Heart on their record sleeve

After nearly two decades of chasing rock stardom, Thelonious Monster frontman Bob Forrest says with a smile, “You can’t continue to live on a pipe dream.” Neither the dream nor Forrest seem ready to part ways.

The L.A. alternative band, which does a free in-store show at Amoeba Records tonight at 7, recently released its first album in 12 years, “California Clam Chowder.” Every song on the 15-track collection is written in the style of and named after the group’s influences. Among the artists feted are Bob Dylan, in “The Bob Dylan Song,” Oasis and the Ramones.

“The bands that I grew up with, we liked everything, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kraftwerk,” he recalls. “But each band that you think of, like Jane’s Addiction, you wouldn’t notice that they loved Bauhaus and Joy Division, unless you really knew to look for it.”

It’s a musician’s album, but Forrest says that’s always been the group’s core audience. “Thelonious Monster really never sold any records, but every time we played all our friends who were musicians came,” he says.

T. Monster still has the respect of its peers. After the band’s Coachella set, Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell was so impressed he invited T. Monster to play selected Lolla dates this summer. “Somehow we’re able to communicate with other musicians and that’s the extent of it,” he says laughing. “So unless you’re a musician don’t buy our records.”

-- Steve Baltin