Lefty on the Right Track

Is Newport Beach big enough for two rock bands?

Sugar Ray--that other band from the city--certainly has reason to rejoice, at least temporarily. Punk-tinged pop-rockers Lefty have wrapped up an 11-date run in the high-profile Warped Tour, and will soon spend a couple of nights in Hawaii as the opening act for the Foo Fighters.

Not only that, Lefty’s major-label debut, “4 * 3 * 2 * 1,” was released last Tuesday.

There was no shortage of smiling faces during an interview at a local beachfront restaurant the day after the record’s release. Still, the four members seemed to have taken their big day in stride.

Only lead singer/songwriter Dennis Hill celebrated much the night before, as he and a friend rode their bikes over to the Newport Beach Brewery--and later Cassidy’s Bar & Grill--for a few rounds of drinks to honor the occasion.

According to bassist Scottie Somers, the group--which opens for Goldfinger tonight at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim--has made progress in steady increments. So the release date was practically anticlimactic.

“Yesterday was pretty low-key, actually,” he said. We’re all very proud, but there was so much going on leading up to the release--all the anticipation--that when it finally came, it was like, Oh yeah, the CD is out.’ ”

“There’s been something exciting every step of the way,” said drummer Kenny Livingston, who joined the band in April 1999. “We did all of the (CD’s) artwork, were involved in the production, worked on the sequencing of tracks. We’re always looking ahead to the next step. So you celebrate a little, but then you roll up your sleeves and get back to work.”

This no-nonsense, do-it-yourself approach helped Lefty--which also features lead guitarist Lorenzo “Larry” Giovanni--get signed to Interscope Records, currently one of contemporary music’s hottest labels, with a roster that includes Jurassic 5, Beck, Dr. Dre, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails and Smash Mouth, among others.

Promising but raw, Lefty played its first show on Jan. 23, 1998, at the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa. The foursome--with the band’s original drummer at the time--worked on new material and, exactly one year later, released a self-titled debut on its Bent Records.

The group started to generate a following with periodic gigs at other Orange County venues--the 13th Floor, the Galaxy Concert Theatre, Club 369--as well in nearby Long Beach at Tracy’s.

Lefty got a huge break in May last year when it played at the Emerging Artists and Talent in Music conference in Las Vegas. Its potent musical attack caught the attention of conference panelist Paul Gomez, who presented the band to Freeze Management, which has represented Limp Bizkit, Korn and other hard rock notables.

With the support of Freeze and Gomez, Lefty signed with Interscope in the fall of 1999.

With respected engineer/producer Bradley Cook (Foo Fighters, Counting Crows, Old 97’s) at the helm, “4 * 3 * 2 * 1” was being recorded in only three weeks in December.

A propulsive, guitar-driven offering that draws from a variety of pop, punk and alternative rock sources, the album’s subject matter ranges from the story of a girl keeping a dark secret (“Secret”) and the power of seduction (“Addiction”) to the making and breaking of a rock star (“Useless Superstar”) and the emotional complexities of romantic entanglements (“Wounded,” “Girls”).

The recording’s first single is the potentially controversial “Girls.” Its hummable melody is appealing--and quite radio-friendly--but the words could be taken as inflammatory. Sample lyric: “I don’t mean to say it/But somebody needs to put an end/To Girls.”

Hill, the band’s lyricist, insists the song is neither mean-spirited nor meant tongue-in-cheek. “It is not [meant as] a put-down at all,” he said. “In fact, the first line of the song gives them full and absolute power. A girl will always dominate over the guy in a battle of the sexes.”

Quipped Livingston, “Even though there are differences that can drive us crazy, men and women still choose to engage in relationships with each other, and that fascinates me. Guys see things one way, girls another--didn’t someone write a pretty famous book on the subject?”

“Just to be fair, we’re going to do a song called ‘Boys’ on our next album.”

The band members--who are “wiser than Britney Spears but more youthful than David Lee Roth,” says Livingston--are hoping to gain a wider audience as they get more experience and refine their sound.

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“We were a so-called pop band in a lineup of punk acts during Warped, but what I really liked was when the kids got tired of punk’s relentless grind, they’d come over and check us out” on the second stage, Livingston said.

“We can bring on the noise, too, but I think they were refreshed by our changes in tempo and maybe a few choruses they could sing along to.”

Pop music loves narrowly defined labels, but Lefty is unconcerned.

“We are a rock band, first and foremost,” Hill added. “That can mean a lot of things, though. Some of the first power-pop that came after punk was [from] the Professionals, which featured [guitarist] Steve Jones [and drummer Paul Cook] from the Sex Pistols. Like them, I don’t want to be just a pop band or a punk band. As you become more sonically aggressive, you don’t have to sacrifice melody and harmony.

“Of course, you want to grow musically. At the same time, we want people to be able to recognize anything we do as a Lefty song. Only, I don’t know if we’ve accomplished that yet.”

That’ll be the day Lefty is no longer that other band from Newport. Until then, it might still face occasional cases of mistaken identity, musically or otherwise. During their interview, a group of women in the restaurant looked their way and whispered, “Hey, I think that’s Sugar Ray.”

* Goldfinger, Dynamite Hack, Lefty and Free Style perform tonight at the Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $12. (714) 712-2700. Lefty also plays Aug. 13 with Unwritten Law and Formula at the Glass House, 200 W. 2nd St., Pomona. All ages. 7:30 p.m. $15. (714) 647-7704.