Dodgers’ Radinsky Works Out in Winter With Punk Band Pulley

Pulley is a pretty strange band even by rock ‘n’ roll standards. First of all, the band only plays four months of the year, but then again, they play so hard and so fast, perhaps they need eight months to recuperate. Actually, three-quarters of Pulley has to wait each year for their lead singer, Scott Radinsky, to finish his steady gig as a left-handed relief pitcher for the Dodgers. Pulley will headline an all-ages gig Tuesday night at the Living Room in Goleta. Opening is Slimer and, from Sweden, Millencolin.

The 29-year-old Radinsky or, “Rad” to his pals, was a baseball star at Simi Valley High School, but he was skateboarding and playing music much earlier than that. Inspired by the early ‘80s Nardcore scene in Oxnard--which included bands such as Ill Repute, Agression and Dr. Know--Radinsky and some pals started Strung Out while they were still in junior high school.

Next came Ten Foot Pole, who became the poster boys for ingratitude in 1995, when they kicked Radinsky out of his own band for not being available more than four months a year. Ten Foot Pole is still around and continues to have major rock ‘n’ roll dreams, but Pulley just has a blast, said Radinsky during a recent roadside phoner.

“There’s really no major stress in this band about trying to make it,” he said. “It’s just all about having a good time. We play fast at times, and we try to be somewhat melodic. That’s all.”

So what does Radinsky do after eight months on the road with the Boys in Blue? If you guessed stay home, you’re wrong. The Pulley business has become about as predictable as baseball season, and their second album, “60 Cycle Hum” is just out.

“We write and record in the summer, the album comes out in the fall and then we tour,” he said. “We’ve been to Europe and now we’re doing the States. This is like being on the road with any other band. We sell T-shirts at the shows, you know, the usual. Traveling is no problem; there’s six of us so we take turns driving.”

The so-called pop-punk bands such as Green Day and Offspring have made punk seem more appealing to a wider audience. But hard-core punk still doesn’t get much more airplay than it did 20 years ago when Black Flag and Fear were scaring parents from sea to shining sea. These days, Green Day is on MTV and the radio. Pulley will be all over MTV about the time Tommy Lasorda starts wearing a Giants hat.

“I like Green Day. I never got caught up in that ‘they sold out’ stuff, which is probably because I knew them before they got big,” said Radinsky. “But us on the radio? I hope not. We never get on the radio, people just show up at the shows. They’re always all-ages shows, and they’re doing pretty good. Every one so far has had 500 plus people.”

And it’s a kinder, gentler punk rock these days. While the mosh pit is hardly a groovy love-in with swirling blissed-out Deadheads, blood loss is apparently way down, and chances are good that little Buffy and Chad probably won’t be killed at a Pulley gig.

“Punk has changed--it’s not what it used to be,” Radinsky said. “It used to be one specific style of punk, but now there are so many different styles, I’m not really sure what punk is now. Now most people come to listen to the music--they aren’t into hurting themselves. Once in a while when some big, tough guys start slamming, people just move away and leave them alone.”

Just as “rad” is a good thing in skatespeak, “Rad” did a good thing for the skateboarders in his hometown. As in other places, Simi Valley had lots of skaters, nowhere to skate and hostile businessmen telling the follicly challenged skateheads to go away. Since baseball pays better than rock ‘n’ roll--Radinsky was paid $900,000 by the Dodgers last year--he recently opened his own skateboard facility, the Skate Lab.

“We talked to the city and all that, and we cut through all the red tape and just did it ourselves,” he said. “It opened two or three weeks ago, and now the kids have somewhere to skate, and I have a place where I can skate for free.”

With baseball season on the horizon, Pulley has less than two months to perform. Don’t expect any assistance from the Dodgers, though. Last year the club tried a new promotion by having live bands perform after a few of the games. But don’t look for Pulley to be opening for K.C. and the Sunshine Band any time soon. Maybe Fred Claire will let them scream the National Anthem at some future game?

“I’m not sure I’d want to do that,” Radinsky said.

Well, what about next year in baseball? Are the Dodgers going to have a better year in 1998 than Pulley is having?

“You’ll have to ask the superstars,” said Radinsky. “I just show up.”

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If I had a richer girlfriend, a faster a car or both, here’s some other Up the Coast gigs I’d be checking out:

FRIDAY: Teresa Russell (The Palms); eighth annual Rockabilly Roundup featuring Wanda Jackson, Cadillac Angels, Johnny Oxnard & the Ranch Hands and Blazin’ Haley (Victoria Hall).

SATURDAY: Teresa Russell (The Palms); Richard Buckner, Billy White Acre (Lobero Theatre); Ronnie Earl, Guy Martin Group (Victoria Hall).

TUESDAY: Pulley, Millencolin and Slimer (The Living Room, Goleta).

WEDNESDAY: Corey Stevens (Coach House), Tina Sicre (The Hub, UCSB).

BE THERE

Concert--Pulley, Millencolin and Slimer at the Living Room, 430 Fairview Ave., Goleta, 7 p.m. Tuesday. Cost: $6 all ages. Call: 987-2026.