Props for our very own Rockpage!!

[cucuplex96]

For more than 25 years, Musikfest in Bethlehem has been one of the biggest music events in Pennsylvania. Featuring a diverse mix of music styles and artists, past Musikfest headliners include Stone Temple Pilots, Boston, The Beach Boys, Boyz II Men, Ray Charles, Poison, the Dixie Chicks and Earth, Wind and Fire.

And this year's event - with a little help - could include Altoona's own Chris Vipond and the Stanley Street Band.

The group of Altoona residents - guitarist, singer and songwriter Vipond, lead guitarist Phil Wagner, bassist Mike Stanley and drummer Steve Arnold - have made the Top 10 of Musikfest's online Mid-Atlantic Band Competition. The top four vote getters out of those bands will play a set at Musikfest, with the top finisher also receiving a guaranteed contract for the 2010 Musikfest and a starring role in a documentary about their Musikfest experience.

Vipond and the Stanley Street Band were selected for the Top 20 of the competition by a Musikfest judging panel, then made the Top 10 through online voting at www.musikfest.org/lineup/mabc.asp. Voting for the Musikfest slots will end on June 20.

"We were pretty honored to get into the Top 20," Vipond, 33, said in a phone interview. "Some of the other 19 bands were pretty phenomenal. When our guitarist filled (the application) out ... we had no expectations."

Wagner found the contest on a local music site called rockpage.net. The group's high ranking in the contest has shown the power of the Internet's influence on a band's career.

The Musikfest competition was live in previous years, and Vipond and the Stanley Street Band would probably not have heard about it.

"There's been a significant expansion with people being able to submit online and the judges being able to vote online," said Kim Plyler, director of marketing and public relations for ArtsQuest, the Bethlehem-based company that runs Musikfest. "In previous years, we had maybe 100, 150 submissions - this year we had over 300."

Chris Vipond and the Stanley Street Band have been together since 2007 and might best be described as a jam band, but Vipond professes that they don't stick to just one genre.

"I like good songs, I don't write a particular style of music," he said, adding that each band member brings his own influences to the sound. "I like to write songs that outlast the current style of music, the flavor of the day."

Vipond, a full-time musician, has been performing in the area for 20 years and performing with Stanley for 15. The pair were members of the popular local band Neogumbo in the 1990s. Vipond, Stanley and Wagner are the core trio of Chris Vipond and the Stanley Street Band, with Arnold playing most big shows and alternate drummers subbing in at other venues.

The group also routinely has other musicians sit in on their shows. The reason is simple enough, Vipond said.

"We're very community oriented, when it comes to supporting other local musicians, as well as tipping our hats to the musical elders in the area," he said.

The "community" focus of the band leads them away from performing in bars and focusing more on all-ages shows and local festivals.

Vipond said that the band has been getting a lot of Musikfest votes from the all-ages crowd. That and the band's push at their shows and online may get them a spot at the Bethlehem event, but Vipond is already thinking farther than that after talking to several of the other top bands during a recent online chat.

"We don't look at this as a competition," he said. "We're all just excited as the next band just to be in the competition and to be picked. There's no bad blood between the bands. ... My idea, in the long run, is to bring some of those bands around here, and maybe visit some of the places those guys are from."

Mirror Staff Writer Keith Frederick is at 946-7466.

On the Net: Musikfest's Mid-Atlantic Band Competition: www.musikfest.org/lineup/mabc.asp

[cucuplex96]

Wagner found the contest on a local music site called rockpage.net. The group's high ranking in the contest has shown the power of the Internet's influence on a band's career.

Whoo hoo!

[PanzerFaust]

Damn I read that whole article to find out the Cliff Notes Version was posted second... I think if you'd done it the other way around I'd have had at least another 30 seconds of my weekend to spend doing other things.....

All joking aside.. Very cool though...

[cucuplex96]

What are you talking about? you lost me there, yeah cornfused.
Maybe cause i'm feelin a lil woozy, exactly what do you mean or were you just pulling at my ham strings?

[DirtySanchez]

cool deal fellas. Best of luck!