Pop Notes

WANKFUL: Only a month ago, Wank singer-bassist Bobby Amodeo’s phone was disconnected because he couldn’t pay the bill. (“Guess they didn’t care that I’m in a band,” he joked). Now, thanks to KROQ-FM (106.7), Amodeo can settle his delinquent bill, quit the job he took at Big-O Tires, reopen his nose and ear piercings, shoot a video and possibly go on tour through the rest of the year.

Since Wank released its Mike Ness-produced single “Larry Brown” on the Laguna Beach label Time Bomb in mid-January, the Huntington Beach band--also including drummer Donny “Spider” Amodeo and guitarist Steven “Billy” Bivens and songwriter-guitarist Danny Walker--has found itself at the center of one of the speediest bidding wars and subsequent major label deals the record industry has ever seen; the music trade magazine Hits likened the whirlwind of activity to “El Nino blowing through a Tustin trailer park.”

After spot play on KROQ deejay Zeke’s “Music From Your Own Backyard” show, the radio station recently added to its official rotation the Wank song “Forgiven” off the band’s year-old, self-released debut, “Get a Grip on Yourself.” Within a week of airplay (averaging eight times a day), Wank started to field offers from seven major labels. The Madonna-owned Maverick label (home of local band Rule 62) won out, the band said, mostly because they stayed with the negotiations over the weekend, landing Wank a three-album deal (with options for more).

The quick deal also allowed the band to meet a Feb. 23 deadline to get back into the studio to remix “Get a Grip on Yourself,” which will be re-released with a few new tunes (including the Mike Ness track) by the end of this month.

“I was telling somebody we’re the luckiest band in the world right now,” Walker said, “and they said, ‘No, you deserve it.’ And I said, ‘No, really, we’re the luckiest band.’ I don’t think our career could possibly go as fast as this signing derby. It’s been, like, vroom, vroom, done. We’ve got turbo in our engine.”