When the Post-Gazette and post-gazette.com decided to launch Pittsburgh Rocks, an online battle of the bands, the powers that be thought the inaugural competition might draw 40 or 50 bands.

The final tally went far beyond that, as 134 bands threw their hats in the ring with the submission of an MP3 file of an original song.

Those have now been evaluated by members of the PG's editorial and Web staffs, who narrowed it down to the finalists for the public online voting. Initially, there were going to be 10, but because of the strength of the field, it was expanded to an even dozen.

They are a mix of well-known and up-and-coming bands in a variety of genres, including alt-rock, punk, pop-punk, glam, roots-rock and dark New Wave.

Here they are:

• Burndowns, "I'm Trying"

• CosmoSonics "Wild Violets"

• Donora, "Shhh"

• Josh McCann Band, "Her Number One"

• Kill the Drama, "Close Friends w/ Sharp Knives"

• Mercury, "The Beautiful"

• Olympus Mons, "Take Them All Alone"

• The Pump Fakes, "Shakin' It Off"

• The Space Pimps, "Tell Me Why"

• Tangerine, "Lucretia My Reflection"

• Victory Year, "Chances, Scars and Ups & Downs"

• The Will Kills, "The Concerned Liberal Society"

The first chance to listen and vote will be tomorrow morning at www.post-gazette.com/pittsburghrocks. Voting will continue through June 12.

The three bands with the most votes will play the Three Rivers Arts Festival on June 22.

The winning band will receive a professionally produced music video by award-winning Post-Gazette videographers Steve Mellon and Matt Freed. That video will be posted on the PG site, which receives more than 40 million page views per month.

Get ready to cast your votes -- one per person, please. And enjoy the songs. They would make a great playlist.