Girls Rock Philly releases two new compilations of local talent
Two new rockin’ compilation albums, youth empowerment and music education — what more could you possibly ask for? Girls Rock Philly, a volunteer-based non-profit music and mentoring organization for girls, young women, and trans youth across the greater Philadelphia region, has just released two stellar efforts on their Bandcamp page. The campers (9-12 year old campers make up the Youth Mixtape, while 13-18 year olds created the Teen Sessions) formed bands, wrote songs, performed and recorded them all in the matter of a week. Some campers had never played their instrument before the first day of camp. Sounds like some out of this word School of Rock program doesn’t it? And yet it gets better. Now, everyone can hear for themselves what all the campers devoted their time to while writing, practicing and playing their hearts out.
The first comp, Youth Mixtape, is so stinkin’ rad, I wish I had been even half that cool at only 9 years old. These songs aren’t perfect, and by no measure should they be. Their raw nature and room for flaws only expounds on the sheer imagination and total creative force of these young musicians. The spoken word freestylings of the minute long Mama Llamas’ song is placed perfectly next to the six minute opus of Ready 2 Rock, where the vocalist sings, “Cause I am free to do whatever I want.” Seriously, does it get any better than this? Like, let me know.
Some tracks fly in with a roar, while others gently breeze by like The 5 Harmonics’ song with simple use of piano and drum pedal. At times, the songs can be scatterbrained, yet never cease to be absolutely lovely.
The Teen Sessions delivers its own special sounds and instrumentation, with more fleshed out pieces. On the bass-happy Too Deep to Measure track, the bandmates sing “Everyone should suffer / or no one at all” a tell off tale about some serious hot and cold mind games.
Four Fantastic Divas dive into a laundry list of reasons why they love Philadelphia, but they miss one key reason — the fact that it has such amazing programs for its youth.
You heard it hear first, these are the future rockstars of the scene.
You can listen to both compilations in full below. For more information on Girls Rock Philly head on over here.
Youth Mixtape
Teen Sessions