The October music news roundup checks in with the latest Walk the Best contest winner, Kid Rock’s faux political campaign and Bob Seger’s recovery.
Winning Form: Conrad Shock + The Noise took home the top prize at Albion’s Walk the Beat. They’re shown here performing at Grand Rapids’ Festival of the Arts. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to a text-voting glitch, a second winner of Albion’s Walk the Beat contest was announced a couple of days after the event, according to David Palmer of the Grand Haven-based Walk the Beat. Milford blues, funk and soul’s Chris Canas Band was named co-winner of the event and will receive the same grand prize as Conrad Shock & The Noise.
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Conrad Shock & The Noise came close in August, then rocked to victory in October.
The emerging Grand Rapids rock band won last weekend’s Walk the Beat competition held in Albion, Mich., outpolling more than three dozen other groups to snag the top prize of studio recording time, a new website, music video, photo session and a Local Spins victory tour.
‘New Favorite Act’: Albion’s The War & Treaty impressed Conrad Shock & The Noise during Saturday’s awards ceremony. (Photo/Anna Sink)
The Albion event – a spinoff from the successful Walk the Beat event spearheaded by Dave Palmer and held the past few years in Grand Haven – had throngs of concertgoers strolling various “venues” on the Albion College campus voting for their favorite performers.
“I really liked the Albion event because it uncovered an entirely new group of musicians I was unaware of in this area,” said John Schaak, frontman for Conrad Shock & The Noise, which also fared well during Grand Haven’s Walk the Beat in August but was eventually outpolled by Grand Rapids funk band Melophobix. Saturday’s event during Albion College’s homecoming weekend featured sets by 40 Michigan artists and raised funds “for music and literacy” in Albion.
“Of course, the win felt amazing and standing on the stage with The Noise was a tremendous feeling of validation. We have been putting in a lot of hard work, and this prize package is going to help us immensely as we move forward on our sophomore album. We are just very excited.”
As part of the prize package, the band – which also won Local Spins’ Emerging Artist of the Year award in early 2017 – won 40 hours of recording and production time at Grand Haven’s Third Coast Recording.
Schaak said he also was impressed by the performance of Albion’s The War & Treaty at the awards ceremony. “The War and Treaty absolutely blew me away and are certainly one of my new favorite Michigan acts,” he said.
HE WAS JUST KIDDING: KID ROCK ISN’T REALLY RUNNING FOR SENATE, SILLY
Faux Campaign: Kid Rock on stage in Grand Rapids. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Kid Rock’s much-hyped “U.S. Senate run” was just a publicity-generating schtick that he used to sell campaign-themed merchandise and pump up his national tour (which featured the rapper-singer conducting a “stump speech” behind a podium on stage).
The artist revealed as much during Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show, noting that the stunt was “the most creative thing” he’d ever done.
Read the Detroit Free Press story that outlines Kid Rock’s interview with Stern: Kid Rock: Of course I’m not running for Senate
BOB SEGER HAS SUCCESSFUL SURGERY; EYES EVENTUAL RESUMPTION OF TOUR
Bob Seger (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The singer, who was forced to postpone the final 19 dates of his U.S. tour in early October due to “an urgent medical issue with his vertebrae,” has undergone surgery and is doing well, according to his Facebook page.
Seger – who played a sold-out show in Grand Rapids as part of the tour on Sept. 19 – also is releasing a new album, “I Knew You When,” on Nov. 17.
Read more about the surgery and tour in this Oakland Press story by Gary Graff: Bob Seger on the mend after successful surgery
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