ROMANCING NEW ROCK WITH YO

Every publication worth its citizenship has had an article proclaiming the New American Rock lately. Along with Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp and all the other superstars of the movement a lot of lesser-known names inevitably get mentioned: the Replacements, the Meat Puppets, the Minutemen, Husker Du.

But seldom Yo. That’s a bit of a surprise, because the Berkeley trio’s two albums (on its own Deadbeat label) are right up that alley, with its original, uncategorizeable sound, folk influences and spare, powerful guitar-driven and synthesizer-less music.

The group--which plays the Anticlub tonight--is making some progress. The reviews have been generally approving, and Yo has gained prestigious billings opening for the Fall, Guadalcanal Diary, Beat Rodeo and--this week at the Roxy--the Replacements.

Why is Yo overlooked? Songwriter-singer-guitarist Bruce Rayburn, who formed Yo in 1983, believes his group’s unique sound doesn’t fit in enough with all the other “grass-roots” bands.

“A lot of those bands have a real abstract sound, something that’s pretty hard to understand,” Rayburn said at a friend’s Canoga Park home where he was staying during the L.A. swing. “Maybe we make too much sense. We’re a little more direct. Our sound is more defined.”

He thinks this may eventually work to Yo’s advantage. “A lot of those bands--like the Minutemen or Husker Du--that came out first with a hard-edged sound seem to be sweetening it a little, coming closer to where we are. People are beginning to want more . . .”--he searched for the right word--”more substance, maybe more of a story.”

No handy descriptions--”grass-roots,” “post-punk,” “new wave,” “neo-psychedelic”--apply easily to Yo. That pleases Rayburn and sometimes amuses him. “Right after playing on a bill with Specimen (the English glam/death-rock band) in San Francisco, we did a radio call-in show, and people who’d never seen us were asking if we were like Specimen. So we made a joke that no, instead of death rock we were into ‘birth rock.’ It made me think: With Specimen, the audience knows how to dress and how to react, but not with us. We’ll never get stuck with any labels, and I think we’ll outlast them all because of that.”

Rayburn didn’t pick up a guitar until he was in his mid-20s. “I was a working stiff--a construction worker by day who’d paint pictures by night. I found that I was spending more time thinking up titles than painting. I’d have ten titles for every picture. After a while I started turning these titles into little stories. Next thing I know I was playing a little guitar. A cousin showed me a couple of (chord) positions. So then I turned these pictures into music.”

After three years in a group called Xmas Eve, Rayburn got together with drummer Greg Baker of the San Francisco band B Team. For a bassist, he turned to his then-girlfriend Sally Engelfried, who was just learning the instrument.

They scraped together funds to record a debut album, “Good Tidings,” and released it on their own label in April, 1984. The sound was simple and raw, yet quite powerful, led by Rayburn’s dark-as-a-dungeon howl. The next album, this year’s “Charm World,” benefited from distribution by the tiny but enthusiastic El Segundo company Sounds Good.

“We’re not in some dream state about making it overnight,” Rayburn said. “We want to be on a major label, but I don’t think we’ve been ready for that yet. Maybe after this next album (scheduled for early ‘86) we will be.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to blow our one chance. We’re pretty content with where we are. People have to come to us. We’re not going to chase them. It’s slower that way, but better.

“It’s like a romance. If you go out on a one-night stand, you probably won’t go anywhere else with that person. But if you let it grow for a while, it might last.”