Silverchair: Youth Must Be Served : Pop Beat: The Australian newcomers haven’t been hampered a bit by their ages--15-16. If they’re this good now, imagine what they might have to offer in the future.

Like L7 with gender topics or Soul Asylum with the subject of a certain girlfriend, Australian newcomer Silverchair doesn’t want to make an issue out of age.

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“People should focus on our music, not on how old we are,” Silverchair singer Daniel Johns says.

Fair enough.

After all, the trio’s debut album, “Frogstomp,” has garnered enough critical and commercial attention--only a month and a half after its U.S. release--that it’s reasonable to try to ignore the age thing.

Still, it’s difficult not to bring it up when Johns’ mom answers the phone in their Newcastle, Australia, home and Daniel himself has just returned from school--right on time for his interview.

“We had final exams today,” says Johns, 16, sounding relieved. “I haven’t had much time to do interviews or stuff like this.”

One has to sympathize with Johns’--and Epic Records’--concerns over Silverchair’s teen image, though. In Australia, where “Frogstomp” recently became the country’s first homemade album ever to enter the charts at No. 1, the rapid rise of the band has resulted in a bit of backlash. Teen stars, after all, aren’t known for their longevity. Just ask Tiffany, Debbie Gibson or New Kids on the Block.

Silverchair--whose hard, grunge-rock style is far from the teen bubblegum stereotype--doesn’t have to apologize for its age. It’s a solid rock group whose big break came last summer when one of its songs won an Australian TV contest with a prize of one free day in a recording studio for the trio.

The band used that time to come up with a polished version of the winning song, “Tomorrow,” which Australia’s national alternative-rock radio station immediately put in heavy rotation. Record companies took note, and Silverchair soon got a deal with Murmur Records, an Australian subsidiary of Sony. Sony’s Epic then picked the band up for the United States.

Fittingly, “Frogstomp” is a loud, aggressive and intelligent album that genuinely sounds as if it came from playing in the garage and not in front of a bunch of record label executives. The disc is currently No. 33 on the U.S. album charts, while “Tomorrow” has become the No. 4 alternative single.

This leaves only one relevant reason to point out Silverchair’s age: If they’re this good at 15 and 16, imagine what they might have to offer in the future.

But Johns says that he and his band mates, drummer Ben Gillies and bassist Chris Joannou, don’t think they have any sort of uncanny talent.

“We still think we kind of suck,” Johns says. “We’re still learning, you know, and we are improving. The more you play the better you get. But it’s just weird to us because there’s a lot of other really good bands here in Australia--bands who play much better than us--that still aren’t signed.”

Despite that boosterism for home-grown rock, most of the music the three of them listen to comes from America. Johns says that’s true with most Australians, though. Signs of Helmet, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana can be heard loud and clear throughout “Frogstomp.” Johns, though, denies they’re major Nirvana fans, which might have something to do with him being sick of hearing people--including Courtney Love--comment on how much he looks like a young Kurt Cobain.

From fans of the U.S. music scene to actual players in it, Silverchair will tour here next month, including a mid-September stop in Los Angeles. The tour, of course, coincides with their school vacations.

Silverchair has only performed three U.S. shows so far (none in Los Angeles), so Johns says they’re eager to do more.

“People in America really bash the [expletive] out of each other when they mosh--we like that,” he says. “We never really thought we would play in America. We didn’t start playing music to make it in America or to make money or get famous or anything like that--it wasn’t even something we thought of. We just do it for fun, you know.

“We are young, after all.”

Pride on Disc: Convincing record companies of the value of an album featuring all gay and lesbian artists wasn’t easy for producer Mitch Gallob, so he decided to put it out on his own label, Streeter Productions. “A Love Worth Fighting For” is the result, and it features 18 acts--Janis Ian, Holly Near, Michael Callen, Cris Williamson and the Flirtations, among them.

“Some of the record companies wanted it to be an album where all the songs were about dealing with gay life, and that’s not what I wanted to do,” says Gallob of the collection that is on sale at major record chains and stores specializing in gay and lesbian material. “I just wanted to show off some of the talent of the many gay and lesbian musicians out there.”