Offing the Joykiller for Love and Money

Family responsibilities and economic marginality, a career-killing combo for older rockers, have killed off the Joykiller, one of Orange County’s best punk-pop bands.

“We can’t afford to do it,” bandleader Jack Grisham said Monday, a week after he told his record company he was breaking up the band.

Grisham did the math after touring recently as opening act for the Offspring.

“I made less than a dollar an hour, $500 for being gone a month,” he said. “I’m 36 years old and sleeping in a van on the side of the road. I can deal with it, but I’ve got a daughter and a wife. I can make more from Burger King.”

Grisham has been one of the most influential, charismatic and consistently creative figures in the local alt-rock scene, dating to his early-’80s days as front man of the now-legendary punk band T.S.O.L. “I know I’m good at what I do, but being able to keep doing it is tough. I don’t want to sound bitter, ‘cause I’m not.”

In disbanding the Joykiller, Grisham figured his rock career was over. But he says everyone from his daughter to the Joykiller’s label, Epitaph, has urged him to keep making records.

“I said, ‘I’m walking away from this. I played music, had a great time, got to see Europe.’ But now it’s almost like I’m forced to play. Who knows what’s going to happen? I don’t know what I’m going to do. Basically, [other than being a rock singer], I’m qualified to flip burgers.”

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The Joykiller’s three strong albums culminated in “Three,” which came out just 2 1/2 months ago and features extremely catchy songs, well-crafted lyrics and ambitious pop-rock orchestral arrangements. It might have been better-suited to the sort of rockin’-pop audience that goes for Matthew Sweet, Redd Kross, Goo Goo Dolls or Paul Westerberg than to the punk crowd Epitaph is primarily geared to reach.

“A lot of the kids are ska kids now, and the kids that want to stay punk expect a certain sound,” Grisham said. “There’s a lot of [stylistically conformist] stuff that was never involved when I started playing music. If you sounded like somebody else, you were criticized for it. I could write a [punk] record like ‘T.S.O.L.’ in a heartbeat, but I won’t. I’ve spent eight years in therapy. I don’t believe in violence and anger anymore, and I won’t do it. Ethically, it’s not right.”