Buck-O-Nine Inches Along With 'Libido' In March

01/25/1999 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
J.R. Griffin

(1/25/99, 1 p.m. PST) - When San Diego punk/ ska troupe Buck-O-Nine permeated alternative radio in 1997 with the hit single "My Town," the band had already begun to inch beyond its past of punk chords and guitar upstrokes. With the band's upcoming fifth album, Libido, it plans to move further along, utilizing the individual band members' talents to broaden its horizons.

The album, produced by Stiff Johnson (G. Love) and Howard Bensen (Less Than Jake, Sepultura), will be released on TVT Records in mid-March.

"I think we were at the pinnacle of our creativity when we were making this album. We were kind of looking to push the envelope a bit," says Buck-O-Nine frontman Jon Pebsworth. "We've all been inspired by so many different types of other music for so long, we thought that this album would be a good time to bring some of that out."

Individual band members stepped up to the plate when it came to writing new tracks for Libido, often approaching the band with completed songs they wrote and recorded on home four-track recorders. Bassist Scott Kennerly handled the album's more light-hearted tracks, such as "Swimming In Sand" and "On A Sunny Day." Pebsworth brought in the groovy, easy singalong number "Who Are They?" and guitarist Jonas Kleiner contributed the powerpop-based "Tell It Like It Was," "Sunlight," and "Something Funny."

Other songs, such as "A Lot Of My Head," came out of free-flowing jam sessions in the studio. "I think we're all really talented as individuals, and collectively we've learned to work well together. We listen to each other's ideas and, more importantly, we're able bring it all together. With this album, everyone had a lot of writing ideas and contributed more than they normally do," says Kleiner. "The creative pot was just thicker this time. It added to the diversity and personality of the album and the individual songs." The experience especially came out when the band went to write the horn sections for the album. By steering clear of an overload of typical ska horns, Libido sounds more like the Clash, Joe Jackson, and Elvis Costello than Less Than Jake or Reel Big Fish.

"We really wanted to do something different for our genre," says Dan Albert, Buck-O-Nine's trombone player. "We approached horns with the intention of helping the rhythm of the song and what the band was doing more than creating an entirely new melody line--kind of like what Earth, Wind & Fire would do."

"It's neat to grow to the point where that knowledge influences what you create," says Pebsworth. "It was exciting to derive songs from bands like the Rolling Stones or the Beatles as opposed to jumping from a ska standpoint."

But the band, with a deep history rooted in the do-it-yourself underground punk and ska scenes, is not about to turn its back on those who have been with it from the early days. "We're still Buck-O-Nine: a band that's fun to see live and a band that likes to hang out and play for the fans. With all of these songs, the music still fits. You can still tell it's us."

Features on Sepultura, Reel Big Fish, and Elvis Costello are available now on LAUNCH.com; a feature on the third wave of ska, which includes Buck-O-Nine, is available by clicking here.

-- J.R. Griffin, Los Angeles

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