**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
1st ROUND OF DIESEL-U-MUSIC 2005 NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED
The 3rd installment of the Diesel U Music awards has kicked off with the first round of nominations showcasing some of North America’s most cutting-edge artists, producers and bands.
The eclectic array of artists spans all music genres including; Hip Hop/Soul, Rock and Electronic. Leading off are New York indie-pop darlings, Robbers on High Street along side fellow nominees The Bravery. In the electronic category, a wide array of styles and sounds are represented – from the glitchy sampling of Knifehandchop to the electro-pop sounds of Xavier. Hip Hop/Soul is represented by New York MC, Kenn Starr, Busdriver, the sounds of Sa-Ra Creative Partners and super-producer turned MC, The Alchemist.
We envision Diesel-U-Music as a meaningful opportunity to provide exposure to deserving artists that are under the radar of mainstream radio and MTV. Diesel will be supporting this year’s Diesel-U-Music program through a $100,000 marketing campaign to fully support the nominated artists on a local level, at online destinations, and at brick and mortar retail including Diesel stores, as well as indie music retail.
In its 3rd year, Diesel-U-Music US has been dramatically re-imagined as a showcase for emerging talent, signed and unsigned. Diesel-U-Music relies on a board of music industry insiders, who select and nominate up-and-coming bands, artists and producers to vie for the headlining slot at the 2005 Diesel-U-Music Awards show taking place in May 2005 in New York, as well as a $10,000 music video production grant.
The Diesel-U-Music board consists of industry heads from Vice Recordings, Caroline Distribution, The Metro (Chicago), MTV News, PitchforkMedia.com, InSound.com, FluxBlog.com, Rolling Stone, Q101 in Chicago, Power 106 in LA, etc; as well as artists ranging from Saul Williams to 9th Wonder to Talib Kweli.
The nominations are broken into three categories: Hip-Hop/Soul, Rock and Electronic and there will be 2 rounds of nominations. At the end of the five-month program, one winner will be chosen in each category based on Board member votes.
1st round nominations include:
Bear Vs. Shark
Busdriver
Inouk
Kenn Starr
Knifehandchop
Lusine
Robbers On High Street
Sa Ra Creative Partners
Tadd Mullinix
The Alchemist
The Books
The Bravery
The Changes
The Dears
Xavier
For more information on Diesel-U-Music check out Diesel-U-Music.com.
