Trouts Take the Plunge and Fans Take the Bait : Guy Jeans ‘wanted to start another trip’ when he created a new band, an offshoot of the highly successful reggae-powered Lion I’s.

Guy Jeans’ voice probably isn’t part of that chorus of boos directed at AvenueCable in Ventura after it gonged three network channels recently. He probably wouldn’t care if Christina Applegate cried on his shoulder even as Roseanne Arnold got him in a hammerlock as Mike Wallace took careful notes. Jeans doesn’t like to stay home in Ventura at night. He probably doesn’t even have cable.

Jeans is the keyboard player of the highly successful Lion I’s, a reggae-powered dance band that usually plays twice on the weekends plus a couple of practice sessions during the week. With a few million extra songs on his hands, Jeans decided to start a new band, the Trouser Trouts. They play at least once a week and practice twice a week.

Needless to say, “I play music every night,” said Jeans who plays a hand-held keyboard called an AX-l, which will do just about anything except go to Johnnie’s for burritos.

Jeans recruited his older brother, Josh, on drums, Jimmy Chastain on bass and Gerard Meichtry on guitar. Kevin Dalton, who used to play sax for Lion I’s, joined the band last week. The Trouser Trouts already have 19 original songs, which is a lot for a band that’s barely 5 months old. Some bands don’t have five songs in 19 months.

“Well, I just wanted to start another trip, and just do something with my friends,” said Jeans at his home away from home, the band’s practice room. “My brother and Gerard always wanted to play, and now I’m having a great time just seeing them up there digging it.”

The players seem to be picking up on the rock ‘n’ roll thing pretty fast, as the band is already tighter than the stomach muscles of a middle-age chicken hawk at the college dance club. Chastain has been in bands before, but as a guitarist. He’s only been playing bass for about three months. Meichtry and the drumming Jeans have been playing just a bit longer than that.

The Trouser Trouts aren’t Lion I’s II even though Jeans has written most of the Lion I’s songs and all the Trouts songs. Both bands do share those hook-filled happy beats, but the Trouts are a bit more ska-oriented.

“The Trouser Trouts are harder than Lion I’s,” said Jeans, who would know. “We don’t have the full horn section. In fact, when I write a song, the horn lines become Gerard’s distorted guitar lines. This band plays beach hillbilly rock.”

They even play a couple of tunes that hit responsive chords among the barflies in the crowd. They do a song about that liquid doorway to an evening soon forgotten, tequila; it’s not the Champs’ version, either. The one they save for last is also the band’s theme song, “Beer In Your Hand.” They also champion other drinks too.

“We do this song called ‘Turning Orange’ about carrot juice,” said Jeans. “I drink carrot juice everyday. I’ve got this killer juicer and you can buy carrots in bulk really cheap. Now I’ve got everyone in the band drinking carrot juice, but my girlfriend says I’m turning orange.”

They’re also turning some heads, partly because the band is very danceable and also because Jeans has that Lion I’s connection. But since Lion I’s usually plays on the weekends, the Trouser Trouts are left to play during the week. They’ll be tearing up the Bermuda Triangle tonight for everyone but the indifferent pool players who wouldn’t miss a shot even if the Beatles reformed on the stage behind them. Only a statue of a guy yawning is a tougher audience.

“We’re starting to build up a following,” said Jeans. “We get a lot of people from the college and a lot of Lion I’s fans show up just to see what I’m doing now. And Jimmy is in charge of Oxnard, so we get a lot of people from Silver Strand.”

Yet, it’s not all blue skies, bar groupies and free beer for Jeans. In Lion I’s, he’s the guy on the left playing keyboards. In the Trouser Trouts, he’s the front man doing all the singing, plus booking all the gigs. Now he knows why most band members would like to see the average club owner retrained for gainful employment as a speed bump.

“I hate the business side of all this,” said Jeans.

So welcome to the local music scene. About four bands make money--Lion I’s, Raging Arb & the Redheads, Spencer the Gardener and the Ska-Daddyz. The rest get a hearty handshake from the club owner right before he starts sniveling because there aren’t 300 drinkers in the house. Then again, there’s the glory of it all.

“It seems when people come from out of town come to Ventura to check out local music, they’re surprised by how much talent and originality there is here,” said Chastain. “Locals have been living it, drinking it and smelling it for so long they can plan a social schedule in advance because there’s so much happening. Yet, it’s a rough circuit out there and you can fold like a lawn chair at any time if you’re not careful.”

The Trouser Trouts show no sign of going the way of Ventura River steelhead trout. While most musicians are busy having MTV dreams and arguing with the bartender for just one more beer, the Trouts actually have a plan. They’re going to sell T-shirts and make enough money to record a CD. Meanwhile, Jeans just keeps drinking carrot juice, writing more songs and missing “The Simpsons.”

Everyone needs a hobby.

Bill Locey writes regularly on rock ‘n’ roll for Ventura County Life.