A Band Born of Soccer Has Goals, Approach Nearer U2 Than Elton

Kicking around a soccer ball seems to shake some rockers’ inhibitions loose.

Take Rod Stewart and Elton John: Two of pop’s biggest soccer buffs, they also happen to be two of its most flamboyant peacocks.

But before drawing broad parallels between the world’s most popular sport and the world’s most popular form of music, consider the case of Sixtieth Parallel.

The young band from Long Beach (which plays tonight at Club Postnuclear) would probably not exist if not for soccer. But do not look for any Rod the Mod-style extroversion or Elton-esque display from these three quiet, reserved rockers. You can even overlook the fact that guitarist Kevin E. Bartley, who writes and sings the group’s songs, sports a high-spiked haircut dyed bright violet.

In conversation, Sixtieth Parallel’s members are decidedly low key. While drummer Damien Murray and bassist David Rule have their moments of self-effacing humor, it is fairly easy to draw a parallel between Sixtieth Parallel’s personalities and its music: a moody, brooding, introspective sound--similar to early U2--that is carried along on a forceful wave of rhythm and shifting guitar textures.

The soccer connection goes back to 1980, when Bartley, Murray and Rule were teammates on a Long Beach youth soccer club that got invited to play in a tournament in London.

“We got our butts kicked” on the soccer field, Rule recalled, but they had their eyes and ears opened to the new forms of music that were evolving from the British punk explosion of the late ‘70s.

“You could walk the streets, and it was an attitude. Everything was cool,” said Murray, the small, dark-haired drummer whose voice bears just a faint trace of his early upbringing outside Dublin, Ireland.

“We came back with a different attitude and started listening to different music,” added Rule, whose voice does not betray his birth in Liverpool, England.

Soon after that soccer trip, Murray, who played the drums, talked Rule into taking up the guitar. Then they persuaded Bartley to learn the bass. The teen-age band, dubbed the Spivz, didn’t progress far beyond the garage stage. But by late 1986, after Murray and Bartley had played for several years in a psychedelic band called Opaque Window, the three soccer buddies were back together as Sixtieth Parallel.

The band members gathered this week for an interview in the back room of a soccer equipment shop owned by Rule’s father. Nowadays, Sixtieth Parallel’s soccer connection does not extend beyond having its bassist mind the store. “We can’t even run around the block,” Rule said.

But they are beginning to make a run at winning national exposure for their music. Sixtieth Parallel, whose members all are 21, recently released a six-song debut EP, “Into Bliss,” on Dr. Dream, the Orange County rock record label. KMPC (101.9 FM) and KROQ (106.7 FM), the two major Los Angeles radio outlets for alternative music, have both been playing tracks from “Into Bliss,” and the EP has been getting a response nationally from college radio stations.

A show Feb. 4 at Bogart’s will start their monthlong tour of the Southwest and Midwest. Carl Braz, a second guitarist recently added to free Bartley for his front-man role, rounds out the lineup on stage. Braz was born in British Guyana, leaving Bartley as the only U.S.-born member of the band.

Performance didn’t come naturally, band members said. When they first began playing as teen-agers, each of the three was too self-effacing to try singing. But as Bartley began to write songs several years ago, he decided they would come across most effectively if he sang them.

“We never sang in Opaque Window,” said Murray, who now sings backup. “Kevin has always been the most shy person you could ever meet.”

Bartley, a tall man with a long, oval face and the softest speaking voice, did not dispute the description.

“I would have a problem doing anything else, because of being shy,” he said. “I guess I just want (to sing) so bad that it doesn’t matter what people say or think. I just do it.”

The story behind Sixtieth Parallel’s name fits its moody music: Murray cited a European magazine write-up on Soviet bands that noted somberly “the bands are great, but they’ll never be heard this side of the Sixtieth Parallel” (the latitudinal mark that pierces Leningrad and roughly bisects the Soviet Union).

“It’s kind of cool,” Rule said. “These (Soviet) bands will never be ruined by record companies, they’ll always be pure. They’ll always do what they want to do.”

That is Sixtieth Parallel’s aim for the future. Their debut record is pretty much a composite of the group’s British influences, Murray acknowledged: “The next album must evolve. You’ll hear the same moody stuff, but it’ll be more worked out and thought out.”

“We’ve stayed on the same philosophy” since the band began, Rule said. “We’re not chasing any scene. We know what we want. If it doesn’t hit today, we’ll still be doing this. We’ll win in the end.”

Sixtieth Parallel plays tonight at 9 at Club Postnuclear, 775 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Admission: $5. Information: (714) 494-1432.

BEER VOTE ON TAP: Feb. 7 figures to be the biggest date in Club Postnuclear’s young history--and an important date for the future of the county rock scene. It’s not the night of a big show at the club, but of a City Council hearing at Laguna Beach City Hall. Club owner William (Max) Nee will try to make his case for allowing beer to be sold at Postnuclear. Serving beer at the previously dry nightclub would allow Postnuclear to expand its audience base and its musical offerings, Nee said, including more concerts by local bands (besides tonight’s Sixtieth Parallel show, Postnuclear has booked Ann De Jarnett on Feb. 16, and the Swamp Zombies on Feb. 23). Opposition to Nee’s request, raised at a previous government hearing, is expected to surface again when the City Council meets at 7 p.m. Before the council votes on Postnuclear’s beer permit, it will open the floor to public comment for and against the proposal.

TOGETHER AGAIN: The Righteous Brothers will play at their Fountain Valley nightclub, the Hop, on Feb. 20 and 27. The concerts will be the first performances by Bobby Hatfield--the shorter, higher-voiced half of the classic R&B; vocal duo--since he broke his jaw in a scuffle after a Sept. 19 show at the Hop. For information, call (714) 963-2366.

ORANGE GOLD: Steve McClintock, who heads Westminster-based Headway Productions, is getting some gold out of Tiffany. Not the swanky jewelry establishment but the teen-age pop singer. McClintock and songwriting partner Tim James wrote Tiffany’s current Top 10 single, “All This Time.” McClintock also co-wrote “Oh Jackie,” another cut on the new Tiffany album, and “Kid on a Corner,” which appeared on Tiffany’s zillion-selling debut album.