Christina O'Connor | The Roanoke Times

Members of the band Tazer, Ryan Tuchler on lead guitar (center), Eli Tuchler on bass, Brent Warner on guitar and Stephen Sentelle on drums, practice in the Tuchlers’ basement.

BLACKSBURG -- A group of local teens and pre-teens plugging in and banging it out a couple of days a week, paying homage to the persevering rock 'n' roll gods of yesteryear, is a cliche.

But rock 'n' roll may be the most cliched of art forms, and how these young players and others like them grow up will be the future sound of the music.

And if it weren't for the boys of Tazer and thousands like them doodling band logos on their notebooks at school while awaiting band practice in their parents' garages and basements, then rock 'n' roll music would've burnt out long ago, like a Bic lighter held up to celebrate an encore of "Stairway to Heaven."

Tazer is part of the newest generation to wear their black Led Zeppelin shirts daily and fill their walls with all the classic rock favorites. The jagged lettering of the band's logo says it all.

This four-piece act that was formed in the hallways of Blacksburg High School and the practice rooms of downtown Blacksburg's Mainstream Music have been playing and performing a blend of classic rock covers coupled with a handful of classic-rock-influenced originals for a little more than a year now, including gigs at the Lyric Theatre and Champ's Cafe, venues usually associated with rockers who have at least made it into their 20s.

This band is as out of tune with modern pop-rock as Pete Townsend's guitar after it had been smashed over a stack of amplifiers. And they prefer a classic high-pitched vocal wail over a modern, droning chorus any day of the week.

"Something that turns me off to modern rock is that a lot of them [artists] sound so similar, with whiny, lazy-sounding vocals," said Ryan Tuchler, 15, the band's lead guitarist and vocalist.

"We have so much technology nowadays that it takes away some of the creativity. People spend more time inside in front of a screen than actually doing something. I try to relate by not watching much TV and not being on the computer all the time," he said.

The band also strays away from pre-recorded beats and is turned off by the themes of most hip-hop, instead using guitar power chords, drum-heavy fills and standard verse-chorus deliveries.

"I guess what I like about vintage rock 'n' roll is the amount of skill I hear in the songs. Back in the 1970s, there wasn't as much technology, so artists had to rely more on skill to produce the sound they want," Ryan said.

Drummer Stephen Sentelle, a 15-year-old whose bass drum reads "Danger, High Voltage," doesn't like modern rock either.

"What makes me mad is seeing kids at school wearing classic rock band shirts and you say something like, 'Hey, Zeppelin, that's a great band' and then they say 'Who is that? I just got this shirt because it looked cool,' " Stephen said. "That really makes me mad because they have never been exposed to really good music, and all they know is the very modern music."

Much of Tazer's skills were learned at Mainstream Music, where all the members take lessons.

Greg Albert, who teaches Ryan and his bassist brother Eli Tuchler, 12, as well as rhythm guitarist Brent Warner, 15, describes Tazer as "constantly evolving."

"I first see where they are at initially, and for them at first, it was at a fairly introductory level," said Albert, a full-time music teacher for 20 years. "I then take them step by step, using harder techniques, with harder songs."

For bands that also write music, such as Tazer and the Two Funerals, another young Blacksburg band that learned its chops at Mainstream, Albert said he likes to bring "cover songs into the mix stylistically, adding new influences to the party in an effort to upgrade their musical ability."

Tazer's original material combines mostly whimsical lyrics placed over Black Sabbath-like guitar riffs. Their song "Unemployment Office" laments: "Trying to find a job, trying to get hired, so you can make some money, at the unemployment office."

The songs ends with Ryan saying, "Get a job."

"We are not really into life yet, so most of our songs are about pretty random things that sound cool," Eli said. "Classic rock artists were often drunk or high when they wrote songs. We have a natural craziness, so our songs are naturally crazy.

"I think our generation relates to classic rock artists with the same sort of crazy ideas," Eli continued. "I also think our generation has the same energy as they did."