Jagermeister and live music. The recipe for a relaxing end to the weekend.

Toss in a tour sponsorship and those lovely Jagerettes, however, and there’s a party. In fact, there are the makings of the 1st annual Jagermeister Rock Hunt ’96.

The 35-city tour will come to People’s Bar and Grill Sunday, July 21 to find out which local band has the right stuff. Headlining the event are Buzzsaw Recording artists, Hank. In each market, the top local bands will perform, each vying for a Jagermeister tour sponsorship next year.

The bands, which have yet to be announced, will be judged by a panel of local radio personalities, press, retailers and the members of Hank. At the end of the tour, the top four scoring bands will compete in New York City for the chance to win the sponsorship.

“The panel has a scoresheet which they score bands on a scale from one to 100,” said Rick Shoor, president of Buzzsaw Records. “They’re judged on things like songwriting, appearance, performance and crowd reaction.”

Shoor said that a sponsorship by Jagermeister includes tour posters featuring the chosen band, t-shirts, advertising and giveaways.

For the members of Hank, it’s been a ride. It began as a friendship in the mailroom of the Boston Phoenix when bassist Elliott Hopkins and guitarist Bob Brady spent their days commiserating about The Beatles and Beat Literature, dreaming of a better future.

“Bob and I would show up to work every morning ready to sort mail, knowing that at any time a new young female recruit would be introduced to us as the two guys in the mail room,” Hopkins said in a press release. “It was very humiliating.”

Unlike Hopkins and Brady, vocalist/guitarist Larry Frye was wrestling with two distinct career paths, his love of music versus the growing prospect of a career in professional baseball.

After a failed tryout for the Toronto Bluejays’ farm team, Frye learned that a tape he had sent to Musician magazine met with more success. His song “Simple” was picked by a panel as one of the finalists in the magazine’s “Best Unsigned Band Contest.”

“The Bluejays were merciful and subtle — at the end of the tryout, they told me that my guitar was waiting in the locker room,” he said in a press release.

Baseball may not have been very good to him, but Hank has. The group, including drummer Don Uggiano, had a break when they caught the ear of Buzzsaw. However, it wasn’t until they were approached, and subsequently played, a bogus “Star Search” showcase that Buzzsaw Records made a contract offer.

“We wanted to thank this guy, after we all got a recording contract from that show,” Uggiano said. “So we tried calling “Star Search” and they had never heard of him.”

Most everyone has heard of Jagermeister, even if the memories are bad. Relive the Meister memories and make some new ones while checking out some of the areas most promising bands at Jagermeister Rock Hunt ’96 at People’s. For more information on time and prices call People’s at 292-4501.