Last night I judged the U.S. Finals of the Global Battle of the Bands. I sat at a table with my clipboard and ballot, scribbled notes in my microscopic script and gave each two-song performance a score somewhere between 0-20. Every band received something over 10 points from me. After sitting through Whitestarr the night before, I figured that even if the music wasn't in line with my tastes, the performances were better than average.

Sometime during the competition, the judge next to me said that, in his opinion, the best L.A. band is The Autumns. Carlos, who was sitting with us, chuckled because I have been talking up this band since 1996 or 1997. In fact, when Carlos and I were still "just friends," which was roughly eight years ago, I would chat off his ear about the band. "Oh my God, have you seen The Autumns? They're so awesome. I think I saw them four times last month and, guess what, I just got them to come up and play a live set at the station next week. You should engineer it."
The judge and I continued to talk about The Autumns and then he mentioned Lift to Experience and I almost jumped out of my seat.

"One of the best shows I ever saw was The Autumns with Lift to Experience at the Martini Lounge," I said. I then mentioned a Coven 13 show (back when I was DJing there and telling everyone that they "totally have to get The Autumns" to play), which I think was with Mors Syphilitica and which I am almost positive was the first time I heard them play the cover of "Garlands" (orig. Cocteau Twins) that became a live favorite for years.

Truthfully, I haven't seen the band play in a few years, mostly because their shows are now sporadic and seem to end up on dates that I cannot attend. However, I think this might change on 11/25 when they play Spaceland. Even though I will probably be up all night that Friday (Jeff Mills and Richie Hawtin, dudes), I have to attend this show. BTW, here's an interview with The Autumns that I did for this website before we decided that blogging was easier.

So, yeah, we talked about The Autumns a lot during the competition, as well as death metal, The Knife and whether or not the contestants from Iceland will sound like Sigur Ros.

But back to the story, where my top 3 picks also happened to win the top three slots in the competition.

On my ballot, I had Heavy Mojo and The Hero Factor tied for the most points. Heavy Mojo won first place and a spot in the grand finals. To be honest, I'm not really sure if Heavy Mojo is something I would listen to on my own time. There were points where the music was a little too close to rap-rock for my liking. However, I gave them a high score mostly because they were top notch performers and, really, that is the most important factor in a live setting. The Hero Factor, from Tulsa, came in second. Musically, I preferred The Hero Factor to Heavy Mojo. The basslines are so Simon Gallup that they make me giddy and the guitarwork is subtle and melancholic. Today, I listened to the band's selections on MySpace and decided that the recordings do not do the band justice at all. The production sounds like there are dreams of MOR radio hits in the band's mind. Live, The Hero Factor is much more appealing the Muse/Radiohead/Sigur Ros/The Autumns set.

Coming in third place was The Queen Killing Kings, who were also third in my own ranking. In order to describe the band, I offer this rough transcription of an exchange between the other judge and myself.

Me: This has serious hipster blog potential, like Cold War Kids.

Other Judge: Wow, I was just going to mention them.

Me: Yeah, these guys have it all over Cold War Kids.

Then we started talking about a recent show at Spaceland.

I think the only reason why The Queen Killing Kings were a point behind the other two was because I was thinking in terms of how the performance would translate in a larger venue. I pictured this duo as excelling in places like the El Rey and The Wiltern (do I have to add that stupid LG tag?), where the others I could see as having command over an arena stage.

The Queen Killing Kings were also the only musicians I met after the show. We opted out of the post-gig party because we were tired and going to the Viper Room is akin to being trapped in an elevator. Carlos was walking me to my car and I recognized the singer's white jacket, so I went up and told them how much I enjoyed the show and asked them to contact me. Hopefully, I will have the chance to see them perform or something when next time I'm on the East Coast.