LP SHOWS T.S.O.L.’S STYLE IS EVOLVING

After hearing T.S.O.L.’s new “Hit and Run” album--the former punk band’s most diverse and accessible LP ever--some longtime followers may accuse the quartet of finally going Hollywood.

It wouldn’t be the first time such an accusation has been leveled at the veteran outfit, but this time it may be true. T.S.O.L completed shooting its debut film appearance as a band earlier this week, just in time to start a tour that includes shows tonight at the Country Club in Reseda and Saturday at Fender’s in Long Beach.

“It’s called ‘The Running Kind,’ and it’s a low-budget rock ‘n’ roll movie that we anticipate will do pretty well,” lead singer Joe Wood said this week.

Sitting with bassist Mike Roche in a Westminster coffee shop near Roche’s home, Wood explained the reasons for the optimism. Foremost among them: the experience and skill of director Max Tash, a noted TV sitcom producer-director whose credits include “WKRP in Cincinnati.”

Another reason is Tash’s genuine passion for rock music, reflected in the way he ensured that the script wouldn’t skimp on credibility. “He’s always liked the Screamin’ Sirens (local all-woman band),” said Roche, who formed T.S.O.L. with lead guitarist Ron Emory nearly eight years ago.

Wood continued: “So, Pleasant (Gehman, a writer and Sirens’ singer) and Max sat down and wrote a movie about the life style of a girl rock ‘n’ roll band.”

Wood and Roche also said they were impressed with the professionalism and relative calm Tash fostered on the set. Wood ended up with an acting role in the film, playing a rock musician named Tyler. Meanwhile, the other members of T.S.O.L.--drummer Mitch Dean completes the line-up--portray Tyler’s band and, in one scene, perform the title track of the new album.

The Orange County / Long Beach-based foursome has had its songs featured in various film sound tracks (including “Suburbia” and “Dangerously Close”). And some members have landed bit parts in previous films (Dean and Roche were seen briefly in the punk drama “Sid & Nancy”), but they had never been on the big screen together.

Roche said he was told by Tash that some major film distribution firms have already expressed interest in “The Runnin’ Kind.” (the title comes from the name of a Screamin’ Sirens song) “So actually,” he said, “it could be a little sleeper low-budget film that does (really well).”

That would fit quite nicely with the current game plan of T.S.O.L, whose members now wear their ambition on their tattered sleeves. Exhibit A would have to be “Hit and Run,” a well-crafted bid for radio air play and chart success that may even startle veteran observers who know that T.S.O.L.’s one constant is change.

The band’s even been partway down this road before. So questions about its musical direction--and intentions--aren’t new. After all, the group’s early-’80s albums operated in hard-core punk, then Gothic-rock styles before switching to a comparatively ornate, keyboard-spiked sound on 1983’s “Beneath The Shadows”--an album that elicited the first major fan uproar.

Following that release, the group disbanded. But shortly thereafter T.S.O.L. reformed (with Wood and Dean joining Emory and Roche) and returned to a lean, feisty attack on 1984’s “Change Today?”, broadening that approach on last year’s “Revenge” LP.

Still, neither the band’s history of artistic restlessness nor the musical evolution evidenced on the last two releases would fully prepare listeners for “Hit and Run.” These one-time purveyors of pogo have delivered a commercial-minded rock pastiche that incorporates keyboards, saxophones, vocal harmonies--even congas.

To help soften the blow of such foreign sounds and styles, T.S.O.L. (which stands for True Sounds of Liberty) included a message on the lyric sheet: “We, the True Sounds of Liberty, feel that this is the best record we have done to date. It is in keeping with our ideal of complete freedom in music, as in life itself. . . .”

“Before (the listeners) get any preconceived notion of what we’re doing, we give ‘em our own,” Wood explained, adding a Groucho-esque quip: “If we want their opinion, we’ll give it to them. . . . Just kidding.”

Roche believes that, as with all the previous stylistic shifts, the band has actually taken a huge risk in embracing this more accessible sound. “It would have been real easy for us to have just continued to do punk rock, the hard-core thing,” Roche said.

“It was far more radical for us to take a departure from that--to do something different all the time, because we were losing followings. You can tour the United States, draw 500 people a town and make a living. But we were leaving these followings behind all the time, going to this (style) or that (style),” Roche said.

Wood agreed. “We could have gone the easy route and played the old songs when I got in the band; re-did the old T.S.O.L. and had 500 (fans) in every town,” he said. “But that would’ve been it.”

“We’re looking to have 10,000 in every town. . . . We want to be heard,” Roche continued. “The only thing that we did with the record that was a conscious effort, was make it the best quality we possibly could. . . . We worked on our timing to make it perfect, radio perfect. That’s what we did for radio.”

Radio is starting to reciprocate. Hard-rock outlet KNAC-FM in Long Beach is already regularly playing the album’s first single, “The Name Is Love,” an AC/DC-ish rawker. In addition to other metal-oriented tracks that could succeed “Name” on KNAC, there are some tunes that could easily wind up on more traditional album-rock stations (Most notably the catchy anthem “Not Alone Anymore” and the softer, smoother “Stay With Me”).

Yet, for all the diversity, sturdy melodies, engaging instrumental textures--the overall sonic brightness--this album is very dark lyrically. Two running themes, that occasionally intersect, are missed opportunities (in life or romance) and death (impending or recent).

Nearly all T.S.O.L. records have dark moments. But the new LP’s darkness is partly tied to a tragedy that directly affected Ron Emory, and temporarily shook the foundation of the band: One of Emory’s brothers committed suicide late last year.

Emory got the news while T.S.O.L. was in the midst of the “Revenge” tour. The group immediately canceled the tour and flew Emory home. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know if it was the end of the band at that point,” Wood recalled.

Eventually, the group decided to continue. And to help exorcise his anguish over his brother’s death, Emory wrote a song about it: “You Can Try,” which concludes the album and is dedicated to Emory’s late brother.

The band is now back on track and has regained its momentum. That momentum should increase rapidly, with T.S.O.L. starting to receive it’s first significant air play, making its film debut and firming up tour plans that run the better part of a year and may include its first forays into Europe, Australia and Japan.

Clearly this is a band that’s no longer fooling with modest ambitions and isn’t overly concerned with fans--or former fans--who object to its chameleonic tendencies or quest for success.

“For one record, (the fans) may have hated ‘Revenge’ or hated ‘Beneath the Shadows’ or hated this or loved that,” Roche said. “But what they don’t see is the ultimate end of this band--which is to be one of the best rock bands in the world.”

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