Sound Off! Finals

The underage music competition is about to find a new star.

This Saturday, it comes down to four: Candysound, Great Waves, Hooves and Beak and the recently annouced wildcard, SEACATS.

Now in its ninth year, Sound Off!, the EMP's underage battle of the bands, has made some big names in past competitions, including the Lonely H, Natalie Portman's Shaved Head and The Lonely Forest, a band that has just been signed to Chris Walla's new label, Trans.

Underage is by no means meant as a perjorative term. These bands each have a fully developed and mature sound that would make some overage bands jealous.

Hooves and Beak is the solo project of self-taught harpist Whitney Flinn (watch her perform in the video below). Great Waves features vocalist Ashley Bullock and an indie core of guitars and voilins. Candysound is a garage band duo that is poppy without being soft and finally, SEACATS brings some of the best hooks from a post-grunge sound rock band I've heard in a while.

Because she's so impressively talented, here's a video from the competition of Whitney Flinn performing "Pins and Needles."

EMP | SFM, $10 ($7 for students), doors open at 7pm