Giving Back to the Scene

Eugene recording studio launches battle of the bands

Thaddeus Moore, owner and operator of Eugene’s long-running Sprout City Studios, jokes that he hates battles of the bands.

Nevertheless, to celebrate Sprout City’s 20th year in business, Moore is launching a battle of the bands series. Moore says he wants to give bands a real critique and not offer just a popularity contest. “I want this to be a good thing for the musicians,” he says.

Sprout City, Moore says, is a fully functional production studio that usually works seven days a week. “We thought it would be a cool thing to give back to the community with shows that get together some of the best talent in town and give them good critiques on their performance, where they’re at with their songwriting and how they present themselves as a band.”

Sprout City’s Battle of the Bands, which Moore plans to make an annual event, will involve five preliminary all-ages shows held at Whirled Pies in downtown Eugene, with a final event featuring winners from each show at WOW Hall at the end of May. Interested bands can apply at sproutcity.com, and the winner will receive recording time, video production services, media exposure and more. 

Most important, Moore says, the winner will get real-world feedback from an audience perspective on how their songs are coming across. They’ll learn prepping things like stage plots and what booking agents expect from a professional band. 

“Even if they don’t win,” Moore continues, “they’re still going to walk away with all this experience.”

Sprout City’s Battle of the Band’s inaugural show is 7 pm Sunday, March 26, at Whirled Pies; $2-$5, all-ages. For more information go to sproutcity.com.