It’s Official: Cadillac Tramps Scrapped : Pop music: It’s an amicable breakup for the alternative rockers, but not the end to their playing. They’re just changing vehicles.

The Cadillac Tramps have disbanded, and the members of what had been a leading band on Orange County’s independent, alternative-rock scene for five years are looking to carry on in different musical company.

Bassist Warren Renfrow had held out hope last week that the Tramps might continue even after the announcement that guitarist Brian Coakley, their most prolific songwriter, was leaving to concentrate on Rule 62, a band he launched in 1993 as a side project.

But Wednesday, singer Mike (Gabby) Gaborno said that he too had decided in recent weeks that he needs a change, and Renfrow said the Tramps’ concerts last weekend in Seattle and Vancouver would be their last, at least for the foreseeable future.

“We’re not going to say we won’t ever play together again, but not right now,” Renfrow said. “The thing that’s really good is there is no animosity (between) anybody.” Renfrow, Coakley, Gaborno and guitarist Jonny Wickersham launched the Tramps in 1987. Drummer Dieter Hartman joined last year.

The band merged hard-driving, punk-inspired energy with roots-conscious songs that often moved to a pounding, bouncing beat. The mood of the streetwise material oscillated between broad humor and gritty desperation.

Gaborno said he will keep up a day job as a plumber while launching a new band called X Members with drummer Spanky Barrios (another ex-Tramp), Barrios’ bass-playing brother John and a guitarist to be added. The new band will be “a little bit more” punk-oriented than the Tramps, said Gaborno, who likened its approach to such early punk heroes as the Clash and Stiff Little Fingers.

Coakley will front a newly revamped lineup of Rule 62, which released its first album last year on the local independent Lethal Records label. Frank and Libby Agnew, the original lead guitarist and bassist, dropped out because their family obligations and college studies didn’t mesh with Coakley’s plans to make Rule 62 a full-time touring band; drummer Chris Webb couldn’t continue to play in both Rule 62 and his busy primary band, One Hit Wonder. The new lineup behind Coakley will include guitarist Big Daddy Ray, formerly of Suicide Door, bassist John Goodell and drummer Jim Kott.

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Gaborno, who said finances played a part in his decision to leave the Tramps, said the end became apparent about two weeks ago during a band meeting in Renfrow’s garage:

“We just kind of stood in a circle and . . . said exactly what we felt. In Brian’s case and (mine), it was pretty much, ‘Let’s give it a rest,’ and everybody else was saying, ‘Let’s work it out.’ That was pretty much it. The conclusion was, ‘Let’s do these (last two) shows and have a good time and say goodby.’ ”