TGL advances to Epic's top 5

TGL, the four-piece band made up of former Greencastle High School students, has advanced to the top five in Epic Record's Artist of the Year contest.

Voting for the winning band continues this week until 5 p.m. Saturday. TGL, composed of Zach Stewart on bass, John Sibbitt on guitar, Will Cath on drums and Quinn Fenlon on guitar is up against Rudy and the Rhetoric, Otto Vector, Madelyn and Bamboo Shoots.

"We have to push it as hard as we can until Saturday," Stewart said via e-mail.

Rudy and the Rhetoric are based out of the University of Washington while Madelyn is based out of Florida Atlantic University. Otto Vector is based out of Bowling Green State University and Bamboo Shoots is based out of Middlesex County College.

The artist with the most votes will win a recording deal with Epic Records in addition to making an appearance on the mtvU Tour and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Stewart informed the BannerGraphic that the band learned it made the top five in the contest Tuesday afternoon.

Those wishing to vote for the band may go to its myspace.com website and click on the banner which reads "We made the top five," to be directed to the contest.

TGL's contest website features "Entourage," "My Routine Failed," "Blue Star Highway," and "Starbucks," all songs from the band's 2006 EP. In addition, they have an interview featured on the website from Z 102.9-FM, based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

TGL -- formerly known as The Good Life -- has been together for nearly six years in one incarnation or another. They have released a couple of albums on the local level and plan on releasing a new album -- their first with Fenlon -- this summer.

The band will tour in support of the new album beginning with a show at the Attic in Plainfield on May 31. The tour will last through July and will cover stops in Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Massaschusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Canada.

The band will take part in the Hype Energy 2007 Tour through July, which will include artists Asteria and Bear Hug Jersey, among other bands.

Both Sibbitt and Cath are students at DePauw University while Fenlon attends school at Brown University. Stewart is a student at Capri College in Iowa.

Upon entering the contest, the band was selected as an Artist of the Week in March on "The Freshman" show on mtvU, MTV's college spinoff.

After being selected as an Artist of the Week, TGL moved into one of 50 finalists spots in the competition.