You’ll Have to Alter Name to Keep Up With Joneses : Litigation: Orange County band signs away moniker to Boston-based group for a ‘considerable’ cash settlement.

In the real world, tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Joneses can coexist peacefully. In the rock ‘n’ roll world, there is room for only one.

For most of the 1980s, as far as anyone can tell, rock’s version of the Joneses was a raunchy guitar band hailing from Orange County.

But not any more. The Joneses, Anaheim branch, have been muscled aside by some newer, upstart Joneses from Boston who have the extra clout of a major-label recording deal.

After some testy legal negotiations, the Western Joneses last month signed away their name to the Eastern Joneses in exchange for a cash settlement that neither side would disclose. The band from Boston, which is about to release its debut album for Atlantic Records, will continue to be the just plain Joneses. The Anaheim group, led by founder and singer Jeff Drake, is henceforth to be known as the Hollywood Joneses.

“I’m not supposed to say (how much the settlement was), but it was considerable,” Drake said Wednesday. “More money than I’ve seen in my life, that’s for sure. I bought a ’68 Mustang, completely restored. I’m a big Mustang fan.”

Drake said the chain of events that led to him losing a name but gaining a car began last fall, when he received a phone call from a lawyer in New York representing the Joneses from Boston.

“He was really insulting. He said, ‘Nobody’s ever heard of your band, why don’t you hang it up?’ At first they offered me $50, or maybe it was $500. I said, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding.’ ”

The Boston Joneses had one big advantage in the name wrangling: They had registered “Joneses” as a trademark with the U.S. Department of Commerce--something their West Coast counterparts had never done.

The Boston band knew of no other Joneses when it registered the name, said John M. Waxman, the group’s lawyer. “We don’t deny that (the Western group) used it first, but as a matter of fact, we didn’t know anything about them until I read an advertisement in Option magazine” that had been placed by Trigon Records, the small Los Angeles label that is releasing a new mini-album by Drake’s Joneses.

Drake said his Joneses would have had some strong ammunition of their own if the name-haggling had gone to court. The Joneses had released a 1986 album, “Keeping Up With the Joneses,” on Dr. Dream Records, as well as an early ‘80s EP, “Criminals.” They had gone on two national tours, and had been written up in such national music publications as Creem magazine and College Music Journal, which once put the Joneses on its cover. The band also has received coverage in The Times. Drake said his Joneses could have used that evidence to support a legal claim to the name.

“We could have done things to really, really mess them up, but it would have put a crimp in our style” to get involved in a lawsuit over the name, he said. “So I decided to take the money and run.” Drake said he would have preferred renaming his band the Downtown Joneses, but the Bostonians vetoed that in negotiations and insisted that Drake use another name he had proposed, the Hollywood Joneses.

The Hollywood Joneses’ new mini-album has just been released (with an off-color title that can’t be printed in full in this newspaper). First-pressing copies bearing the old Joneses name have been stickered over with tags saying “Now the Hollywood Joneses,” Drake said. “On the next pressing they’re going to change the art work” to reflect the new name. Besides Drake, who sings and plays guitar, the other Hollywood Joneses are drummer Mike Sessa, formerly of Ann De Jarnett’s band, bassist Mike Occhiato and guitarist Jeff Moses. Drake said the band’s first priority now is to find a manager and set up shows.

As for the just-plain Joneses from Boston, they are profiled in the current issue of Musician magazine, and their debut album, “Hard,” is due out shortly.

WHAT’S IN A NAME, PART II: Another local band playing the name game is the Wild Cards. Maria Corvalan, co-manager of the veteran Orange County roots-rock band, says she was taken aback to find that a band called the Wild Cards had been booked last month to play at Peppers in Garden Grove. Those Wild Cards were a Top-40 club band, unlike Corvalan’s Wild Cards, original rock contenders who have gained exposure through national touring, a beer company endorsement and a 1988 album, “Cool Never Cold,” on Chameleon Records.

John McEntee, booking agent for the Top-40 Wild Cards, said the group is going to switch rather than fight. “I think they just changed their name to Suzie and the Knockouts,” he said. As for the roots-rock Wild Cards, they recently went through their second change of bass players in two years, with Dave Carpenter replacing Albert Farias.

A HIT OUT OF THE BOX?: Record producer Jon St. James is getting excited about the prospects of Anything Box, the techno-pop band that relocated from New Jersey to Orange County last summer to work with St. James at his Formula One studio in La Habra. The group’s first single for Epic Records, “Living in Oblivion,” surfaced on the Billboard pop chart this week at No. 95.

“I haven’t had a buzz like this since ‘Two of Hearts,’ ” St. James said. That Stacey Q song, produced by St. James, hit No. 3 on the Billboard chart in 1986.

Anything Box is hurrying to finish its debut album, tentatively titled “Peace.” Singer Claude S. said that the sudden upswing in the band’s fortunes is “scary,” but also “really exciting. I’m getting calls from friends back East who are telling us they’re hearing it on the radio.” Dania Morales and Paul Rijnders are the trio’s other members.

BANDSTAND ROCKS AGAIN: Orange County’s biggest club venue for rock ‘n’ roll is now the Bandstand in Anaheim, at least on Wednesday nights. The 1,000-capacity club, at 1721 S. Manchester Ave., has started a series of weekly concerts produced by promoter Joe Schultz of Positive Attractions.

Schultz said he will interweave shows by local hard rock bands with concerts by nationally known headliners, including the Stray Cats, who play Feb. 28, and Junkyard, on March 7. Next Wednesday, local acts Jimmy Richardson, Chyna and Wisdom will appear. On most other nights, the Bandstand features local country bands. Information: (714) 956-1410.