Schoolyard Heroes

Take three geeky but music-smart guys from the high-school AV club, add their Winona Ryder-gone-punk dream date, feed them all a steady diet of Judas Priest, the Buzzcocks, and movies selected from The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, and there's a good chance the results might resemble Seattle's Schoolyard Heroes. The Schoolyard Heroes story begins in 2000, when vocalist Ryann Donnelly, guitarist Steve Bonnell, bassist Jonah Bergman, and drummer Brian Turner were all attending the same private school in Tacoma, WA. Bonnell and Bergman had just started the band when Donnelly, who had taken classical voice lessons as a child, pestered them to let her sing, and when a local youth club announced they'd be holding a Battle of the Bands, they decided to enter, with Donnelly belting out their cover of the Misfits' "Last Caress." However, they were unaware the contest was sponsored by a Christian youth group, and midway through their performance the song's lyrics caused the promoters to pull the plug.