Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll? Only one makes the cut

The young members of eight bands that will battle it out Sunday mirror the idealism, but not the hedonism, of the '60s.

By PAMELA GRINER LEAVY

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 12, 2000

While they play heavy metal, hard rock, punk, techno rock and alternative music, band members say being straight edge means they have said no to the staples of previous generations of rock 'n' roll: sex, drugs and alcohol.

But like their 1960s counterparts, the original songs written by area teens often have a social message.

Eight local teenage groups face off in Sunday's second annual Battle of the Bands, sponsored by the Clearwater Public Library System Youth Advisory Committee and the Parks and Recreation Department. Scheduled from noon to 6 p.m., the Mother's Day event features original music and is free and open to the public.

Winners will receive free recording sessions, equipment from Stevie B's Total Guitar store and the opportunity to open for a national act at Club More in downtown Clearwater.

Competing for the first time are Ted Pine and Cynthia Fernandez, seniors at Palm Harbor University High School and members of a band called +Protocol. Both are in the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate college preparation program. Fernandez has been accepted at Harvard University. Pine is headed to the University of Central Florida.

"We are pretty much straight edge," said Pine. "Basically people do whatever sells and are becoming dehumanized because of it. All we are doing is making a routine out of ourselves -- going to work, making money, coming home, watching TV, going to the mall and school."

Fernandez sings; Pine writes and mixes the music. His 15-year-old brother, Chris, also a student at Palm Harbor University High School, plays the guitar.

+Protocol's music is critical of societal emphasis on sex, drugs, violence and money, Pine said. A song called Meet Me in the Middle is about people who are blinded by their version of reality and can't see the truth.

Plastic Idol is an original composition by the Dogs, another band scheduled to compete.

"Plastic Idol criticizes how organized religion goes after musicians who make records and tries to censor them because they think they have a satanic, evil message," said Adam Shoemaker of Clearwater, the 18-year-old guitarist for the Dogs and a student at St. Petersburg Junior College.

The Dogs won first place and $1,000 at the Florida Rock-Off held May 7 at the State Theater in St. Petersburg.

Kathy Shoemaker looks forward to spending Mother's Day listening to Adam and the Dogs play hard rock. Kathy Shoemaker, 51, whose tastes run along the lines of the Rolling Stones, Megadeth and Metallica, taught Adam, her only child, to play the guitar.

Other bands scheduled to appear are Zodiac Sundae, Skyline, Cooper's Ligament, *Issue*56*, Growsly Outnumbered and Partial Divinity.

"Hard core punk emo" (meaning emotional) is how Ben Hallstrom, 17, describes the sound of Cooper's Ligament. Hallstrom, who attends Clearwater High School, says the group's original song, Tired, is about homeless children. Another song, Your War, focuses on abusive parents.

The Battle of the Bands is the brainchild of the library's youth advisory committee. Alexander Zdjelar, a senior at Dunedin High School, serves on the committee.

"The Battle of the Bands makes the link between youth and the library that's been needed for so long," said Zdjelar, who will begin working on a business degree at the University of Florida in the fall.

Jana Fine serves as youth services manager for the Clearwater public library system. Fine, 46, who said she "still thinks like a teenager," is also the national president of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

If you go

WHEN: noon to 6 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Clearwater's Coachman Park

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