Three music-obsessed misfits who spent their high-school years running the AV club, joined by a Winona Ryder-gone-punk ideal, and sustained on a loop of Judas Priest, the Buzzcocks, and titles pulled from The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, could easily conjure the sound of Seattle’s Schoolyard Heroes. The quartet formed in 2000 while vocalist Ryann Donnelly, guitarist Steve Bonnell, bassist Jonah Bergman, and drummer Brian Turner were all enrolled at the same private school in Tacoma, WA. Bonnell and Bergman had already begun writing songs when Donnelly, armed with childhood classical voice training, insisted on joining as singer; their first public outing came when a local youth club staged a Battle of the Bands and the group performed a cover of the Misfits’ “Last Caress.” The event, unbeknownst to them, was backed by a Christian organization, which abruptly cut power mid-song once the lyrics registered.
Undeterred by that false start, the band developed a tight punk-metal sound anchored by Donnelly’s robust, theatrical delivery and by lyrics that repeatedly invoked the titles and imagery of pulp novels and horror films, quickly establishing a local presence. Because Donnelly was only fourteen when she joined, most Seattle clubs remained off-limits, so Schoolyard Heroes concentrated on all-ages bills throughout the Pacific Northwest. They also placed second in the Experience Music Project’s “Sound Off” competition and reached the finals of The Seattle Stranger’s “Big Shot” Contest. In 2003 the independent label The Control Group issued the band’s debut album, The Funeral Sciences. After extensive regional performances and a support tour with Vendetta Red, Schoolyard Heroes returned with their second album, 2005’s Fantastic Wounds, which expanded their audience. Two years later they moved to Stolen Transmission Records—home to the Horrors and the Photo Atlas—and the label released the band’s third album, Abominations, in mid-September 2007.
