Minnesota Music Online

SO YOU WANNA be a local rock & roll star? Well, good luck and have fun. What with the new plethora of local music/entertainment/culture info on the Internet (of varying quality, of course), there's now an online place to test your aptitude for stardom. I'm referring to America Online's Digital City Mpls site (keyword: Minneapolis, if you're still unlucky enough to be using AOL). Check out the "Dig the New Breed" column from TRG Records' Chris Strouth (keyword: new breed); this week Strouth has scripted an insightful, interactive "Choose Your Own Adventure" game about being in a local band. I played it last week, and my fictional band actually managed to survive New Band Night, the drummer's heroin flirtation, and our raging egos, finally scoring a "demo deal" with a major label. Unfortunately, our A&R guy hasn't really called back since we did our all-expenses-paid recording. But hey, that's life in the biz... Back in the "real" world, Biscuits & Blues and VH-1 have gotten together for a Battle of the Bands series, taking place in B&B's "blues basement" every Wednesday through Aug. 20. This Wednesday, Tribe of Millions, Tim Mahoney and the Meenies, and Tony Sims (the 19-year-old alternative to Jonny Lang) lock horns, so to speak; on Aug. 6 it's The Scott Laurent Band, blues rockers 2200, New Sun Union, and Lamont Cranston. The bands are competing to appear on VH-1's Route '97 Rock 'n' Roll Road Trip on Aug. 23 and 24.

TO CLARIFY: Last week's Music Notes got its wires crossed when citing statistics about voter participation in the Minnesota Music Awards. According to MMA coordinator Mean Larry, a healthy 250 MMA members voted on the final ballot, not "just over 10 percent" of that number, as we stated. However, that percentage does apply to how many members actually nominated artists for the ballot, in which case our point is the same: Such low participation can produce unfairly one-sided results for voters to choose from. So let's do better next year, y'hear?