Clutch Bananas: Heading to the Southern Regionals

Clutch Bananas will be one of the bands competing in the Southern Regional Semi-finals at Harrah’s New Orleans. If you want to see the best rockers in the South (and here your Blogmaster must interject a stoic “Represent!”), you should head over there on April 30.

The Clutch Bananas practicing, one hopes, at a costume party.

Spirited Texans will be happy to see that Clutch Bananas is straight from the Lone Star State; Plano, to be exact. They’ve got Travis Burns on vocals, Chris Smith on guitar, Oleg Utkin on bass, and Jason Freeman on drums. They made it this far by winning the local tournament at the Horseshoe Bossier City in Louisiana on April 6. They played a great rendition of Interpol’s “PDA” but fear was in the air when the last band to play came within 50K points of their score.

“We had to give them a standing ovation,” Travis says of their fierce competitors. Props for sportsmanlike conduct, guys! It’s nice to see respect for all rockers on the stage.

It was a close call indeed, but with a whopping score of over 2 million Clutch Bananas took home the $2,500 prize money and earned a trip to the New Orleans competition.

A Freakin' Impressive Score and NOT for Give It Away

They bandmates all work together, as Travis, Oleg, and Jason are web developers and Chris is a senior programmer. (This Blogmaster wonders if perhaps many Rock Banders are plucked from the tech industry.)

“We used to spend lunch breaks playing some Call of Duty. One day Oleg brought over Rock Band and we dogged him for it pretty bad,” Travis confesses, “but by the second song we were hooked!” Such is the way of many Rockers.

At any rate, it helps that the Clutch Bananas have a real-life drummer in Jason Freeman and that they practice three times a week to prepare for the competition. Good luck to Clutch Bananas and all the bands that are heading to New Orleans!

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The Pope’s Toyota: Heading to the Southern Regionals

Today’s band, The Pope’s Toyota, beat out the competition in the local tournament at Horseshoe Southern Indiana and will therefore be advancing to the Southern Regionals at Harrah’s New Orleans. It’s going to be an awesome party in the Big Easy on April 30, featuring the best Rock Banders of the south, so be sure to check it out if you’re below the Mason-Dixon line.

The Pope’s Toyota hails from Lexington, Kentucky, and consists of these lucky four: Jennie Duffy on vocals, Jerry Duffy on guitar, Chris Feltham on bass, and Terry Newland on drums. The longtime friends have been playing Rock Band together for two years. They credit their win in Southern Indiana with practicing both online and together, as well as picking a song with a high point potential.

You guessed it. The Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away.” A song that your Blogmaster will never, ever listen to again without seeing large numbers flashing across a mental screen.

The Pope’s Toyota scored about 1.92 million points, although it was a very close competition. Matters weren’t helped by their Incredible Shrinking Drummer issue: Terry’s seat kept dropping little by little so that by the end of the performance, he was more or less sitting at kids’ table-height. Hopefully The Pope’s Toyota won’t have any equipment malfunctions in New Orleans!

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Wet Nelson and the Hot Commodities: Going to the Southern Regionals

Superman ain’t the only awesome thing coming out of Metropolis. Wet Nelson and the Hot Commodities is the winning band from Harrah’s Metropolis in Illinois, and they’re headed to the April 30 Southern Regionals in New Orleans. It’s going to a great party with tons of awesome bands, so get yourself to Harrah’s New Orleans by any means necessary to see it all go down.

Wet Nelson and the Hot Commodities will be there, consisting of vocalist Bryan Severns, guitarist Stephen Ragsdale, bassist Austin Casper, and drummer Bradley Kennedy. Their winning song was, as you might have sensed, “Give It Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The four friends have been playing Rock Band since its inception (September 14, 2007, in case you’ve forgotten), and all but Bryan have real instrument experience.

So what’s their strategy? “We plan on having an exciting stage presence, we want people to believe they are actually watching a band perform on stage,” Wet Nelson et. al. says. “The score is second place to performance in our eyes.”

Sounds like a fun time for all. Should be a great show in New Orleans!

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Karate Choppers: Heading to the Southern Regionals

Today’s band is heading to the Southern Regionals at Harrah’s New Orleans after winning the local competition at Harrah’s Tunica. You can see them perform along with all the other top bands in the South on April 30 at Harrah’s New Orleans, so get cracking if you’re in the area!

The Karate Choppers come to us from Ripley, Mississippi, where vocalist Kirk Nunnelee attends Mississippi State University. The other band members are John Meeks on guitar, Windom Taylor on bass, and Jonathan Tyler on drums; they all met while working at the Sofa-Mart Warehouse. The Karate Choppers have been playing Rock Band since it first came out, and they diligently practice three times a week.

They won at Tunica by playing The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away” (your Blogmaster is sensing a trend) for 1,840,748 points. The competition in New Orleans should be hot. Best of luck to the Karate Choppers and everyone else who’s made it this far!

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The Boom Boom Rockers: Heading to the Central Regionals

Prepare yourself for an onslaught of Canadian jokes from your Blogmaster, because today’s band comes to us from the wilds of the north, America’s hat, the land of Mounties and hockey. Yes, the Boom Boom Rockers are the winners out of Caesars Windsor in beautiful Windsor, Ontario. As the only Canadian venue of the Total Rock tournament, the Boom Boom Rockers carry not only their own hopes and dreams of making it to the finals, but the hopes and dreams of an entire cold, polite homeland. No pressure, guys!

Tonight (yes, TONIGHT) they’ll be playing at the Horseshoe Hammond for the Central Regional title. Remember, folks in the crowd have a chance to win a “Groupie Experience” to see the Total Rock finals in Atlantic City. So go! 9 PM!

The Boom Boom Rockers are Ian Hind on drums, Ryan Strilchuck on bass, Matt Haslam on guitar, and Renaldo Augstino on vocals. Everyone except Renaldo is a For Serious musician in real life, which might explain why the Boom Boom Rockers hadn’t even practiced before competing at Windsor!

“Our strategy is just to have fun,” say the Rockers. “We’ve never practiced together. Our first and last ‘practice’ was our stage performance at the casino.”

That’s some awesome confidence! Good luck to the Boom Boom Rockers and all the other bands who will be at the Horseshoe tonight.

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Pirates with Laser Guns: Going to the Central Regionals

Hey, remember how tonight at 9 PM there’s going to be a kickin’ show at the Horseshoe Hammond and a chance for YOU (yes, you) to win a “Groupie Experience” to see the Total Rock finals in Atlantic City? Remember that? Well, Pirates with Laser Guns are going to be there. And they’re ready to rock.

The Pirates won the competition at Harrah’s Joliet to clinch a spot in the Central Regionals. Vocalist Kelly Gilio, guitarist Marc Proberts, bassist Mike Isaacs, and drummer Michael “Jake” Harper rocked out to (yes, I know, I know) The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away.” They also played a striking rendition of Pearl Jam’s “Alive.” Marc and Jake were the ones who heard of the competition, roping in Kelly and Mike to complete their band.

Not only did they win big in Joliet, but it was Kelly’s 22nd birthday to boot, so happy birthday, Kelly!

The foursome from Aurora, Illinois, will be at the Horseshoe tonight. “It has been an experience like none other!” say the Pirates, and this Blogmaster wishes them all the luck in the world. Rock it in the Midwest tonight, everyone!

For Those Rocking or Getting Ready to Rock

Just a reminder that, besides this brilliant Total Rock blog, lots of the Total Rock bands are chatting and posting about their experiences in the official Rock Band Forums. If you’re a winning band and you want to brag/share your scores, check out this thread.

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Vindictive Syndicate: Heading to the Central Regionals

Hey guys, do you know what happens when you win the local Total Rock competition at Harrah’s North Kansas City? No, of course you don’t, because you’re not Vindictive Syndicate, the NKC winning band that’s headed to the Central Regionals at Horseshoe Hammond TONIGHT at 9 PM. Don’t cry, though, because you can still head to Horseshoe Hammond to see the best Rock Banders in the Midwest rock it with host and MTV correspondent Sway Calloway. It’ll be good times, with music from DJ Rock City and a chance to win a “Groupie Experience” to see the Total Rock finals. You should totally go and try to win so you can come hang with your Blogmaster in Atlantic City. Oh, Atlantic City! A place of bright lights, salt-sea air, and the thrumming sense of rock!

But before your Blogmaster gets ahead of herself, let’s talk Horseshoe Hammond! Tonight’s the big night. Vindictive Syndicate will be there, ready to fight for the chance to represent the Central region in the finals. The band includes vocalist Pete Cotton (real-life systems analyst), guitarist Bryce Rakop (real-life computer engineer), bassist Kurt Kaiser (real-life engineer-engineer), and drummer Robert Buehrig (real-life systems architect). This just goes to show that some of the best Rock Banders are totally awesome tech folks like your Blogmaster. Just a theory.

The band was formed as most things in life are: college friendships mixed with work connections and an ex somehow brought together four dudes who all loved playing Rock Band. VS (as they are affectionately called in shorthand) won in North Kansas City by playing (wait for it) the Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away” with a little over 2.2 million points. Man, that song is getting some serious mileage from our winning bands.

It helps that two of the Vindictive Syndicate are real-life musicians outside of Rock Band. Robert plays the drums and Pete is an plays the guitar, cello, piano, and bass. Way to be talented, guys! The Blogmaster is kind of jealous. Good luck to VS and all the bands that are going head-to-head at the Horseshoe!

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FA/KE: Raking in the Press

As you no doubt recall from your Blogmaster’s earlier informational posting, FA/KE is one of the most hardcore sort-of bands in America today. This is a fact. They are headed to the Total Rock finals in Atlantic City, which means their hardcoreness is not in dispute.

Agreement can be seen all around. Just check out the kind of press FA/KE is getting from places like Rockpedia (a great site to keep up-to-date on the world of rock). Casino news site SlotGeek also has a nifty write-up of FA/KE’s big win.

Your Blogmaster can personally attest to FA/KE’s excitement as they look toward the finals. They are geared up and ready to go! Your Blogmaster fervently wishes that all the fantastic bands featured here on the Total Rock blog could win the big prize at the finals, but as they say in Highlander, there can be only one. Good luck to all. Atlantic City, here we come!

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Gurn Killers: Heading to the semi-finals

Today’s band profile comes to us not from the relatively laurel-resting arena of the finals or even the winners’ circle of the semi-finals. This band of intrepid Rockers still need to win the local competition at the Showboat in order to go on to the eastern regional semi-finals. They’ll be playing there tomorrow, April 24. The competition starts at 8 PM. Click that link for more info.

The Gurn Killers are Joel Micalizzi (bass), Chris Daou (guitar), Luca Fusi (vocals), and Miguel Molinari (drums), four friends from the mean streets of New York City who just love to rock.

Professional Awesome-Makers

The Gurn Killers are regulars at New York City’s Almost Famous Tuesdays, a staple in the metro Rock Band 2 competition scene.

They made it this far by sweeping the competition at the Showboat on March 20, playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Give It Away” (a favorite not only of this Blogmaster but of lots of people, apparently) with 2,119,072 points.

It’s true! There’s photographic proof of this.

I'm no mathematician, but that looks like a big number.

So how confident are they that they’ll bring it home once more in tonight’s competition? “Gotta beat some world class players to make it to the regionals,” says drummer Miguel. That is true.

We wish the guys the best of luck as they attempt to claim a place in the semi-finals. If you’d like to check out their kicking site filled with Rock Band news, go to RockGamer.com.

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