Teen punk rockers: 'Like, who wants to be depressed?'

Laykn Bury is mad. Her trademark half sneer, half smirk, usually reserved for the punk-rock groupies she peers at from behind her drum set as Savage Lucy's infallible percussionist "Polly Rhythm," is now directed at her mom, Sherie. "Mom, can I pleeeeeeease spend the night at Ah-nah's house?" she pleads. But her mother refuses. Laykn may be a member of Ellensburg's hottest punk band, but she is still 13.

Bury and Ah-nah Caples-Nylander, 13 (bass, vocals), make up Savage Lucy, which will play Saturday at The Brick: House in Ballard.

Billed as "the youngest all-girl punk band in the world," the girls of Savage Lucy aren't your average middle-schoolers. Not only are they well read — the name of their band comes from Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" — they take their punk as seriously as master-class musicians. They play with a defiant energy that has garnered them comparisons in the local press to the likes of the Ramones and the 1970s all-female group The Slits.

"If the Ramones and Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols) had a baby, it'd be Savage Lucy," said Ellensburg music enthusiast Joel Gerlach, pinpointing their sound as one reminiscent of late '70s British punk. "They're really good for a local band. Most do really bad impersonations of the Sex Pistols."

The girls call their sound "Now Wave," a term used to describe the revival of old-school punk and new wave. "It's not poppy Blink-182-type stuff, it's more like poppy Missing Persons stuff and Buzzcocks and the Rezillos and stuff like that," rattles Ah-nah, in a punk rock riff that exposes a deep knowledge of the genre. "It's more positive than negative, too. I think everybody in Seattle was just sick of the whole grunge-goth-emo thing (the slang term for a brand of emotional punk). They wanted to get away from it, and they were, like, 'Who wants to be depressed?' "

With six years of drumming under her belt, Laykn is the most experienced musician of the group. Ah-nah picked up the bass a year and a half ago so that she could participate in the school jazz band. They are currently in between guitarists and are using Laykn's brother Ryan as a filler until they find someone permanent to round out the threesome, preferably one who can fit in with the look of the band: skinny ties, muscle tees, polka-dotted skirts and Army boots in an array of colors and prints.

And though they may be aspiring rock stars, they can't stop giggling like teenagers at times. "What did your mom say our practice room smelled like?" Ah-nah asks. Cat urine and rotting garbage, Laykn answers. Giggle, giggle.

Punk-rock clubhouse

The girls practice in a shed they've converted into a punk-rock clubhouse a few miles outside of Ellensburg, a rural college town of 15,000, two hours drive east of Seattle. From the outside it may look like something a stray cat would be attracted to, but the interior is just as colorful and wacky as the band members with foil plastered to the walls and jump ropes waving from the ceiling. They play there relentlessly in anticipation of a growing number of gigs stretching along the West Coast all the way down to Southern California.

"We want to take over the world," said Ah-nah, a comment that brought another round of giggles.

They've already begun their attack. Savage Lucy played at Second Avenue Pizza in Seattle last week, opened for the Epoxies at the all-ages Seattle club the Vera Project in June and played head-to-head with Issaquah-based punk bands the Punctures and the Pranks in celebration of their one-year anniversary this spring at Grant's Pizza in Ellensburg. They took the stage below neon "Budweiser" and "Henry's" signs in front of a mixed audience of mohawks, college students and soccer moms in sport vests, some pillars of a community that supports the arts — all kinds of art.

"I'm impressed that we have a population that can look beyond personal preference," said Mary Frances, the director of Gallery One, a contemporary exhibition space that has hosted the band during Ellensburg's monthly First Friday Art Walk. "I was touring a group of 40-to 70-year-olds through the gallery while Savage Lucy was performing. Most of them had big grins on their faces; their only response was 'Wow.' "

Their performance at the pizza establishment was equally well received. By song three, the younger crowd was out of their chairs and into a makeshift mosh pit. When the band got to its insta-classic "Avril Lavigne," Ah-nah coyly yelped, "Avril Lavigne, will you go out with me?"

As they wrapped up their set, they performed the only cover of the night, a hyper-short, driving version of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction." With a laugh, Ah-nah claimed, "Before they wrote it, we wrote it." And from the cheers, it seemed the audience was willing to believe it.

'I'm floored'

All this couldn't make Sarah Elizabeth Caples happier. Sporting a tank-top with "Ah-nah's Mama" on the back and the band's name on the front, she reminisced about the days when she was a member of the punk/new wave scene. "I think they're right there," she said. "I'm floored."

Even Ah-nah's grandmother, Ellensburg Children's Community Theatre founder and former city council member Donna Nylander, loves the band, calling them "delightful." As for lyrics such as "I can understand who you think I am/some controlling bitch is what you're concluding man" in "Break Me Up" and an entire song about a "punk-rock pedophile," Nylander can only say, "I don't hear that. I'm just happy they're expressing themselves."

Still, not everyone is as appreciative of their form of expression.

"We've gotten in quite a bit of trouble over the way we dress," said Ah-nah. "I was sitting outside of Tiki Tattoo once, and these people I don't even know yelled 'skank' from out of their car, and I'm, like, 'I'm just 13, what did I do?' "

Occasional jabs aside, the response from the music community, especially in the Seattle area, has been really encouraging, said Ah-nah, despite reservations up front about their age and gender:

"A lot of people don't expect much from us because we're girls, but once they've heard us play, they're really surprised."

Savage Lucy may soon gain recognition on an even larger scale with recording offers from several European labels and the inclusion of a song on a soon-to-be-released Go-Kart Records all-female compilation.

But fame isn't something Ah-nah's father, Jim Nylander, would like to see in the near future. Both he and Laykn's father, Gary, agree that their goal is to get the girls through high school unscathed.

"If they want to buy us a house, we won't complain," Nylander said. "But we would like them to grow up first."