MUSIC : There’s No April, but There Is July 13th : The best band in Simi Valley has a release date for its debut album. The musicians say their foray into L.A. gave them needed exposure.

Being the best band in Simi Valley is sort of like being the smartest guy in jail. Even if it’s true, who knows and who cares? Suburban Simi Valley has a bunch of bands and nowhere for them to play. April’s Motel Room, the best band in Simi Valley, got out of their hometown, did the L.A. schmooze tour, and got signed to Immortal Records, one of the many aliases of corporate giant Epic Records.

Their debut album, “Black 14,” will be released on July 13. Their last local gig for a while will be Friday night at the Beach Shack in Santa Barbara. Bay Area rockers MCM and the Monster are also on the bill and Mac’s still has those killer burritos across the street from the venue.

Just as the Ventura Freeway goes to Pasadena and the majority of blue hibiscus plants have purple flowers, there’s no April in April’s Motel Room, but there’s Tom Kelly on voice and guitar, Sam Nickell on lead guitar, Mike Hoolihan on bass, Aaron Zidenberg on drums; John Baffa is the percussionist.

You’ll notice the show is not in Simi Valley, which has the Vampyre Lounge Cafe, an all-ages coffee house; MVP Sports Bar, a venue that has live music on weekends, and a lot of rock fans driving away to rock elsewhere. The alternative to the lack of venues is the party circuit, where the band plays approximately three songs before the cops show up. So why doesn’t Simi Valley rock?

“Couldn’t tell you--we’ve been on the road,” said Baffa during a recent phone interview. “It’s a very conservative town, and there’s not a whole lot of support for the local scene. The scene is so dead now that it makes me think that a year and a half ago when we were playing with Hail Rumpus and Contradiction at Cheers (since closed), that it must’ve really been a special time. But we all still live here--we’re totally comfortable. There’s enough adventure at work, so it’s totally cool to go home and eat dinner at my parents’ house and watch TV.”

There’s plenty of adventure for everyone in L.A., a town that has to be seen to be disbelieved. In addition to trying to drive or breathe, everyone seems to be either an actor, a screenwriter or a musician. The music community is particularly large because the record industry is there, and MTV dreams precede even the hair and the funny clothes. April’s Motel Room did the showcase circuit and, for once, it worked out when Happy Williams signed them, and made them Immortal.

“It was a conscious effort on our part, definitely,” said Baffa. “We pretty much split from Simi Valley and kicked around in L.A. for a year or so, and we just knew something was bound to happen. People just started showing up to our gigs, and we built a fan base of L.A. people, not our friends from Simi Valley. Playing L.A. is something you need to do. You have to get out of your hometown and quit playing for your friends. You’ll see if you’ve got it or not pretty damn quick.”

The band has a press kit now that’s bigger than a Chrysler, complete with a basic bio (not exactly the Eiffel Tower of elucidation), stickers, a giant poster, a tape, a five-song CD that’s headed for college radio and an actual record. So now, it’s dinner with mom, cable TV and checks in the mail. Well, not quite yet.

“We have to work a lot harder now,” Baffa said. “We’ve got a little more money so that now we can afford to eat twice a day instead of just once. More is expected of us now, from ourselves, and also, the people backing us. We’ve been afforded the opportunity to concentrate on our art, which has pretty much brought us to a different level. We pretty much all lost our day jobs by the time we got signed, anyway. It’s not like we’re rock stars or anything, but it’s getting interesting.”

As the percussionist--basically a drummer who can’t find a chair--Baffa has had the opportunity to upgrade all the weird things he beats on.

“Aaron gets to sit down with the drum kit, while I’m more of a stand-up guy. I play a lot of different stuff from congas to bongos to bells and shakers. If it sounds good, I’ll use anything from saute pans to lead pipes. It’s a small luxury, but I’ve got cool junk now. We just have so much fun, we can’t help but create fun stuff.”

Making “Black 14,” or any album these days, is much more involved than guzzling a few beers, then flipping on the tape machine and doing it in one take.

“I thought making the record was going to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and I had the best time in the world,” Baffa said. “We had maybe four days off and we worked 12-hour days for a month and a half. Our producer, Matt Hyde, ended up becoming our friend; he was totally cool. We thought he was going to try to change us because that’s definitely a concern for first-time artists doing their first album, but he let us make our own choices.”

The five-song EP is already getting some airplay, and the band has some fun stuff upcoming, such as a spot on the next HORDE tour, which also features the Allman Brothers, Blues Traveler and Big Head Todd & the Monsters. And a few months ago, the band had a gig in Costa Rica.

“We stayed in Costa Rica for a week and did three shows with Depeche Mode, but we were in the city most of the time,” Baffa said. “We were doing radio interviews with a translator, then eating at Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. They had great beer down there for 40 cents.”

Wait a minute, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in Costa Rica? It must’ve been like being back home in Simi Valley.

Details

* WHAT: April’s Motel Room and MCM & the Monster.

* WHERE: Beach Shack, 500 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara.

* WHEN: Friday at 9:30 p.m.

* COST: $5.

* ETC: Call 966-1634.