Exposure can be hard to come by in a medium- sized Iowa town, especially if you’ve only been around six months. But the Ames band Shiver found an easy route by competing in the Battle of the Bands contest in Des Moines last fall.

“It was a good experience,” said bassist Jon Walker of the band’s three appearances at Supertoad. “We got some exposure.”

The band is seeking more exposure this weekend at the Long Shot. Walker, along with band members Lenny Holland and Ken Karpin, plays Saturday night with Season’s Calling.

Holland, singer and guitarist for the band, reluctantly describes Shiver’s sound as “alternative rock.”

Though the label of “alternative” has come to mean little these days, Holland explains that the band has always written music in the “rock and roll context.”

“We just write what we know,” he said. “I guess we all sort of have the mentality of a rebel.”

Holland credits Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Cure as the band’s biggest influences, and admits that people might find traces of these bands in its songs.

“We’re bound to be influenced by what we listen to,” he said. “I don’t consciously sit down and try to write like anyone. Everything’s been done before in some form—we just try to find a different way to do it.”

He added that lately, the band’s songs have been less lyric-oriented and more focused on “painting a picture with the music.”

Holland is the main song writer of the group, coming up with the words and the basic melody. Walker and Karpin then fill in the rhythm with bass and drums, respectively.

The band performs nearly all original songs at its live shows, making room for the occasional cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” or U2’s “With or Without You.”

Shiver’s songs tend to “have a dark side,” according to the band. “We base the songs more on painful life experiences than, say, when we were young and playing on the all-star team,” Walker said.

Although it has many styles, one area of music the band completely avoids is techno. “I think they should just get it off the radio,” Walker said. “It all sounds alike—bands saying the same things the same way. I mean, you can’t dance while you’re sitting in your car anyway.”

Another aspect of popular music that irritates Holland is its lack of sincerity. “As soon as people become insincere they should quit,” he said.

“Like bands that play music in a certain style just because that’s what’s popular at that moment. When the sincerity’s gone…that’s when you get the “Macarena.”

As an incentive to get people to come out and “get rowdy” at their shows, Shiver wants it to be known that they enjoy giving back to the fans.

“We like to give out free condoms at our shows,” Walker said. “And this time we may even have some homemade Shiver T-shirts to give away.

Aside from playing live at its house nearly every weekend, the band may soon be lining up shows in Fort Dodge.

“We took tapes of our stuff around, and two bars were really interested in having us play there,”Walker said.

“They were really excited about being approached by a band that way and we were pretty surprised by the response.”

The show Saturday is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. and will be Shiver’s second appearance at the Long Shot. “We may come off as a serious band,” Holland said “But we’re really just there to have fun.”

The Long Shot is located at 2900 West Street.