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Tue. July 07.1998 3:01 AM EDT |
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Rock 'N' Roll High School Not Just A Punk SongLearning institution dedicated to training hard-core musicians has been visited by Fugazi, Sonic Youth and Rancid. by Contributing Editor Teri vanHorn |
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Litany is the first RnRHS band to get a U.S. record deal. ( ) |
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The first time the Washington, D.C.-based hardcore pioneers Fugazi
visited Rock 'n' Roll
High School in Melbourne, Australia, they met an aspiring, pre-teen
rock
'n' roller named Miranda De'ath. The second time Fugazi visited the
Just another graduate of Rock 'n' Roll High School. "It's like a clubhouse with tons of instruments, and people there to help you figure out what to do with them," said Fugazi vocalist Ian MacKaye, who has paid a visit to the one-of-a-kind school solely dedicated to churning out professional rock musicians. "It's a pretty amazing thing for kids to have. And the really great thing is that 95 percent of the people playing music are girls -- really young, teen- age girls. I thought that was really inspirational -- really cool that that was happening." While Melbourne has been called the Seattle of Australia because of its gloomy weather, the potential impact of its rock scene soon might prompt a comparison beyond meteorology. Located in a nondescript building in inner-city Melbourne, Rock 'n' Roll High School, which took its name from the Ramones classic (RealAudio excerpt), has garnered enough of a buzz to inspire the likes of Sonic Youth, L7, Rancid and Sebadoh, in addition to Fugazi and Dinosaur Jr, to stop in during their tours of the Land Down Under and check it out. Formed in 1990, the rock school is a musical community of sorts, where 180 musicians -- mostly female -- are learning their trade and industry smarts as well as forming bands and having fun. Ages range from 8 to 30, but as one official description put it, "The average RnRHS student is 17, female and into her art." Sarah McKeown is the epitome of a RnRHS student. These days, the 19-year-old is playing bass and guitar in the grunge group Sheraw, one of 30 bands currently at the school. But that's not all. She's also, temporarily, running the joint. "It's kind-of a breeding ground for women to go on and hopefully do good things in rock music," McKeown said from Melbourne. "It's getting a lot of chicks and a few guys into rock for the right reason -- music. It isn't about getting signed or having a hit." But the record dealing at RnRHS has already begun -- and yielded results. It all started in 1996 when Bay Area ska-punk band Rancid paid a visit to the school. The group's leader, Tim Armstrong, was given Vol. 2, a RnRHS compilation CD, as a momento of his visit. He took the CD, which contained Litany's song "By Myself" (RealAudio excerpt), home to the States. It subsequently made its way to Time Bomb Recordings, which signed the band. It was the first deal between an RnRHS band and a U.S. label. "It could have been anyone on Vol. 2 -- they were all amazing songs," said Litany's drummer, Stephanie Bourke, who founded the school. "Sometimes I wish it wasn't us, so we could stay at the school." In fact, McKeown owes her temporary position as the school's head- honcho to Litany's record deal. These days, she's sitting in for Bourke while Litany are on tour promoting their debut, Peculiar World -- the group is appearing, this week, as part of the all-women Lilith Fair. Bourke said that while RnRHS is focused on turning women into confident and accomplished musicians, it isn't necessarily aimed at conventional success in the rock world. "None of us think we're going to make it," she said. "We just rehearse and go to each other's gigs and drink beer and go, 'Hey, chicks in rock!' " Litany's record deal was a significant development for RnRHS, as well as for the rock world in general, McKeown said. "Litany are the first Australian all-female band to get picked up by an international label," she explained. "It's really important to change the boundaries of what female musicians can do in Australia." Rock 'n' Roll High School released its third compilation CD, Volume 3, last month on its own label, RnRHS Records. Mixed in Los Angeles, the album features 20 cuts from such RnRHS bands as Sheraw, Bindi, the Midget Stooges, Tuff Muff and Snotrag. The school spent three years making the album, with the bands Fed Ex-ing tapes to Bourke while Litany recorded in the U.S. RnRHS, which accepts "virtually anyone," McKeown said, is funded primarily from the students' lesson fees, which run $15 for a half-hour lesson and $25 for an hour. On the odd occasion when a grant from a government agency comes through, the school uses the additional revenue for recording, local touring and other "stuff we usually couldn't afford to do," McKeown said. "There's really nowhere else in Melbourne -- let alone the world -- where you get such a high level of support for being a female musician and where you can be surrounded by a group of really motivated, strong people who believe what they're doing is important to changing the future of rock," she said. "I can't really equate what being at RnRHS has meant to me as a musician and a woman," McKeown said. "I've never felt so motivated or conscious of the fact that I'm involved in a revolutionary organization which reflects so much of what I think is important." |
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