Meet the bands pre-battle

Gatsby

Name origin: Band member Morgan Ching loves the book “The Great Gatsby.”
Genre: alternative rock
Band members:
Morgan Ching (junior, business) – lead vocals and guitar
Eric Jecklin (freshman, jazz studies) – bass
Ryan Rael (freshman, music education) – drums
Sean Leston (junior, sociology and philosophy) – piano
Years together: one
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “Every show is an opportunity to get better at performing together and for people,” Ching said.
Fun fact: Jecklin sells Rainbow vacuums in his spare time.

Ergo

Name origin: The band had to change its name from “Box Office Mojo” after Internet Movie Database threatened to sue the band’s members. Box Office Mojo is a database owned by IMDB that provides information, such as showtimes, release schedules and weekend earnings reports, about movies out in theaters. “We thought it was an awesome name, but apparently they like it, too,” Bedeaux said.
Genre: alternative rock
Band members:
Alyssa Yarber – vocals
Nick Kennedy – guitar
Jace Reynolds – bass
Tim Bedeaux (freshman, political science) – drums
Years together: two
Battle experience: performed in three battles around New Mexico and placed second in all of them.
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “It’s really a pain (winning second place). We really want to win this one,” Bedeaux said. “We love to play, we’ll take any chance we can get to get our name out there, and we don’t have a huge UNM audience yet.”
Fun fact: All the band members were in speech and debate together in high school.

Mr. Challenger

Name origin: the abyss (unknown)
Genre: indie rock
Band members:
Austin Smith (sophomore, elementary education) – guitar
Marco Romero – vocals and guitar
Levi Tyma (sophomore, theater) – drums
John Baird – bass
Years together: one
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “It’s mainly an opportunity to play for UNM students. We haven’t done a whole lot of that,” Smith said.
Fun fact: The band practices in a train car that members rent. Smith said a stranger was once crushed by the train door of an adjacent car.

Dogbats

Name origin: The dogbat is a recently discovered species of Egyptian fruit bat.
Genre: acoustic pop
Band members:
Dakarai McCoy (freshman, electrical engineering) – bass
Aaron Hamre (sophomore, media arts) – guitar
Brian Jewell – drums
Years together: eight months
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “We wanted to get some exposure and compete,” McCoy said.
Fun fact: Hamre saw McCoy practicing outside and approached him to jam. The band started from there.

Zoology

Name origin: “We’re all different species. We kind of look at it like a zoo, there’s so much going on,” Torres said.
Genre: hip-hop
Band members:
Phillip “Flux” Torres (senior, fine arts) – rapper
Dahhm Life – drums and raps
Wake Self – Emcee
Audiyo – DJ intro
Nick – bassist
Randy B – painter
Years together: two
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “We definitely want an opportunity to play at Fiestas. It’s a big opportunity and we’re trying to get our name out there,” Torres said. “We also want to reach out to different audiences who wouldn’t normally listen to hip-hop.”
Fun fact: During many live performances, the band has a live painter who paints on a 4-by-4 four piece of wood onstage.

Futilitarian

Name origin: “We decided to find a better name (from the previous one, Tranquil Sin), so that’s what we did,” George said.
Genre: melodic death metal
Band members:
Chad George (junior, communications) – guitar
Aaron Paul – guitar
Walter Viga III (senior, film) – bass
Sammy Seller – drums
Years together: four
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “I always see these bands playing outside in the courtyard in the springtime, and I was like, ‘I’d really like our band to play like that,’” George said.
Fun fact: The band is purely instrumental.

Martial Law

Name origin: “We had a bunch (of name ideas.) Our songwriter and I wrote down a bunch of names and were looking at them one practice, and we decided Martial Law was the coolest,” Stevens said.
Genre: reggae and ska
Band members:
Taylor Stevens (junior, environmental science) – bass
Jimmy Peifer – lead vocals and guitar
Nick DeAnda – drums
Jake Hall – lead guitar
Years together: six
Battle experience: one battle
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “We just wanted to play at UNM. It’s a good crowd to play for, college students,” Stevens said.
Fun fact: The band had not heard of Fiestas before entering the competition.

Post War Germany

Name origin: “My grandfather was biking in Germany right after World War II, and it was like the apocalypse,” Marquez said. “It would be a really surreal and bizarre time.”
Genre: alternative rock
Band members:
Pedro Antonio Marquez (sophomore, art studio) – guitar and vocals
Gil McGahee (junior, university studies) – drums
Years together: one
Battle experience: none
Reason for entering UNM’s competition: “I don’t know — Gil entered us,” Marquez said. “I think just so we could play somewhere.”
Fun fact: The band uses a secret algorithm to write their songs — it may or may not involve library books.

Battle of the Bands

Thursday
6 p.m.
SUB Ballroom
FREE
All ages
sse.unm.edu