The Rockus Event: The Ultimate Battle of the Bands

As a kid, my only exposure to any sort of Battle of the Bands was only in the realm of cartoon characters. This association is in large part due to my obsession with the classic Nickelodeon show Doug, and his absolutely fantastic band The Beets. Don't remember them? These kids sure as hell do.

Thinking the fad had passed, it broke my heart to think that I had missed my chance to experience said sonic warfare. I was sorely mistaken.

Unbeknownst to me, there is an intercollegiate musical challenge taking place in my very own home city. BU, BC, Harvard, MIT, Berklee, Emerson, Northeastern, and Tufts each are taking part in the Rockus battle of the bands, hosted by Veritas Records and Rolling Stone magazine.

As chance would have it, one of Eli and I's good friends from camp, Nick Lattanzi, is the lead singer and mastermind behind the BU based band The Oneways. Although every person who ever went to North Woods is well aware of Nicks innate talent, it is only recen

tly that his music has begun to get him attention. That attention has grown immensely over the past few months, with his first release Shiny Car! (available on iTunes) eventually leading to his winning of the Boston Folk Festival Best Songwriter award. His newest release, Paxamericana (which, because Nick is awesome, is available for free download here), garnered enough attention at BU to give him a solid backing going into the BU Rockus semifinals.

Unfortunately, The Oneways didn't make it past the semifinals. Ironically, they lost to one of my friends from school's band, Kids With Kites, who are awesome musicians themselves.

The finals will be held in April, where each school will be represented by their winning semi-finals band. Judges in April will be by the Founder of Rolling Stone magazine, a Record Exec of his choice, and Boston music celebrity of his choice. Among other things, the winner is to be awarded a quarter-page announcement in the next issue of Rolling Stone.