Hey, Ho! Let’s Go! The New Girl Rock’N'Roll Underground

Girls Rock Rhode Island

Most of the women I met who had started camps had a similar story — they felt that a female voice was missing in their local music scene, and they wanted to do something about it. Natalie Walker at the Rain City Rock Camp For Girls put it best when she said:

I saw the Seattle music scene to be incredibly male-dominated, so reliant on proving that you were more ‘macho’, had the best-constructed pedal board, and had the greatest number of obscure records in your collection. At camp, I found myself in this room with 50 other women, and we were cheering for each other, and no one was trying to measure up to any sort of external standard, or some sort of level of virtuosity. As a woman, I wasn’t as encouraged to wank around on my guitar playing along to Pink Floyd when I was 13 like boys, but in camp we do. When we see a woman onstage, playing rock music, shouldn’t we see that she’s pushed through those barriers? Rock Camp showed me exactly what I had been feeling in my heart. Playing onstage and sharing your ‘voice’ is a big fucking deal! And people should cheer. We should cheer our faces off for that!

[Ed's note. Credit where credit's due. Natalie is one of the finest interns I've ever had the privilege of working alongside. She worked with me throughout the whole of my Nirvana book, and the book would've been far poorer without her. She also provided the travelogue that is the backbone of the entire first chapter. Thanks Natalie. I'm so stoked you're part of all this - Everett]

At every camp we visited there was indeed a lot of cheering, coaching and a real rock community I had always dreamed of being in as a female musician. Behind every great rock star there is always someone inspiring them to become what they are, and between the camps and schools led by women a girls rock underground culture is beginning to establish itself. The camps and schools are inspiring the next PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett and Exene Cervenka to come into existence. Except this time it will be more than a few women who stand out, but an army of bands filled with women.

As Hilken Mancini told me of Girls Rock Boston:

Each and every girl who walks in the door, acting apologetic for taking up space, breathing in air, and being alive walks out the door proud, discovering her own true voice, and is no longer afraid of who or what she can be or will become. And she can play her instrument pretty damn good and loud too by then.

I can’t wait to see to see these female rock stars take over. They are coming and they can rock. Like the Ramones sang, “Hey, Ho! Let’s go!”

The Wild Buffins from Bay Area Girls Rock Camp.

For more information about any of the camps and schools listed above please visit their respective websites and donate time, money, support, or start your own camp:

www.girlsrockri.org
www.girlsguitarschool.com
www.rockcampforgirlsla.org
www.bayareagirlsrockcamp.org
www.girlsrockseattle.org
www.girlsrockboston.org

Photo of Exene Cervenka and Joyce Raskin at the Stories book event in LA by Brett Stranaire

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 at 3:14 pm. It is filed under Columns and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

8 Responses to “Hey, Ho! Let’s Go! The New Girl Rock’N'Roll Underground”

  1. Erika Meyer says:
    October 11, 2011 at 11:40 pm

    This is such zeitgeist, but I have to give a shout out to my friend Misty McElroy who started THE original Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon. I taught guitar there for two years and my daughter attended when she was 8 and 9 years old. The girls were not just taught to play, but in a week’s time they formed bands, wrote an original song, and performed it in front of a sold-out 600 seat venue. Here is a documentary film that was made about the 2005 camp http://youtu.be/Dbx5PM8jH3wm (I’m in the film for, like, 2 seconds, standing behind Beth Ditto, who also volunteered there that year…)

  2. Patrik says:
    October 12, 2011 at 2:31 am

    “They’re teaching them to be like *The Stooges*(!) and the Ramones”.

    Woah! How times have changed. I would not think of those bands as role models for children. A lot of used paraphernalia and dead musicians left in their wake. I’m not so sure that Iggy hasn’t been replaced by an android, either.

    Nevertheless, these camps sound like a lot of fun and something positive for the girls. Even as a boy, I would have appreciated *any* encouragement to make music. Keep rocking.

  3. » Link Love 10.12.2011 says:
    October 12, 2011 at 5:36 am

    [...] Ho! Let’s Go! The New Girl Rock’N'Roll Underground by Joyce Raskin at Collapse Board. Girls Rock Camp! I wish they had that when I was growing [...]

  4. Bianca says:
    October 12, 2011 at 7:49 am

    I wish they had this when I was growing up! Such a positive thing for young girls… I have an interview I did almost a decade ago with Misty McElroy about Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon for my old zine that never ended up being published because I stopped doing it (but that’s a whole other story)… I’ll see if I can find it to put on CB :)

  5. Erika Meyer says:
    October 12, 2011 at 10:27 am

    @Patrik that is the irony of the whole thing isn’t it. Rock n’ Roll is outlaw, yet empowering. When you create a “rock” camp, you focus on the positive empowerment aspect of it, and recognize that you are being a bit subversive just by encouraging girls to take power and get loud. The Portland girls rock camp did not teach girls to “be like Iggy” (as a lifestyle choice) at all. The volunteer staff was definitely lesbian/bi/trans dominated (hetero chix were a minority, reflecting IMO the real world of females in rock music) and it was more about being ok with who you are, having confidence in your voice, learning to use and care for gear, defend yourself, and advocate for yourself. There was a heavy Olympia influence, with lots of Oly musicians involved and Oly K & KRS acts coming down to perform. The Oly aesthetic isn’t very Iggy! (As for me, by request, I taught the girls to play songs by White Stripes and Nirvana. They loved it!)

  6. Everett True says:
    October 12, 2011 at 10:42 am

    The Oly aesthetic isn’t very Iggy!

    Oh, I don’t know …

    Two degrees of separation.

    Iggy Pop -> Lux Interior -> Calvin Johnson

    You can get there other ways, too.

  7. Erika Meyer says:
    October 12, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    First, oops! I really shouldn’t generalize like that about neighboring towns. It’s poor form. Like when some Olympians disparage Portland old school bands for being unambitious druggies. It’s hard for an outsider to really catch the nuance in a small scene, and too easy to toss off over-generalizations.

    The bands I saw perform at RRC4G were Mirah, The Blow, Gossip, Bangs… all great acts.

    I’ve only seen Calvin Johnson perform once, solo acoustic and some a capella, about 10 years ago. Also a great act. I suppose I could see the Lux in his stuff, but my impression at the time was more like Frank Sinatra meets Arlo Guthrie with a dash of Tommy Smothers hootenanny.

    Both Portland and Olympia musical acts have a lot of variety, humor, and art.

  8. Girls Guitar School says:
    November 5, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    [...] For more in the exciting news column…GGS students were featured on Everett True’s blog,  Collapse Board!  Our deepest thanks to Joyce Raskin for including our work in her article.  Check out the Reckless Pretties doing their thing at the Stories Cafe event in July right here. [...]

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