It’s raw, it’s nasty and it’s a strangely melodic sonic onslaught, unleashing a full-frontal assault of screaming vocals, chunky and distorted guitar chords, machine-gun bass lines and sweaty, mortarlike drum beats.

Midwestern Electric is exactly what a rock band should be. And it’s all by accident.

The Lottery League, reportedly an idea born of a drunken MySpace rant by a frustrated musician who suggested everyone should just start over, is scheme by which bands are created almost willy-nilly on a midwinter draft night. The only caveat: No member of a lottery band can ever have played with or been connected with another member of the band.

It sounds simple, until you realize that we’re talking about swimming in a pretty shallow pool — in the case of the 2013 Lottery League, that’s 169 men and women who are part of the Cleveland music scene playing original compositions (rather than covers). It is such a tight-knit group that even those who haven’t previously played together at least know of each other…… Read the rest of the story here on Cleveland.com

The Lottery League is all Ed Sotelo’s fault.

Sotelo, according to his friend and fellow co-founder of the Lottery League’s Council of Chiefs, Jae Kristoff, posted a drunken rant on MySpace saying that all of Cleveland’s many bands should just break up and start again.

“MySpace” tells you how long ago that was. But the idea germinated in Kristoff’s brain, partly fed by another experiment he did in which he and some bandmates stayed up 72 hours straight and recorded anyone who wanted to come into the Zombie Proof studio.

“You could come in with an eggbeater and we’d play with you,” said Kristoff, a punk-rock vocalist and “things” player who’s currently running Cleveland State University’s radio station, WCSB FM/89.3, and going to school full time.

When that little experiment ended, several local musicians who’d missed out on the chance approached Kristoff and his friends with pleas that they be notified next time he got a wild idea….. Read the rest of the story on Cleveland.com here.

All 42 newly drafted bands of the 2013 Lottery League will perform for the first time ever on three stages within the Agora. 2013 Lottery League Big Show Schedule (outside of starting promptly at 2pm, given the nature of this event the set times listed are approximate.) Click the links and follow their adventures on Facebook!

Big Show 2013 Schedule

2:00pm – 38% Special  (Melt Stage)
2:15 – La Rascasse (Jakprints Stage)
2:30 – Payback from Wayback (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
2:45 – Amplified Gentlemen (Melt Stage)
3:00 – Shark Martian (Jakprints Stage)
3:15 – Midwestern Electric (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
3:30 – The Predicament (Melt Stage)
3:45 – The Egons (Jakprints Stage)
4:00 – Soy La Barba (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
4:15 – Hot Dignity (Melt Stage)

~intermission~

4:45 – Dinosaur Coffin (Jakprints Stage)
5:00 – Sex Cake (Council of Chiefs Stage)
5:15 – Robosexual (Melt Stage)
5:30 – Dark Magic Ponyride (Jakprints Stage)
5:45 – Favorite Russian Spectaculars (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
6:00 – How to Stay Alive in the Woods (Melt Stage)
6:15 – VALISystem A (Jakprints Stage)
6:30 – Sudden Onset (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
6:45 – Jaques Jamz (Melt Stage)

~intermission~

7:15 – Disaster Transport (Jakprints Stage)
7:30 – Dinosaur Throat (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
7:45 - Feed Me a Stray Cat (Melt Stage)
8:00 – Canadian Pharmacy (Jakprints Stage)
8:15 – Queen of Hell (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
8:30 – Charlton Heston’s Cold Dead Hands (Melt Stage)
8:45 – SCMODS (Jakprints Stage)
9:00 – Wyld Bal5 (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
9:15 – Louise & ECT 3 (Melt Stage)

~intermission~

9:45 -    Psychic Thrills (Jakprints Stage)
10:00 – Surface of the Earth (Council of Chiefs Stage)
10:15 – Dirty Connotations (Melt Stage)
10:30 -BAANTUU (Jakprints Stage)
10:45 – Evil Astroid (Council of Chiefs Stage)
11:00 – Comet 77 (Melt Stage)

~intermission~

11:30 – Fancy Bastards (Jakprints Stage)
11:45 – and you will gnome us by the trail of bread (Chiefs Stage)
12:00 – E=MC Funk (Melt Stage)
12:15 – Jean-Claude Goddamn (Jakprints Stage)
12:30 – Rustbelt Revival (Council Of Chiefs Stage)
12:45 – The Vanman (Melt Stage)
1:00am – KILL IT WITH FIRE! (Jakprints Stage)
1:15 – Douglas Adam’s Family (Council of Chiefs Stage)

“This is the band I’ve wanted to be in my whole life.”

Jack Storey, sweat beading on his forehead and breathing heavily, had just finished belting out the lyrics to “And What If Kevin Chang Scares the Success Out of You,” one of the driving songs he and Midwestern Electric bandmates Tony Erba and Greg Hyland were working on Friday night.

Storey wrote the song — and for the record, I never heard the words “Kevin Chang” in them — and was going over it with the guys in what began as Band No. 22 in the 2013 Lottery League.

Click here to read the rest of the story on Cleveland.com

Singer-songwriter-guitarist-filmmaker Jack Storey belts out a tune during a rehearsal for the Lottery League 2013 band Midwestern Electric during a rehearsal Friday night.

It’s a good thing the 169 musicians who are participating in Lottery League 2013 are so good at singing and playing; almost to a person, they stink as bowlers.

That was evident Thursday night at Madison Square Lanes in Lakewood as the league held its “Slot Selection” night for April 13’s free “Big Show” at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

Click here to read the rest of the story on Cleveland.com

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Lottery League from Lauren Voss on Vimeo.