As Dustin Murrell and Marcus Cooper see it, there is a large gap in the Iowa music scene.

“Occasionally, there’s a Metallica concert, but there isn’t a wide variety,” says Cooper, sophomore in history. “Nobody has really been picking up the slack after Frank’s House of Rock left.”

Frank’s House of Rock, a venue in Des Moines, closed in the fall of 2002. That closing helped Cooper and Murrell decide it was their responsibility to do something about the stagnant music scene in Iowa.

“Whatever we can do to help foster the scene so that record companies don’t laugh about [Iowa] when they hear it,” says Murrell, junior in religious studies.

The two ISU students decided to form IowaRock.com, a music promotion organization of all things Iowa. Since they started last spring, work includes getting bands to come to Iowa, helping bands already in the state and making Iowa a welcoming place for musicians.

“A lot of bands just move away because they don’t think they can be successful here,” Murrell says. “We want to help make Iowa a place where bands don’t feel like they have to run away to become famous.”

A few bands such as Slipknot and 30th Parallel have made it in the national music scene while being able to recognize their beginnings in Iowa. The founders think the key to getting more bands from Iowa to stay in Iowa is contributing to a visible music scene in the state.

“We’d love to help a consistent scene in Iowa, so that when they make it in Iowa, they have enough of a fan base so they don’t have to move to [other cities] to make it,” Murrell says. “And if there’s a legitimate music scene for music lovers, [there will be] places they can go consistently for new music and not hear the same 10 bands over and over.”

IowaRock.com’s goals haven’t been fully realized since it is still a fledgling organization. For now, their main accomplishments have been getting bands to play in Ames, usually at Blinks Club and Coffeehouse, 323 Fifth St.

“I wouldn’t say we filled the gap,” Cooper says. “It’s our goal to, so we’re trying to get some name recognition and hook up with some corporations and labels.”

Word of mouth has been their weapon of choice. With their focus on live shows, both say they are prepping to expand, which includes their first “big” show at the 7 Flags Event Center in Clive in late October.

“For the most part, we’ve been only able to target the kids in Ames,” Murrell says. “With this show, we’re able to bring in fans from all over the state.”

There is little doubt in their minds where their strong passion comes from — their faith. Both agree IowaRock.com got started as a way of expressing their faith.

“In everything we do, there’s the foundation of our faith under it,” Murrell says. “We’re not going to have a whole lot of concerts where we have the gospel presented, but we still want … to do things that flow out of our faith. Without that, we don’t have much of a purpose.”

Cooper nods in agreement with his partner.

“Even though each show isn’t going to convert Christians, this is the way we feel we can show the love of Christ to other people,” Cooper says.

But Murrell is quick to point out that they don’t limit their venues to Christian bands simply because that’s their faith. Their love of good music expresses it justly.

“As long as the bands are not singing about anything horrible, I don’t have any problem bringing them in,” he says. “I don’t go just to Christian concerts — there’s too much good music out there.”

For the immediate future, Murrell says it’s important for

IowaRock.com to stay open to all available options in fostering the scene. This includes helping produce a CD full of bands from Iowa.

“There’s so many avenues you could go down,” he says. “I’m definitely interested in doing anything for the music scene through whatever presents itself.”