Girls Just Wanna Rock Out: Behind The Scenes At Ladies' Rock Camp

Last month, the influential all-female rock band Sleater Kinney announced they were calling it quits. After eleven years and several critically acclaimed records, the three members of the band were ready to hang up their guitars and concentrate on other musical projects and family commitments. Soon after the announcement, a common question began to appear in the laudatory eulogies: what did Sleater Kinney's departure mean for the general state of women in rock?

If the line-ups at music festivals and playlists at indie-rock stations are any indication, women in rock are doing quite well these days. The line-up at this year's Lollapalooza featured acts ranging from British MC Lady Sovereign to Canadian chanteuse Feist to Nashville punks Be Your Own Pet. On the pop front, women top the charts, and while no one is arguing that Jessica Simpson and Mariah Carey are the new faces of feminism, they're making hits and making money. Joan Jett is making a comeback, and Madonna keeps on cranking out hits and selling out tours. The last fifteen years have been an unprecedented success for women in music, from the Breeders to Fiona Apple to the late Lilith Fair. Even hip-hop, long seen as violent and misogynistic, has achieved an unprecedented level of gender parity. The days of riot grrls may be long over, but the new post-riot attitude seems to be, "sure we've got a girl guitarist/ drummer/ singer - and who cares?"

But for every success story, there is often a more interesting backstory; how did that girl get behind the drums in the first place? "Girls weren't encouraged to play drums when I was in school, so I picked up a violin instead," saysMary Mango, a participant in this year's Ladies Rock Camp, as she sits behind a kit and spends her lunch hour working out patterns and beats. A Camp volunteer who gave her name as Beth had a similar story; now a singer who is working on forming a rock band, she gravitated towards punk as a teenager but was steered towards playing the flute by her parents and teachers. "Playing instruments was a dude club when I was in high school," she says.

That attitude has made its way into urban lore in the common "Guitar Center" story. Many women who play music share some form of a similar tale: heading to the local instrument emporium only to be patronized or asked if they were shopping for a male partner. While this might be indicative of a need for staff sensitivity training, it also highlights a larger trend of the hurdles women face to get ahold of guitars in the first place.

This is where the Ladies Rock Camp comes in. The Camp was held over a three-day period at the Brooklyn Friends School and, the organizers say, is hopefully the first of what will become a yearly event. The camp is an offshoot of, and serves as a fundraiser for, the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, which is an offshoot of the Portland, Oregon Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. Over the course of three days, the participants would do more than learn a few chords or a few beats; they would form bands and write at least one song, to be performed at New York club Sin-e at the end of the weekend.

When I arrived at the Camp on Saturday morning, the fifty women who attended the Camp were in workshops dedicated the learning the basics of playing the guitar, bass, drums, or singing. A woman who had achieved some level of professional musical success led each workshop, and the participants were being patiently taken through a series of exercises designed to teach them the fundamentals of their respective instruments. There was no discernable competition between the women, who all seemed to sport wide grins as they gamely plucked away.

The camaraderie extended to the lunch session, where the newly formed bands sat in groups and gleefully shared their joy at how much they had learned in a short period of time. Emily Rems, who is a staff writer at Bust, attended the camp determined to play drums despite having, in her words, "never even touched a drum set." Her band mate Stacy Owen, on the other hand, had been playing bass for "about two years" but wanted to get some more professional instruction and meet some new female musicians. Both women marveled at the quick connection they had formed and how the level of support they were given. "I'm just playing very simple stuff," said Rems, "but everyone is understanding and willing to work with me." This seems to be in sharp contrast to the attitudes that women face when they try to learn music from other teachers. "I learned how to play basically after being [screwed] over by male chauvinist teachers until I learned how to play on my own. I internalized those teachers making fun of me, and felt like I wasn't good enough. These girls are being spared that," says Amy Vecchione, an Idaho musician who did not attend the Camp.

At the Camp's finale show, a packed room at New York club Sin-e watched band after newly formed band take the stage. Many of the tunes featured the same four chords, and there were plenty of flubs and slip-ups. Still, the women tore through their short sets with abandon, and the crowd roared with applause at the end of every one. Many of the women expressed a desire to keep their bands together, and raved about the supportive environment at the Camp. Outside the venue, Camper Amy Wounk said "I came a long way during the Camp. I'm amazed at how much I learned and how much confidence the experience has given me. It has been such a positive experience."

Videos: (1) Footage of Sleater Kinney's last show in New York; (2) Joan Jett's "I Love Rock N' Roll" video; (3) "Ladies in Pink" play the Rock Camp final show