Deadline for Battle of the Bands Approaching

Enter our Battle of the Bands contest for some great prizes and recording time!

The grand prize winner will get to headline a gig at The Harp in Boston in June!

Submissions are due by noon Friday, April 20.

A few things about this contest:

• You must submit a performance video with an original song. No covers.
• All members must be at least 15 years old.
• At least one member of the band must be from a community covered by Patch.
• All genres are welcome to compete. Blues, Country, Metal, Rock, Alternative, R&B, Rap, Hip-Hop, Pop ... bring it on!
• Your entry must include typed out lyrics to the song. Songs with inappropriate or vulgar lyrics will be disqualified. (And don't pretend you don't know what inappropriate lyrics are.)
• Your entry must include the names and addresses of all band members.
• Instrumentals are permitted.
• Solo acts are permitted.

The first round will be regional (bands from the North Shore and Merrimack Valley will battle) and our readers will tell us who they think should win.

Then, the top two bands from the North Shore/Merrimack Valley round will face finalists from the Greater Boston area and South Shore/Cape and the Islands before the grand prize winner is chosen.

• Friday, April 20 – Deadline for submissions
• Monday, April 23 – Regional round begins
• Friday, May 4 – Regional round ends
• Monday, May 7 – Final round begins
• Friday, May 18 – Final round ends
• Monday, May 21 – Grand prize winner announced

We have some great prizes lined up for the winners. The band that receives the most votes in the regional round will win two hours of recording time at a local recording studio. The North Shore/Merrimack Valley top vote getter will get time at The Space in Lowell.

But that’s just the start. The winner of the finals will get even more prizes!

The grand prize winner will headline a gig at The Harp in Boston, as well as a cut/color at Avanti Hair Salon, a party bus ride around Boston on Bustonian Party Bus and lunch at M.J. O'Connor's!

• Videos should not be longer than four minutes or exceed 100 MB. Keep it to one of these formats: AVI, MOV, WMV, MP4, MPEG, FLV, 3GP, or 3G2.
• One entry per band.
• Videos must be 100 percent original work. No covers or third-party materials.
• To submit your entry: email to ashley.troutman@patch.com, upload to this article or use a file sharing service to get it to ashley.troutman@patch.com.

For more information about the rules, please see the rules document attached to the article. If you have any questions, please email ashley.troutman@patch.com.