Concert previe: Free spirit is smoke screen for Apache
It's rare to hear a grown man titter. But that's exactly what Apache, the titular frontman of San Francisco rock band Apache, does -- over and over again -- during a phone interview to promote the group's upcoming concert at Murphy's in Midtown.
Matthew Johnson
Apache -- the group, the song and the lead singer -- take their attitude lightly and their music seriously.
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The band Apache -- which features fellow single-named musicians Chuck on bass, Mark on guitar and Mike on drums -- conjures a brand of furious '70s-styled glam-scuzz that belies singer Apache's weedy, stoner persona.
Formed in early 2006, Apache's members are veterans of a variety of notable Bay Area punk and hard-rock groups, including The Cuts and Ghengis Khan. Although the group has been turning heads with the infectious high-velocity sound of their debut full-length Boomtown Gems, it was born as a kind of joke amid a haze of pot smoke.
"We were really stoned one day, and Chuck was like, 'Wouldn't Apache be a cool band name?'" says Apache. "I thought, 'Hey, I'm just gonna steal that name for me.' I started calling myself Apache. Then we wrote a song called 'Apache,' and then we made a band with that name, too."
Making their live debut at a pizza party -- a somehow fitting launching pad for such a tongue-in-cheek and gloriously juvenile venture -- the band's music took its cues from a host of shoulda-been-famous underground heroes, from Mexican punk troupe the Zeros to platform-and-feather-boa glammers like Hello. "Musically, we wanted a good moving drumbeat, a real stomping kind of thing. And we wanted some shredding, some serious shredding. Our guitar player was especially down with that," says Apache, laughing.
The group released its debut seven-inch, "Boys Life" b/w "Crystal Clear," on Atlanta's Douchemaster label last fall. Boomtown Gems fleshes out their cheeky aesthetic, while keeping things decidedly lo-fi and unvarnished sonically.
Despite the album having just come out a few weeks ago, the group's already been busy recording a follow-up. "We have a bunch of songs, just basic tracks, done. We recorded them before we left for tour," says Apache. "They'll more than likely be on the next record."
In the midst of its first nationwide tour, the band has been winning raves for its free-spirited live show. They've managed to keep things together despite going through drummers with a "Spinal Tap"-ish frequency. "We had one drummer get arrested for drugs, another one kinda disappeared, and the guy who played on the record, he doesn't really know he's out of the band yet ... but it's cool," says Apache, tittering. "We don't care. It's all good."
Apache with The Electric Shadows, The Dranks, and the Staags
Thursday at 6 p.m. at Murphy's, 1589 Madison. $5. For more information, call 726-4193.
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