I eventually grew out of my SW phase and moved on to more sophisticated movies like The Wizard and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but every now and then, my brain will snap and I’ll see the world in Star Wars vision again. This week, I took a hard look at the Champaign-Urbana local music scene and made stunning comparisons of people in our local universe to people in the galaxy far, far away.

Last week, our C-U Siz reporters have retrieved this video of Groff apparently writing new solo material while communicating with geese at a local park. He appears in the video to be taking inspiration from the friendly fellows:

Story is developing.

Since 2005, WPGU and Buzz have presented the Champaign-Urbana Local Music Awards, a festivity to celebrate excellence in the music scene. Nominees are selected and then voted on by the public in categories such as ‘Best Rock’, ‘Best Hip-Hop’ and ‘Best Singer/Songwriter’.

Each year, the nominees have become increasingly aggressive in their promotion tactics and going as far as printing so-called ‘attack ads’ on their competition to sway the vote to their advantage. Our Sizzler! reporters have uncovered a few of the smear ads sent to voters this year:

Check out the madness after the jump!

The 36-year-old group has a reputation for being positive role models for today’s youth and has donated millions of dollars to countless charities and organizations. The singing troupe is popular and well-known by many for their clean, “good girl” image.

Exclusive footage after the jump!

It had been well known that Mike Ingram did not fare well when it came to playing other people's music, as proven by previous Cover-Up performances: he instigated a riot which resulted in the deaths of 15 people, including a 96-year-old woman, at a packed Highdive in 2006 by performing songs from the band Live. The infamous performance later became known as “The Day The Cover Band Died.” A similar incident the following year forced the band to end earlier than expected, due to several protestors arrested for destructive behavior while watching the Mike Ingram Band perform as Bush.

Seconds into their song “People Say," lead singer Brandon T. Washington made a motion to someone off stage that he was having some type of difficulty. Moments later, there was a noticeable skip in audio while Brandon and his rhythm section continued to play, oblivious to the glitch. The audio track then proceeded to speed up and wind down in reel-to-reel tape fashion to an end. By that point, Brandon expressed discomfort, gave a waving motion indicating that there was some kind of malfunction, and signaled the end of the evening with the rest of band looking on in disbelief.

Popular local bands such as elsinore, Shipwreck and Darling Disarm have admitted to using such tactics of outsourcing to help them write more music for their live performances and recordings.

Elsinore frontman Ryan Groff stated, "Outsourcing is not a religion. […] It is a clue if everyone else does it that it should be something which you should consider." Groff's solo album recorded this year received much criticism due to having seven of the eight tracks written by an Indian sweatshop.

Other local musicians have remained silent on the issue.