No Easy Definition

Yet another band with a funny name, the Trophy Husbands, will be heading west from Phoenix to play its brand of country rock tonight at Bubba’s Lounge in Ventura.

Hoping to sell a few copies of its debut album, “Dark & Bloody Ground,” the Trophy Husbands will be joined by Jackass. Opening will be Mark Insley, whose brother, Dave, is a Trophy Husband.

In addition to Dave Insley, there are three other Husbands--Kevin Daly is another guitar player, Jeff Farias is the bass player and Tom Post is the drummer. All four veterans of the Phoenix music scene will be enjoying their second California adventure, following an appearance at the Ban-Dar a few months ago. Expect plenty of songs about Cadillacs, bank robbers, dusty towns that are most memorable when leaving, plus all manner of whiskey misadventures and the inevitable bad love stories.

Dave Insley discussed his favorite band during a recent phone interview.

Where did you guys come up with that funny name?

It was an accident. It was one of those deals where every time we went out and played a gig, we dreamed up whatever weird name we were gonna call the band, and this one just stuck. It was totally an accident and enough people laughed at it and thought it was funny, plus we accidentally did two gigs in a row that way and the ball was rolling, so we had to live with it.

How long has there been Trophy Husbands?

Well, Kevin Daly and I have been playing together for about 20 years. He’s the heart and soul of the band, actually. He and I were in different bands that had gigs together and we always hung out, but it was always like an on-the-side kind of thing. Over a long period of time, we had this large group of songs. We had never really been in a band together, but just over the last five years, we started getting together and started pulling what we lovingly refer to as our old chestnuts out of the hat. These were songs that for one reason or another didn’t fit into the band projects we were in.

What’s the story on the album?

We had a recording session scheduled with this woman who got sick, so we had the time and we just recorded all those songs we’d been playing in the living room. And we had such a good time for six or seven songs, we got together the next week to record more. The timing was right and the energy was good.

Is this album too rock for country radio or too country for rock radio? In other words, how does this album fit into the scheme of the cosmos?

I don’t think it fits in everywhere. We hired these two radio promoters--Bill West from down by Nashville and Debbie Green, who’s from San Antonio. Their thing is to promote to Americana Radio. She told us that it didn’t fit into Americana; in fact, it didn’t fit anywhere. I thought that was kind of great. . . . The odd thing is it doesn’t fit, but it’s still being played on 150 stations.

So those two people did that for you and you paid ‘em?

Well, we had to, but it worked. About half the stations are National Public Radio.

That counts, right?

Sure it does. We’re selling some, but we’re not going to get rich off it, guaranteed. This is no get-rich-quick scheme, but we’re selling enough of them to justify what we spent on radio promotion. For some reason, this band--maybe there’s some sort of familiarity or else people just see that we’re having a good time--but people have really responded to this band much more than other bands I’ve been in.

What do you think Trophy Husbands’ music sounds like?

Hillbilly rock.

How’s the Arizona scene?

Pretty darn good. We’re in Phoenix, and there’s a lot of great bands around in my opinion. Phoenix had a time when they had a lot of really good punk rock bands, back in the days of the Sun City Girls, Jodie Foster’s Army, Junior Achievement and the Meat Puppets. Then it seemed like there was a lull, but in the last five years, there seems to be a wealth of really terrific bands. Another good thing, 15 years ago there weren’t good venues to play and there’s a lot of them now.

So you have a built-in crowd of college students?

Yeah, but there’s also a hard-core group of music fans that are not college students. The college crowd goes out to see the--and I hate to say this--reformed punk rockers. For them, music is just background sounds for having a frat party.

What’s the plan for the Husbands?

Right now we’re planning on going to Texas in March, then we’re planning a trip to the southeast, but we want to get back into the studio. I really like the record, but it doesn’t really represent the band as it is now. We have more songs, and we’re a lot more rock than the album represents. We have about 25 songs that we play regularly, but on any given night Kevin will throw something completely unexpected into the mix, be it Motorhead, AC/DC or whatever, just to flip us all out.

DETAILS

Trophy Husbands, Jackass, Mark Insley at Bubba’s Lounge, 1664 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura, 9 tonight; $4; 653-2815.

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Being dead isn’t half the dodge it used to be, especially for Elvis. After all, he still releases albums, is honored with movie festivals on TCM and performs--well, sort of.

One of the best Elvis impersonators is Raymond Michael, who will resurrect the King for a night of jailhouse rock and more at the 12th annual “Tribute to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a Cal Lutheran University alumni benefit Saturday at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

Michael attended Cal Lutheran in the early ‘70s, where he studied voice and played football for the Kingsmen. He’s led a second life as the King for more than 25 years, and despite the fact that Elvis died in 1977, business has never been better. Michael will be backed by the 24-member CLU All-Star Alumni Band for the gig.

When he’s not busy being Elvis, Michael is Tom Jones in his spare moments, and in between all that, he’s married, has children, and teaches music at Moorpark High School.

DETAILS

“Tribute to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” with Raymond Michael at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 8 p.m. Saturday; $10 to $35; 449-2787.

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The Vietnam War ended during the ‘70s. So much for the good news. Otherwise, the decade gave us smile buttons, bad hair, bad clothes and even worse music. Yet nobody really ever took all those “Disco Sucks” bumper stickers to heart. In fact, disco music is as popular as ever. If you’re a club owner, “Disco Pays.”

To that end, the original Boogie Knights will be appearing weekly starting Thursday at the new Canyon Club in Agoura Hills.

Music promoter Dave Hewitt has been involved with the band and its countless offshoots for years, and he’s a guy who knows what makes people dance.

“This place is catering to the 30-and-above crowd,” Hewitt said. “Let’s face it--Agoura, Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Malibu are all fairly affluent areas. This is going to be the same energy that we used to have at Pelican’s Retreat back in 1993.”

The 20,000-square-foot venue, a former supermarket, has been open for almost two months now and holds about 1,000 people. Those feeling energetic will be moved by the half-a-million-dollar sound system.

DETAILS

The Boogie Knights at the Canyon Club, 28912 Roadside Drive, Agoura Hills, 9:30 p.m. Thursday; $10; (818) 879-5016.

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Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.