MUSIC : The Hard-Driving Cadillac Tramps : The band from Orange County brings its rough-and-ready style to Santa Barbara on Saturday night.

They played Ventura once on the wrong night without advertising, which worked about as well as an Edsel out of gas and on the tracks. Nonetheless, the Cadillac Tramps, an Orange County band, are returning to the Central Coast. On Friday night, they will be making their Santa Barbara debut at the Underground. Raging Arb & the Redheads will open.

The Tramps have pretty much conquered Orange County since they started in 1987, so they’ve become road dogs, much as their name would imply. The five guys driving around in shades are vocalist Mike “Gabby” Gaborno; the dual guitarists Brian Coakley and Johnny Wickersham; bass player Warren Renfrow and Dieter--the fourth and current drummer.

The Tramps play hard-edged rock ‘n’ roll not unlike The Beat Farmer’s, San Diego’s party animals supreme, but the Tramps have considerably fewer songs about getting liquored.

The newest release is “It’s Allright,” which is the band’s third and final effort for Dr. Dream Records, which specializes in signing 714-area-code bands. Hey, so why doesn’t the 805 area code have a label like that?

Coakley, the bald guitarist, discussed his favorite band during a recent phoner.

Great band name.

Yeah. We got it from some old guy. Johnny had been on the streets when we formed the band. I mean all his clothes were dirty; he had nothing except for a new pair of shoes. And this guy at the homeless shelter said, “Man, you look like a Cadillac tramp.” That’s us--we’re down and out, but we still have our dignity.

Up here, whenever we don’t like something we compare it to L.A. or Orange County as examples of what we don’t want to become. What’s the difference between Orange County and L.A.?

Compared to L.A., Orange County is very stifled. In L.A., there’s more of an ethnic mix and a lot of things going on, a lot more culture and a lot more big city action. I mean if I want some decent food here at night, I have to drive clear to Long Beach. Orange County is just stucco hell.

What’s easier, changing drummers or labels?

I dunno. Well, we’re done with Dr. Dream and we’re over 21 and in our right mind. Dieter is our fourth drummer. He’s from Austria and he can drink more than anybody I’ve ever seen.

What’s the thing that everyone gets wrong about the band?

I think most people categorize us as a rockabilly group while we’ve always thought of ourselves as the Clash of the ‘90s. We also have some blues influences and some punk influences. We’re not psycho-billy or swamp rock or any of that. We usually get pretty positive write-ups in the press, but we’re just a band. We’re the next us.

Who goes to your gigs, lots of skinheads?

It varies regionally, but we get a big cross-section of people. We get longhaired guys, skinhead guys, mohawk guys. When we play locally at an over-21 place, it tends to get on the violent side. We get some very serious old school punk rock guys who show up. . . . The bouncers like us, but they get a lot of work.

Then another time, we played Crawford Hall at UC Irvine, it was an all-ages show and 2,000 people showed up. There were no fights. In the Bay Area, we get the groove-dancing Deadhead types. In Canada, we get the radical snow boarders. But in Orange County, punk rules.

How do the Tramps survive on the road?

We just try to get along, I guess. We don’t always communicate as well as we should, but I’ve never seen a band that didn’t have inner tension. If you work for some company, you get to go home at night. But when you’re on tour, it’s 24 hours a day for two months.

Now that you’ve conquered Orange County, what’s next?

We tour all the time, so we’re just as much a Calgary band as an Orange County band. There’s always been a live scene in Orange County, but we only play here every three or four months. We’re not at all the darlings of the big label scene. We don’t have any skinny guys with long hair.

They’re looking for the new musical category--the darlings of the year--but it’s changing all the time. They were looking for the new Nirvana, then up pops the Offspring, now they want a pop punk band. So, we’re not too affected by what’s going on around us. We’re enlarging our following--we have a huge mailing list.

So then how did you guys get signed?

With Dr. Dream? Well, with an independent label, someone there likes you, then someone else says, “OK.” There’s no science behind it. We already had a big draw in Orange County, but if you sell 200,000 albums for an indie label, you’re kings. Although we’d like to get signed to a big label, we don’t base our success on that. We’re just going back out on the road to spread the message.

Details

* WHAT: Cadillac Tramps, 1000 Mona Lisas.

* WHERE: Underground, 110 Santa Barbara St., Santa Barbara.

* WHEN: Saturday night, 9 p.m.

* HOW MUCH: Five bucks.

* FYI: 965-5050.