'American Idol' for Bands Will Arrive in October

The American Idol-inspired The Next Great American Band, which seeks to find exactly what its title promises and reward that TV-viewer-approved outfit with a record contract, will premiere in October on Fox. The show is produced by 19 Entertainment, the masterminds behind the mega-successful Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, and mirrors the singing competition in several ways: National auditions have been held to narrow down the applicant pool, and judges will choose ten semi-finalists who will perform music from a different genre each week. Also like Idol, the judges (who -- along with the show's host -- have yet to be announced) will offer guidance to American voters, who will ultimately decide the winner.

The main dissimilarity between Band (which is still the series' working title) and Idol is that bands will be allowed to perform original music if they choose to do so. The top three groups will ultimately compete against each other to win a recording contract. Band will kick off with a two-hour episode on Friday, October 19, and follow with weekly hour-long shows every Friday at 8 PM. Though submissions officially closed at the end of last month (groups playing everything from hip-hop to country auditioned), you can still befriend the show's MySpace before Rock Daily's Reality Show Recaps start.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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