Runge has become rock music headquarters for Karnes County after local band Sev7sky — pronounced "Seven Sky" — has climbed their way into the top 50 spots in an online band battle hosted by Austin City Limits.

Lead vocalist and 27-year-old Runge resident Sylvester Olveda puts a face and a voice — both in music and in publicity — to the band. The Austin City Limits band battle is judged entirely using an online voting system.

"It has been a little rough in a small town area but we try our hardest to get noticed. So far it has been going really well and we can’t wait to break out into the bigger cities," Olveda writes on their mini-Web-page at the Austin City Limits contest site.

On the lead guitar is Kenedy resident Matthew Zambrano, playing rhythm guitar is Runge resident Greg Delagarza, on bass guitar is Karnes City resident Michael Pergrem, and Runge resident Zeke Casarez plays the drums.

The five of them all got together thanks to a local open-mic night two years ago.

"It was at Helms Restaurant when it was open still," Olveda explains. "Me and Matthew were doing a live acoustic show and that’s when we met two other members. They liked the way we played. That’s where it all started."

Their demo song on the contest site is in tune with the direction modern rock music is taking alongside bands like Staind, Nickelback, and Daughtry — powerful drums, a mix of clean and distorted guitar effects, and meaningful lyrics. However, the five pride themselves on their unique style within that direction.

"I’m the oldest in the band … already 27," Olveda said. "The bands I enjoyed a lot were like the old Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam and stuff like that. I mean, I love Metallica and stuff like that too, but this genre of music … it’s kind of our own style now."

The song Immortal is a melodramatic roller coaster, slowly starting off one instrument at a time and leading into an explosion of movement that eventually comes back down again before repeating the cycle.

Olveda’s vocals stay on the low key most of the time, but at certain points in the song, he explodes with emotion.

"My voice was never designed to do anything like that (but) when we recorded that track, I just let myself go and that just came out," he said. "We put a lot of meaning into our lyrics — all a form of poetry."

The song demo is rough, having been recorded at an in-home studio by a friend of the band. The five have considered recording in a professional studio in San Antonio, but the cost is higher than they currently can afford.

"We have actually given a lot of thought to it, which is why we’re trying to play a lot of shows around the area," Olveda said.

The five have recorded three tracks, one of which is available at the contest site. All three can be found on their myspace page at myspace.com/sev7sky.

As for the rather unique spelling on the band name, Olveda said they might end up changing it to make it easier to read and pronounce.

"We’re called ‘Seven Sky,’ but we put the seven in the middle. It’s just kind of a silly thing we did. We’ll be changing that soon," he said.

All five members are asking locals to help them win the Austin City Limits band battle by voting online.

Votes can be cast at www.austincitylimits.com. Click on "listen to music and vote" and look for Sev7sky on the leader board on the left-hand side of the page. Clicking on the band name will pull up their page where users can listen to Sev7sky’s music and vote by entering an e-mail address.

"We need as many as we can," Olveda said.

Only the top 100 bands will make it through round one which ends on Aug. 20. The winner after round four ends September 12 will earn a coveted spot on the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup.