Buck-O-Nine continues on for love of music

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:29 PM PST ∞

Perhaps the example of Buck-O-Nine should serve as a cautionary tale for younger bands who think if they can just make it to the big time, that it's all happily ever after in the land of milk and honey.

In the mid-'90s, Buck-O-Nine, the San Diego-based ska-punk band, had it made: its records were nationally distributed, it toured around the country, the band's members had all been able to give up their day jobs and live on what they made in the band.

But in 1999, things kind of fell apart for the band (which is playing Wednesday night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach).

"Toward the end of '99 was basically our last tour that we did," singer Jon Pebsworth said by phone a few weeks ago from his L.A. area office. "I don't think at the time we were on tour we realized it was our last tour. Our bass player at the time had gotten sick when we were in Pittsburgh, and he had to go in the hospital and we had to cancel the last 10 shows of the tour. He stayed in the hospital in Pittsburgh and the rest of us drove home.

"That tour hadn't really gone all that well. The ticket sales were down, so financially it put a burden on the band. Canceling those last 10 shows really put a burden on the band. We were starting to really push uphill. It became clear we couldn't keep that thing going. We couldn't even afford to pay for ourselves to stay out there in those vehicles and gas.

"Guys were starting to have kids, get married ---- that lifestyle is difficult when you're trying to get married and be around for your wife.

"Plus the morale of the band was down. The whole ska thing had started out as this DIY (do-it-yourself) thing, then the second wave came along and kind of exploded into the mainstream, and then the mainstream was done with it in a couple years and, unfortunately, that destroyed our DIY scene as well."

Pebsworth said the band never formally broke up, but the members all took day jobs as the ska scene petered out and paying gigs dried up.

Which was, as Pebsworth admitted, a bit ironic in that when the band started out in the early '90s, the ska scene wasn't that active, either.

He joined the band after answering a classified ad.

"The band was compiled mostly out of a series of ads in the Reader. It was started by our old bass player, Scott. He kind of got the band started with some other people. One member would go at a time and be replaced by somebody new. Really, none of us knew each other outside of meeting in trying out for the band.

"That's how I met these guys ---- I answered an ad in the Reader: 'Ska/punk band seeks singer.' I thought, 'perfect.' "

Pebsworth, who grew up in Glendale, had moved to San Diego after graduating high school in 1989 ---- moving in with a buddy who was set to attend San Diego State.

"I was one of those guys who barely graduated high school, didn't care, just wanted to be in a band. ... I went to Grossmont College until I dropped out to go on tour with Buck-O-Nine."

By the time he joined Buck-O-Nine a few years after arriving in town, he'd already become a bit of a music veteran.

"I'd been in other bands. My first band was a hard-core band. I'd been in some punk bands, various different kinds of experimental things. I was in a band that was in a kind of Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction vein."

While Buck-O-Nine was already an ongoing concern by the time it was his turn to answer the help wanted ad for a lead singer, Pebsworth said the guys in the band filled him in on the history.

"It was formed for the most part to be a ska band ---- that's what they wanted to do. When I rolled in, they'd gone through a stage where they were doing Specials songs ... it was a kind of R.E.M.-based ska. It was always a little more than just a simple ska sound.

"The sound has stayed consistent."

That consistency is still evident on the band's newest album, the just-released "Sustain."

Pebsworth said the new CD was two years in the making, and is an organic outgrowth of the friendship between the band's members.

"After we kind of stopped touring, there was a six- to nine-month period where we didn't talk much and it seemed weird."

While a lot of men have a circle of poker buddies or golf buddies, he said the members of Buck-O-Nine had grown into each other's social circle as well as being professional co-workers.

"My dad has a bunch of friends and they go golfing; the same four guys go play golf. The seven of us are a group, a team. And the thing we all have together as friends is this band."

So even after its last national tour, the band continued to play local gigs around Southern California ---- the members knowing they weren't going to hit the jackpot again, but missing the music and the fans, as well as each other.

And since they were already playing together, a new album seemed natural, he said.

"It's not like it used to be, not our main gig anymore, but it's still fun. So let's write some new songs to have to play live."

Two years ago, the band began working on the new album.

"We must have gone through 30 songs, and then narrowed it down to the 12 that are on the record.

"It was a blast. I would drive down to San Diego every Sunday ---- wake up, got my coffee and jam, and then we all went out for Mexican food, because we can't get good Mexican food up here (in Los Angeles)."

Buck-O-Nine with Social Green

When: 9 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach

Tickets: $8-$10

Info: (858) 481-8140 or bellyup.com

Web: myspace.com/buckonine

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