The lineup for this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival is being set and worthy bands are being encouraged to sign up for something called The Sound and The Jury competition.
Here's the scoop that got sent to me via email this morning:
"Round One is live now and bands can upload their music at http://delllounge.com/soundandthejury/ to enter the competition. To stay in the game, bands must generate enough votes to land them in the Top 100 by Aug. 28. From there, industry judges will narrow it down to the Top 20, and public voting opens again to determine the Top 5. A live Battle of the Bands on Sept. 30 at Austin's iconic music venue, Antone's, is where industry judges and fan votes will determine the band that rocks the hardest.
At the end of the multi-round, two-month contest, one worthy band will earn a prize spot on the Dell Stage at the ACL Festival. Each of the five finalists will receive $1,500. The winning band will be listed as part of the official lineup and receive an opening slot on the Dell Stage at the ACL Festival. As an official ACL artist, the winner will get artist passes for the entire weekend with access to catering, the artist lounge, and everywhere else bands get to go. The winning band will also receive promotion on delllounge.com, a 15" Dell Studio laptop, weekend hotel accommodations in Austin, and tickets for some friends the day of the show."
Pretty cool, huh? Dallas must have at least a handful of bands that could win this thing. I nominate The O's and The Cut*Off right now.
