Musical sister duo harmonize demands of school, rock band with hopes of scoring attention of ’25 Hill’

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer

(Watch a video of ShiSho below)

In the basement of a well-kept, unassuming bi-level home in Kent, ”Vivian Ramone” and her little sister, ”Midge Ramone,” are wearing matching black pantsuits and standing in front of a homemade green screen, singing a gentle, almost folky original song, I Miss You Now, Pop.

Vivian, a lanky 14-year-old accenting her smart suit with well-worn black Chuck Taylors and mismatched shoelaces, is singing and strumming some chords on a Telecaster through a tiny Orange brand amp. Her chubby-cheeked sibling, 10-year-old Midge (going shoeless with bright blue toenail polish) stands next to her with a mike in her hand, swaying gently, providing backing vocals and generally looking cute.

Sydnie "Vivian" Ramone, 14, (left) and her sister Kreigh "Midge" Ramone, 10, are the band Shisho The band has submitted songs for Bernsen's derby movie, "25 Hill.". (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)

The girls are singing to a video camera with a homemade drawing of actor/director Corbin Bernsen taped just below the lens to remind them for whom they are singing.

But this isn’t some random fan video made by a couple of young hard-core L.A. Law or Psych fans, this is potential business. Vivian and Midge Ramone (aka Sydnie and Kreigh Barnette) are ShiSho, a teen/tween duo of budding musicians and songwriters. They’ve been making colorful
and often humorous music for much of their young lives, with the help of their proud father/producer/manager/roadie, Kris Barnette, supportive mom, Tangela, and karate-loving 6-year-old brother Mattox, who dubbed the home studio ”Miggle Fingie’s Goblet of Rawk Studio.”

The video is for one of three songs ShiSho will submit to Bernsen’s Team Cherokee productions for possible inclusion in 25 Hill, his upcoming feature film about the Soap Box Derby that was shot partially in the Akron area last year. As with many aspects of their growing music career, the opportunity came about thanks to a mix of serendipity and good, old-fashioned chutzpah.

”We were extras in the movie, and they had a meet-and-greet with Corbin Bernsen and some of the other actors,” Sydnie said, sitting on top of a speaker cabinet in the small part of the crowded basement not dedicated to being a music and video studio. ”And I just walked up to him and said ‘Hey, I’m in a band called ShiSho. Can we submit some songs for the movie?’ And he said, ‘Sure.’ ”

So the girls set about writing some new songs that adroitly referenced the derby. ”We figured just sending MP3s was so impersonal, we thought it would be better to send some videos,” Sydnie said.

Roots in rock

ShiSho (pronounced ”Shy-Show,” officially a martial-arts master, colloquially something cool and indescribable) began on a backyard trampoline way back in 2004, but the girls’ musical education by way of their parents began before their feet touched earth.

From the safety of her mother’s womb, Sydnie experienced They Might Be Giants and Soul Coughing, and as a toddler she saw her first punk show featuring MXPX and other bands. Kreigh’s first show was maverick Christian indie rocker Mike Knott, whose punk tune Daddy’s Womp ShiSho would eventually record. Even their stage names are a tribute to the Ramones.

”We warped them young,” said Kris, a jovial man who works by day as a marketing communications manager for SageQuest. ”We’d listen to a lot of stuff in the car, Beastie Boys, Ween, Atom and His Package, a lot of silly stuff,” he said.

”We’d always been inspired by people like They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players,” which featured now 17-year-old drummer/singer/ShiSho hero Rachel Trachtenburg, said Sydnie.

While jumping on a trampoline, Sydnie had an idea. ”And I was like, ‘Hey, Dad,’ and he said ‘What?’ and I was like, ‘I think I want to be in a band when I’m older.’ And he’s like, ‘When you’re older?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, when I’m a teenager,’ and he was like, ‘Why not just do one now?’ And I thought, ‘I could do that, couldn’t I?’ ”

Kris enlisted his musical buddy Rodney ”Professor Peushu” Wilson to help the girls record some songs. Their first release, a cover of ’80s punk-rock satirists the Dead Milkmen’s Punk Rawk Girl (reconfigured as Punk Rawk Boy) received airplay on WCSB (89.3-FM) and was voted one of the station’s best songs of 2005.

After a break, serendipity stepped in again. Listening to NPR on a trip, Sydnie heard the White Stripes talking about their album Get Behind Me Satan, which Sydnie immediately modified into Get Behind Me Santa and thus another song was born. Released online, the punky, guitar-driven song questions St. Nick’s true motives (”You’re always watching me, how creepy is that?” Sydnie sings).

Coincidentally, respected indie rocker Sufjan Stevens was about to release a holiday collection that included a different song titled Get Behind Me Santa (which the girls also covered). Suddenly ShiSho and Sufjan Stevens were being mentioned together in blogs, including well-known indie rock webzine Pitchfork.

”That was awesome. It was just a blurb, but it was on the front page of Pitchfork that day, and we were getting a bunch of page hits on our Myspace page, and we were like, what’s going on?” Sydnie said.

Then on Christmas Eve 2005, independent record label Filthy Little Angels based in Nelson, England, contacted the band (”It was like a Christmas miracle!” Sydnie said) to include the song on a holiday compilation called Down To Grease On Holiday. That led to the label releasing a pink 7-inch single featuring ShiSho originals — the poppy and slightly sad Courtney Sat on a Rock and the lyrically surreal and catchy Rocks and Penalties.

”I was so excited about having a 7-inch, but we had to explain to Midge what a 7-inch and vinyl and a record were,” Sydnie said, eliciting a shrug and a laugh from her sister.

The label also released the ShiSho Will Punch You EP, featuring a cleaned-up version of America Will Punch You by Cleveland band Harvey and Felix (the cute, energetic homemade video can be found on YouTube) and a few other covers and originals.

Gaining exposure

The sisters played their first shows in 2006, performing on the young band stage at the Christian-themed Cornerstone Music Festival near Bushnell, Ill., where the nervous pair donned giant sunglasses to hide their stage fright.

Since then, ShiSho has played about 40 gigs, from area bookstores to repeat engagements at Cornerstone and the Gratis Fest, comic-book conventions and Girl Scout gatherings. They have even been featured in a comic book, Youngstown-based Meow Wow! 2.

They’ll be performing as part of the Kent-based Jam Session Music School’s January Showcase on Tuesday at Backstage at The Lounge in downtown Akron.

Aside from the band, Sydnie, an eighth-grader, and Kreigh, a fourth-grader, attend Stanton Middle School and Franklin Elementary School respectively. Sydnie, who has been working on her songwriting, also participates in competitive narrative writing, and just won the school spelling bee. Kreigh is a young artist and poet who has read her work at the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State.

”She’s a great writer, and the things that come out of that brain . . . ” Sydnie said with admiration and a hint of dread.

Through it all, Kris Barnette has been trying to strike a healthy balance between being supportive and being a high-pressure stage dad. The basement studio is filled with mostly used instruments and recording gear culled from online auction houses, along with gifts from friends.

Barnette has become fluent in Apple’s GarageBand music production software and is the band’s de facto booker and manager. He was even inspired to pick up the guitar by the girls. But he knows their interest in being a band could end anytime, leaving him with a basement full of instruments and gear that no one wants to play.

”I’m totally fine with that, and I keep telling them, ‘If you guys ever want to stop, I don’t care,’ ” Kris said. ”It’s not their goal to do this as a career. Kreigh wants to be a pediatrician and Sydnie is wavering but she thinks she want to be a teacher, so if they want to do something different that’s completely their call,” he said.

Neither of the girls is ready to commit to life in a band, but both say performing and recording with Dad is fun, even when their schedule gets full with stuff like schoolwork.

”Writing songs after school while trying to do homework and dealing with all the drama that comes with being in middle school, it’s kind of hard sometimes but being in the band is definitely rewarding, and I kind of prefer it to my schoolwork sometimes, which can be kind of a problem,” Sydnie said.

”She got a B in advanced algebra; oh, how you’ve let yourself go,” said Tangela.

The girls hope that any notoriety they may garner from the band will inspire other kids to go for their dreams and not wait until they’re older. They also hope to make connections with area musicians and become a part of the Akron/Kent music community.

The girls hope to record a full-length album soon and have been writing new tunes. Though Sydnie will be entering the social shark tank known as high school soon, she says songs about boy crushes and mean girls aren’t in her future.

”Everyone writes songs about that,” she said dismissively. ”I don’t know many kid groups that don’t write songs about like, ‘I’m going to reach down into the depths of humanity and bring out this song that’s going to change the world.’ No, I’m a kid, so I’m going to write about fun stuff.”

DETAILS
What: ShiSho with Jam Session Music School’s January Showcase
When: 6-9 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Backstage of the Lounge, 370 Paul Williams St., Akron
Information: 330-535- 5483

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.