good luck to all of the entrants. We’ve got a great mix of bands from small startups and big companies, and a nice range of musical styles, and we’re looking forward to making some tough decisions. We’ll keep you posted on our progress in whittling the list down to the five finalists who will perform on July 30.

Meantime, in cartoon land, Bill Gates and Paul Allen have been on the ball. Having both been laid off from their temp jobs, they’ve had the time to record a killer demo for the Battle. Yes, it’s the newest installment of the “Protingent Man” comic, courtesy of David J. Locher and Donn Harvey (see the previous installment here and the full strip here):

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Here at Xconomy, preparations are in full swing for our Battle of the Tech Bands, which is happening at the WTIA Summer Celebration on Thursday, July 30, at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. If you or anyone you know plays in a band with at least one member from a Northwest tech, life sciences, or tech investing firm, please submit your band’s stuff to techbands@xconomy.com (full details and event info here).

The deadline for submissions is coming up fast—next week, June 12—so don’t delay. We’ve already got a bunch of worthy competitors, but a few more bands from the tech powerhouses (Microsoft? Amazon? Real?), as well as the gaming cluster, certainly wouldn’t hurt. We know you’re out there.

We’ve lined up a team of stellar judges, and are working on a few more, as well as some great music-related prizes. Stay tuned for details on those.

Meanwhile, in cartoon land, Bill Gates and Paul Allen have some extra time on their hands to devote to getting their musical act together in time to participate in the Battle. It’s the latest installment of the Protingent Man comic, courtesy of David J. Locher and Donn Harvey (see the last installment here and the full strip here):

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With summer on its way in, we’re starting to gear up for Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands, which is happening on July 30 at the WTIA Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. If you or someone you know plays in a band that has at least one member who hails from a Northwest tech, life sciences, or tech-investment firm, we want to hear from you (application info and event details are here).

The field is already shaping up to be pretty competitive. How will we choose the finalists and the overall winners, you ask? Very carefully. To that end, we are enlisting the help of some of the Seattle area’s finest tech and music minds (and ears) to serve as judges for the event, in addition to the Xconomy staff. Their duties will range from vetting demos and selecting the finalists to helping us decide which bands get the awards on the big night.

We thought you might like to know a little bit about the judges we’ve recruited so far. Their professional expertise spans the worlds of software, venture capital, and music history. Their musical tastes span everything from heavy metal and Eddie Van Halen to post-punk and alternative rock. Without further ado, here are the luminaries who will help us decide the outcome (not sure who will be the Simon Cowell yet):

—Peter Blecha, music historian, author, and former senior curator of the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Peter is the author of the recently released Sonic Boom! The History of Northwest Rock: From “Louie Louie” to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Backbeat Books, 2009). He calls himself a “rock and roll archaeologist,” and has been a drummer with a number of bands in the Seattle area, including The Debbies.

—Steve Hall, managing director at Seattle-based Vulcan Capital, the group that manages Paul Allen’s investment holdings. Steve leads the firm’s early-stage venture capital investments across the technology, life sciences, and alternative energy sectors. He also plays a mean lead guitar, and notes that he has been brushing up on his Eddie Van Halen guitar solos in the past year.

—Jeff J. Lin, Microsoft program manager of Virtual Earth 3D. Jeff is the co-founder, guitarist, and pianist of the Seattle-based band Harvey Danger. You probably know them from their infectious hit single of the late 1990s, “Flagpole Sitta” ( “I’m not sick but I’m not well, and I’m so hot ’cause I’m in hell…”). Harvey Danger has released three full-length albums, played shows with bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Green Day, and once appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

We’ll have more details on the judges and prizes soon. But don’t delay, the deadline for submissions is June 12 (event details and info here). If you want to enter, please e-mail your band’s info to techbands@xconomy.com.

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Are you ready to rock? We’ve already received quite a few submissions from Seattle-area musicians in the tech and life sciences community who want to compete in the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands. The big competition is happening at the WTIA Summer Celebration at the Pyramid Ale House on July 30. (Event details and band application info is here; the deadline for applicants is June 12.)

But we also got a submission we didn’t expect. It looks like tech luminaries Bill Gates and Paul Allen, a known music buff, are planning to enter the competition—at least in one alternate reality. Donn Harvey, the president of Bellevue, WA-based Protingent Staffing (and bass guitarist with Hettel Street Blues), sent us a rather unusual e-mail. It seems his company has a comic-strip superhero who works with Gates and Allen.

I’ll let the cartoons, drawn by David J. Locher, tell the rest of the story (see below):

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(To be continued…)

OK, so it’s a little self-promotional (for both of us), but we laughed out loud when we received it. Besides, it’s all in the spirit of fun and a great cause, right? We’ll be announcing the judges and prizes for the Battle soon. In the meantime, please help us spread the word, and e-mail us at techbands@xconomy.com if your band would like to enter.

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The Seattle music scene is one of those cliches that people around the country always ask me about, along with the coffee and the weather. But I don’t mind, not one bit. From Jimi Hendrix to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, from the Presidents of the USA to Death Cab for Cutie and Fleet Foxes, the Northwest has produced some of the highest-flying acts in the business. (OK, I also have to mention Sleater-Kinney, Pedro the Lion, and Sir Mix-a-Lot…despite those atrocious Burger King ads.)

Here at Xconomy, we are all about bringing the tech-business community together in new and exciting ways, in addition to our core mission of providing authoritative, hyperlocal coverage of the innovation scene. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from our experiences in our network cities, it’s that really active innovation scenes go hand-in-hand with an abundance of creative talent and a strong arts culture. In particular, we’ve found an astounding amount of overlap between the music scene and techies/researchers working in innovative fields like software, gaming, and biotech.

So, on behalf of our whole staff, Luke and I are thrilled to announce that we are teaming up with the Washington Technology Industry Association to bring you the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands. The contest will be featured at the WTIA Annual Summer Celebration on the evening of Thursday, July 30, 2009, outside the Pyramid Ale House in Seattle. The WTIA Summer Celebration is one of the foremost networking events of the year, and now it will be even more of a blast. Here is more info on entering the band contest, and event registration.

“We’re really happy to be partnering with the WTIA on this amazing event,” says Xconomy co-founder and CEO Bob Buderi. “We’ve held some great battles in Boston. We expect Seattle to bring it.”

Here’s how it works. The Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands is open to all bands (amateur and pro alike) that have at least one member who works at a Northwest technology, life sciences, or tech-investment firm. Why enter? For starters, you’ll get to show off for your friends; meet fellow entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, developers, and engineers; and, oh yeah, possibly take home some serious loot—if you’ve got the chops. There will be two grand prize winners: the audience will pick its favorite band, and so will our esteemed panel of judges (more on prizes and judges to come).

In the past year and a half, Xconomy has put on its Battle of the Tech Bands twice in the Boston area, and they have been smash hits, the most recent drawing upwards of 450 people and raising a bunch of money for some great local charities. (My band played a guest set at the last Battle, so I can personally vouch for how much fun it was—yes, I lead a double life in music, as I suspect many around here do.) The winning bands have received free studio time and promotional services courtesy of local companies. We also gave away some fabulous door prizes, like Roomba vacuum cleaners from iRobot, Zune music players from Microsoft, and Rock Band video game bundles from Harmonix Music Systems.

So please join us for the inaugural Battle in Seattle. If you’d like to be considered for a slot in the Battle of the Tech Bands, send your band’s info (including MP3s, URLs, contact info, and the tech company or companies your band represents) to techbands@xconomy.com. Complete details for entering the contest are here—the deadline for band submissions is Friday, June 12.

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One of the big reasons we launched Xconomy in 2007 was to remind the incredibly talented, enthusiastic people who make up Boston’s innovation community that what they do is not just important and (hopefully) profitable, but fun. And from watching so many tech-biz folks happily getting down and chatting each other up at last night’s Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 2, it seems that we’re succeeding—at least in a small way.

The four-hour competition at the Middle East Night Club in Central Square, Cambridge, included five bands with members representing local technology companies, plus special guests Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, starring Xconomy’s own Greg Huang on bass. The event attracted a capacity crowd of more than 400 attendees, whose ticket purchases helped us assemble respectable donations for two local non-profit groups, the Community Music Center of Boston and Science Club for Girls.

Suspense mounted through the evening as listeners’ votes rolled in via a text-messaging system provided by Cambridge, MA-based Aerva. In the Audience Favorite voting, the crowd eventually settled on The Dirty Truckers, a hard-driving country-rock-soul band representing American Well and Sophos. The Jamaica Plain, MA-based band, which wrapped up its set with a rousing rendition of “Boston Wrangler,” includes Tom Baker and John Brookhouse on guitar and vocals, Jamie Griffith on bass, and Brian McElroy on drums and vocals. As their prize, the group walked away with $1,050 in free studio recording time and engineering help, generously donated by Bristol Recording Studios of Boston.

The award for Most Innovative Band was chosen by Xconomy staffers, together with guest judges Giles McNamee, co-founder of Boston-based investment banking house McNamee Lawrence & Co., and Helen Greiner, co-founder of Bedford, MA-based iRobot. The award went to Anomopoly, an offbeat indie/rock quartet representing TekScan and Nano-C. The Brighton, MA-based band includes vocalist Toni Ferreira, guitar player Brian Joyce, bass player Tom Lada, and drummer Bill Anderson, and stirred up the crowd with their rhythmically surprising original “Angel Hair,” among other great tunes. For their efforts, Anomopoly took home our other grand prize, a year of free online band promotion services, generously donated by Boston-based Nimbit.

The other three competitors turned in such fantastic performances that we wished we’d had five awards to hand out. EneROCK, a power-rock quartet representing Boston-based EnerNOC, got the competition off to a rollicking start with expert covers of classics like Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The Main Drag, an indie-electronic band whose members hail from Cambridge-based video game pioneer Harmonix Music, impressed the crowd with their colorful, fast-paced arrangements of original songs like “A Jagged Gorgeous Winter” (one of the featured songs on the Harmonix game Rock Band 2). And Seymore Willie, a six-piece R&B ensemble representing AMAG Pharmaceuticals, LSI, and ARCON, definitely delivered on the “energetic, sophisticated raunchy style” promised by its website.

We’re grateful to all the bands for participating. For the record, the final tally … Next Page »

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