Myrtle Beach band The Izm wins local Hard Rock Cafe Battle of the Bands
Myrtle Beach-based five-piece rock band, The Izm, is fresh off the Hard Rock Café’s 2015 International Battle of the Bands local round, winning against stiff competition from as far way as Savannah, Ga.
Last Friday’s finals, held at the Hard Rock Café in Myrtle Beach, was the The Izm’s third try in four years. Additionally, The Izm just missed winning the Downtown Myrtle Beach St. Patrick’s Day inaugural Battle of the Bands last Sunday. The band scored a respectable second-place win, losing out to another popular local act, Paperwork, but beating five other contenders in the process.
“PaperWork won, deservedly,” said Izm front man and lyricist Jaesen Moore. While the second-place finish must have been disappointing, Moore and band mates are still riding high from Friday’s Hard Rock Café win, one that earned them $1,000 cash and a one-in-20 chance to win thousands of dollars of gear and be flown to Barcelona, Spain, this summer to perform at Hard Rock Rising in front of an estimated 50,000-60,000 spectators.
Hard Rock Café’s Battle of the Bands is arguably the largest such contest in the world, pitting hundreds of bands against one another from nearly 90 Hard Rock Café locations around the globe.
Last Sunday, just before The Izm took to the stage on Ocean Blvd. in Myrtle Beach, we asked Moore “What if you win two battle of the bands contests in the span of one week?”
“Then my wife will let me continue doing this,” said Moore, laughing. “It would be great, and we’ll see, but regardless this is the end result of 20 years of hard work. Hey bro, I’m almost 40.”
Joining Moore in all the hard work is Jason Woolley (guitar), Nadia Manigo (drums), Merrill Weekley (guitar) and Matt Sellers (bass). The multiracial, mixed gender band plays melodic hard rock; that alone makes The Izm unusual, but is it good?
The judges from two separate high profile contests agree that there’s something in the sound, performance and original songs that regularly sets The Izm apart from other local bands; while most bands break up after a few months or a year or so, The Izm has staying power.
“We’ve been together for like seven-and-a-half years,” said Moore. “We never wanted to do the cover band thing, but we had to come up with three covers for the Sunday battle. We’ll do ‘Run to the Hills’ by Iron Maiden, ‘Little Black Submarine’ from The Black Keys, and ‘Bulls on Parade’ by Rage Against the Machine. But we’ve got 30 or so originals, and [they] come up with the music and let the lyrics flow through me – that’s pretty much how we write.”
So what’s next?
“We’re going to try win the next rounds of this Hard Rock thing. We’ll use the money we’ve already won for merch and CD duplication. We’ve got an album we’re finishing up called “Land of Odd.” We’re all about taking our time, growing our roots, like a seed that’s been hanging out underground, getting our roots strong. Now we’re bursting up toward the sun.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach band The Izm wins local Hard Rock Cafe Battle of the Bands."