Now is the Time That We Rock!!!

We've been hitting shows on the Seattle music scene for about four years now, and if there's one thing we can say with certainty, it's that Seattle doesn't need more musicians, it needs better ones. Such may be the consolation of learning that next week, the Seattle chapter of Paul Green's School of Rock opens. If Green's now famous "school" can help create a new generation of musicians whose influences go deeper than Green Day, that alone will be an achievement.

Up front, we have to admit that we have our doubts about the entire shtick, mainly because it seems like, well, a shtick. A bunch of under-age kids touring with B.B. King? In the era of Hannah Montana and The Naked Brothers Band, that's not exactly the novelty it was when The Replacements' manager got power-of-attorney over Tommy Stinson so he could play in bars. When we hear founder Paul Green's mantra repeated--"real rock concerts at real rock venues in front of real rock audiences"--we see hordes of bitchy stage-mothers in the wings, with the mom of the tall, gawky kid with a hunch (you know, the bassist) cattily complaining to the mother of the tambourine player about how her kid should be on lead vocals, but that kid's mom was totally flirting with the program director...

Still, the core of the School of Rock seems sound enough: Expose youth to real musicians, get them some real musical education, and give them an alternative to pep band (or, given the rate at which the arts are being cut from schools, maybe give them a musical opportunity at all) with music that allows them to express themselves, instead of serving as half-time filler and covering the pit for yet another unbearable production of South Pacific.

And of course, Seattle's Smoosh was the product of a chance meeting in the Trading Musician, where drummer Chloe ran into Death Cab for Cutie's Jason McGerr; their genesis tool place at the Seattle Drum School, under much the same scenario: professional rock musician teaches an enthusiastic youngster, who turns out to have natural talent. And unlike The Naked Brothers and their pre-fabbed ilk, Smoosh actually impresses you with their indie-pop, winning over NW audiences that would have been otherwise justifiably skeptical of such a gimmick, and proving that there's a place for the under-18s in the music world outside of being a Disney product line.

A link to the online home page for the Seattle School is here. Check it out all ye interested parental types--at least have the decency to give your disaffected teenagers a creative environment in which to loathe and resent you for the sheltered suburban life you worked so hard to provide. And for God's sake, at least they won't be playing Guitar Hero...