When groups are given dance lessons, a vocal coach, AND a credit card for The Gap, groups like The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and En Vogue are designed to succeed. For the rest of the music star wannabes, life starts off with the hardships of being an Indie Band.
The Indie scene has always been around. In the past, when an Indie Band finally broke through and found a large audience, they seemed to come out of nowhere. Their past efforts of playing dingy bars and school proms, sleeping in their tour van and eating whatever was 99 cents at Jack in the Box, never made it into the press. A great example was The Go Go's in the early 80s. It wasn't until recently, that we learned that the girls who sang about how they had the beat, spent years getting their band together. Not being able to play a note, they began to choose their instrument and imitate the punk acts of the LA scene.
Their first gig was in a basement where the toilets were broken and leaking.Being Indie isn't always pretty, but it's always about the music...
Find out even more about the Donnas at this cool site. http://www.thedonnas.cjb.net
The Donnas
These four poster-kids for the new punk revolution got their start early in
junior high. Back before they switched all their named to Donna, this
fabulous foursome were better known as Ragady Anne. Playing in their garage,
they were given catcalls by the neighborhood boys. Not because the guys were
interested in them, but because they thought an all-girl band in Palo Alto, CA
was hilarious!
The girls soon named themselves The Electrocutes and were able to release their first album Steal Your Lunch Money off of the indie label Sympathy For The Record Industry. Not content with that name either, they named themselves The Donnas and were once again given a deal to record another album, this time with another indie label Super*Teem Records. You would think this would turn the heads of their schoolmates, but The Donnas were ignored or harassed for being different. Despite being more successful than other local bands, they weren't asked to try-out to play for the prom. They got even though, a few years later, playing to the high school students in the movies Jawbreaker and Drive Me Crazy.
Now The Donnas are rocking all high school kids around the world with their release Get Skintight off of Lookout Records, the label for such punk bands as Green Day and Rancid. They'll be appearing on The Warp tour this summer, much to the envy of the boy bands that had earlier teased their talents.
See more of Tuuli at this great site. http://www.surf.to/tuuli
Tuuli
The girls of Tuuli are taking pop rock back to being the fun adventure it's
supposed to be. The good friends of Kittie, the hard-rocker girls that recently
release Brackish as their first MTV video, these Canadians have broken
into the US underground scene. And they're not staying there for long.
While they're still far off from attaining their dreams of a big tour bus and being on The Top of the Pops for a third time; Jenny, Claire, Dawn, and Michelle have been on the road for months, making the power of their stage presence known. This band has tons of positive energy, surviving through high school, an international move, line-up changes and a broken foot when one of the members fell off the stage. You may hear them on a late night radio broadcast or through Mp3.Com, who awarded Tuuli's song Tough Guys as song of the week.
These girls have even released an album by themselves in 1999 called Hotrods and Honeysuckle. So sweet was their melody and how great their attitudes that the CEO of Sympathy For The Record Industry personally offered to take them on. With their EP Rockstar Potential I wouldn't look too far off before we start seeing Tuuli all over the place.
The music bug bites many future musicians while still in school. Madonna threw in her pompoms and dance slippers to become a drummer, guitarist, base player and singer for several indie bands. As soon as school got out, D'arcy (formally of the Smashing Pumpkins) left the mid-west for France for a position in a underground band. M2M, Hansen, and The Tuesdays were all high school bands who broke into the mainstream while still earning their grades.
If you want to learn more about starting your own band next semester, read Girl Zone's So, You Wanna Be a Rock Star?
1. Which artist was Homecoming Queen?
2. Which musician decided to make herself Prom Queen in her video?
3. While still in school, which singer joined a rap group and was dubbed Swiss Miss?
4. What indie artist was on her own since 15 and started her own label?
5. Who was the prize for the Prom of Your Life contest?
6. Where is the Rock n Roll High School located?