This summer on Saturday, July 11th we will be hosting our annual Black Sheep Battle Of The Bands. The purpose of this show each year is to reach out and give some new and younger bands the opportunity to play our stage, and to try and get many younger fans of music out to Black Sheep for the first time. This year we only have four bands, but we are planning for the battle to be just as successful as the past couple of years! Here is the lineup of bands playing the battle this year:

100 Acker Wood
Caleb Johnson
Abyss
Girlboy

We are also looking for more bands if any are interested! If your band has members that are high school or college-aged, and have not gotten the chance to play very often at Black Sheep we want to hear from you! If you also have any good suggestions on good bands that would fit well for this, email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com. Once again this year there will be two prizes awarded to two top voted bands- one time slot on Black Sheep Fest 2015, and one free recorded demo at South Town Studio.

The Battle Of The Bands will start at 7:00 pm, and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also check out our shows page for a look at everything coming up at Black Sheep.

It’s that time of the year again, we’re looking for some new talent to showcase from the central Illinois area. And if last year’s Battle of the Bands is any indication of what to expect, it won’t be something to miss out on. We are starting to look for bands a little early this year. This year the show will be on Saturday, July 11th. If you have a band that is interested in playing or know of any, here is what we’re looking for:

– bands that have high school, middle school, or even college-aged members.
– bands that have not yet played Black Sheep, or have only played once or twice.
– new bands that have formed within the last year

Bands entering into the battle do NOT have to pay any sort of entrance fee or audition in any way. So if any of that applies to you, or if you know of any bands that will fit the bill, listen up! Everyone that enters will get a chance to win one of two sweet prizes: 4-song demo recorded right up in South Town Studios by Brandon Carnes (going to the winner of judge voting) OR a spot on Black Sheep Fest 2015 (to the winner of crowd voting). Get a hold of us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com to sign up. Show us what you’ve got!

Last night was our second annual Black Sheep Battle of the Bands and it was a great time had by all. Every band did a great job and our judges had some great things to say about all of them. Today we are coming back at you with some hard results for you all to take in. Five bands were scheduled to play but we had a no-show from one so four bands took the stage last night.

The crowd voting was neck-and-neck-and-neck and each band put on a killer set but when all was said and done The Locals won by just a few votes. Our judges got together and also claimed The Locals as their winner. Runner up for both the crowd voting and the judicial voting was Blind Social. Because of this we gave The Locals first choice on their prize, and they chose studio time in South Town Studio. Blind Social took the slot on Black Sheep Fest happening Saturday, July 26th. And those are your results! Check out a video from The Local’s set below.

The Locals – Get In Line from Brady Bibb on Vimeo.

Remember last summer when we had our first Black Sheep Battle of the Bands in a while and it was a blast? (There was one in the very early years of Black Sheep but times were very different back then). Today we are announcing our Black Sheep Battle of the Bands “2.5” or 2014! It will be happening this year on Saturday, July 12th. We need your help in hunting down bands for this! If you are young and play in a band that has not played Black Sheep a whole lot, we need you! If you are in a high school or middle school band, talk to us! If you are neither of those things, we still might be interested in having your band on the roster for the Battle of the Bands this year. Here are some of the criteria we are looking for in bands:

– bands that have high school, middle school, or even college-aged members.
– bands that have not yet played Black Sheep, or have only played once or twice.
– new bands that have formed within the last year

If you are in a band that falls into any of those criteria and are from Springfield or the surrounding areas, we would like to hear from you! Email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com and we will talk with you more about Battle of the Bands details.  Of course this year there will also be big prizes for two selected winners for the Battle of the Bands. One winner will receive a spot on Black Sheep Fest 2014, and another will receive a few songs recorded for free in South Town Studio.

Last night was the Black Sheep Battle of the Bands and we all had a BLAST! All seven of the bands that played were great, and we were able to see lots of new faces and sweaty kids running around inside of our space. A good time was had by all. Are you ready to find out who won the battle? Here we go…

-The 2nd place winner for crowd voting was HAIRCUT ACTUAL! They received a $25 gift card to Daddy O’s Music Shack!
-The 1st place winner for crowd voting was NEGATIVE 17! They will now be playing this year’s BLACK SHEEP FEST on Saturday, July 27th!
-The 1st place winner for the judge’s voting and also 3rd place in crowd voting was BUILT IN A DAY! They will receive four free new studio recordings!

Hopefully we will be seeing all seven of those bands play more at Black Sheep in the near future. You can also check out a video of the band Blank Gravestone playing at The Battle of the Bands (which was also their first show) below.

Ready for tonight? This afternoon and evening is the big Battle of The Bands happening at Black Sheep! There will be seven bands playing in the battle. The Battle of the Bands is something fairly new we are trying this summer, although there was a Battle of the Bands that took place years ago when Black Sheep was at our early stages (thanks Roger)! The lineup of bands is as follows:

Simply Simple
Kickstart
Haircut Actual
Built In A Day
RDNT
Negative 17
Blank Gravestone

The battle begins today at 4:00 pm and goes until 10:00 pm. Come out early for our roundtable and street team meeting at 1:00 pm! Did we tell you what the winners of the Battle of the Bands will be getting? One winner be chose by a panel of judges. That band will be getting four free songs recorded in the studio! There will also be a second winner chosen by the crowd. That band will receive a slot on Black Sheep Fest 2013 happening on Saturday, July 27th! Sounds like fun stuff!

Remember us telling you about a Battle of the Bands that we were getting together at Black Sheep on July 13th? Well we received a good response from younger bands interested in playing our Battle of the Bands and now we are back to announce the lineup of seven bands playing! Ready? They are…

Simply Simple
Kickstart
Haircut Actual
Built In A Day
RDNT
Negative 17
Blank Gravestone

And that’s probably not all! We are still looking for at least one more band to join in on the battle. Any band who is interested can check out our original post here to find out more about the criteria. You can also email brandonmf@gmail.com (Brandon Carnes) if you are interested in getting your band in on the battle.

The Black Sheep Battle of the Bands will take place from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Saturday, July 13th. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Public admission for the show is $5. For the battle there will be two bands chosen as winners. One winner will receive free studio recordings for four songs. Another winner will receive a spot on Black Sheep Fest 2013! The Battle of the Bands is something entirely new for us at Black Sheep and we are excited to welcome in some new and younger bands.

We are trying something new this summer at Black Sheep. We have talked a lot about their being two major festivals at Black Sheep this summer with Dumb Fest in June and Black Sheep Fest at the end of July. Today we are bringing you news of another big summer event for us.

On Saturday, July 13th we will be hosting the first ever Black Sheep Battle of the Bands. The event will feature young and new bands, as we hope to welcome in artists who have not had many opportunities to play at the Black Sheep.

Prizes will be awarded to TWO winners:
– One band will win a studio recording of 4 songs for FREE! (Worth $400)
– One other band will win a spot on BLACK SHEEP FEST July 27th. (Usually this is one of the biggest shows of the year for us)

There will be crowd voting and a panel of judges to determine the winners. Right now a few bands are lined up to compete in the battle, but we are currently looking for other acts. Any bands interested in playing can contact Brandon Carnes (of Big Storm and The Timmys) at brandonmf@gmail.com or call 217-415-7775. We plan on keeping you all updated when the bands for this event are announced.

We look forward to welcoming some new bands and faces out to the Black Sheep this summer!