POP BEAT : HONK TO REUNITE AT THE GOLDEN BEAR

This weekend, the original members of Honk will be reunited at the Golden Bear for the fourth time since the group was resurrected in 1983.

And although each of Honk’s reunion concerts has been a sellout, the band members themselves still aren’t completely sure of the reason for the continued interest in a group that broke up in 1976.

On Wednesday, the group members gathered at the Laguna Canyon home of bassist Will Brady to rehearse for the band’s shows today and Saturday. Among a constant barrage of jokes, reminiscences and bowls of homemade chili, five of the six band members--woodwind player Craig Buhler had yet to arrive--speculated on Orange County’s fascination with Honk.

“It’s hard to say,” said guitarist and vocalist Beth Fitchet, who is married to keyboardist Steve Wood. “I don’t think it is just nostalgia. It certainly isn’t nostalgia for us--we still get excited when we’re on stage.”

Said Wood: “It depends on what you mean by nostalgia--whether you’re trying to remember what something was like at another time or whether you are trying to actually re-create that. The ugly thing is,” he added with a laugh, “that maybe it really is nostalgia.”

Said Brady: “Steve brought up the idea of doing a medley of ‘Five Summer Stories’ songs (the film sound track album that was one of Honk’s best-known records). It sounded so Las Vegas.”

A large cassette collection in Brady’s living room, including tapes of jazz artists Duke Ellington and John Coltrane to blues greats Muddy Waters and Otis Spann to contemporary performers like Elvis Costello and the Police, is typical of the group members’ wide-ranging musical tastes.

Those influences are evident in Honk’s music, which, the members of Honk agreed, is much the same as it was during the group’s mid-’70s heyday. What has changed most in the past decade, other than the streaks of gray hair that most members are now showing, is their attitudes.

“One thing that has changed,” Wood said, “is that now we don’t have anything to prove.”

Said guitarist Richard Stekol: “When you get a little older, the personal goals you go after are different. Once you have kids, you see what’s really important.”

They still consider Honk as something of an excuse to gather once or twice a year, play and get reacquainted.

“It’s so much fun to get together now because we are each other’s best friends from a certain time in our lives,” Wood said. Fitchet added, “It’s fun to get back together and still be that.”

The toughest decision now facing the members of Honk is whether to do anything more than one or two reunion shows each year. They’ve considered recording a live album, but they don’t want to spoil the fun and spontaneity of these reunions with stress-filled recording sessions, and the always-difficult dealings with the record industry.

For now, however, the long-range plan for Honk is a low-priority item, since all of the band members have remained busy with their solo careers.

Fitchet recently released an album of children’s songs, from traditional tunes such as “Big Rock Candy Mountain” to James Taylor’s “Jellyman Kelly.” Entitled “Autumn to May,” the album was recorded in Brady’s living room recording studio and released on his Oval Records label. (Copies at $8 are available by mail order at 180 E. Main St., Suite 250, Tustin, Calif., 92680).

Stekol moved to Woodstock, New York, (“where everyone is still waiting for Hendrix to do his third encore,” he joked) to pursue studio work and publishing deals for his songs.

Drummer Tris Imboden and Wood are longtime members of Kenny Loggins’ band and were featured on his record “Footloose,” which is currently up for a Grammy Award. The pair are scheduled to perform the song with Loggins at Tuesday’s Grammy Awards ceremony. Imboden is also planning a solo audiophile album to be produced by Bruce Botnik, and Wood is active scoring music for films and commercials. Brady has also done movie scoring and performs periodically around Orange County, often with Fitchet and Wood.

If the best thing for the band members about reviving Honk periodically is the joy of making music with old friends, what would they say is the worst part about reunions?

Stekol laughed, as did the others when he gave his reply: “These damn interviews.”

THOSE DANGEROUS GENTLEMENS IS BACK: The James Harman Band, a.k.a. Those Dangerous Gentlemens, has only performed infrequently on its Orange County home turf in the last couple of years. But that situation changes dramatically beginning this weekend, when the quintet brings its blues and R&B-based; good-time music to several local clubs.

The group will play the White House in Laguna Beach today, the French Quarter in Anaheim on Sunday, Deja Vu in Costa Mesa on Wednesday and Marcel’s in Costa Mesa on March 24. In addition to return dates at several of the same venues in March, the Harman band will open two of George Thorogood’s Southland concerts: March 1 at Raincross Square in Riverside and March 3 at UCI’s Crawford Hall.

All the local performances are getting the band in shape to start work on a pair of new albums--one straight blues, the other a more commercially oriented followup to the group’s 1983 mini-LP, “Thank You, Baby.” Both are planned for summer or early fall release.

“At least two or three people call every day saying, ‘Why don’t you guys play around here?’,” Harman said Thursday. “So this is it, Orange County--you asked for it.”

LIVE ACTION: Circle Jerks, D.I., Subterfuge and Love Canal will play the Placentia Boys Club on Saturday. . . . The Gyromatics will be at Goodies in Fullerton on Monday. . . . Cajun musician Jo-El Sonnier, who makes his Orange County debut Thursday at the Golden Bear, will be backed by an all-star band that includes David Lindley. . . . Nick Pyzow will play Marcel’s in Costa Mesa (130 East 17th St.) on Wednesday.