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What would happen if you combined the Bangles, the dB's, the Cowsills and the Dream Syndicate?
It might turn into a retro-pop mess. Or it could come out sounding like the Continental Drifters, a roots-rock supergroup that puts its embarrassment of talent - four singers, six songwriters and three guitarists - to good use.
The Drifters originally formed in 1991 as a loose-knit collection of Los Angeles musicians, and became a regular Tuesday night gig at a club called Raji's. As members came and went, others took their place, most notably two women from different backgrounds who found common ground as the Psycho Sisters.
Vicki Peterson was the singer and guitarist for '80s pop sensations The Bangles. Susan Cowsill was the youngest members of mid-'60s clan, the Cowsills, the original inspiration for the Partridge Family.
As the Psycho Sisters, they became regular guests of the Drifters.
"It was a boys club," Peterson says, "but they let us into their boys club."
Lead guitarist Robert Mache, formerly of the Steve Wynn Band, wasn't even a Drifter yet, but he understands why they let the girls in.
"I couldn't think of two people better to have in a band," Mache says. "What's the reason to have Vicki Peterson and Susan Cowsill in a band? To make all your dreams come true. They can sing their asses off, better than almost anyone on the planet."
Another special guest was singer-guitarist Peter Holsapple, founding member of the beloved New York power-pop band the dB's and onetime touring member of R.E.M. Holsapple joined the Drifters and eventually joined Cowsill in marriage.
The band, which picked up and drifted to New Orleans, now also includes founding member Mark Walton (former bassist for the psychedelic pop band, the Dream Syndicate) and drummer Russ Broussard (former member of Terence Simien's zydeco band).
Whenever an ensemble comes together like this, in the spirit of Midwest supergroup Golden Smog, it's natural to think "side project." Peterson says it isn't so.
"This is not a side project. We've been together for nine years, and we're serious. Damn serious," she says and laughs.
Certainly, they are being taken seriously. Several years back, a Rolling Stone magazine critics' poll voted them the best unsigned band in America, and the band's medium-label debut, "Vermilion" on Razor & Tie, landed on Top 10 lists across the country last year.
Despite the band's lovely home-grown sound, reminiscent of British folk-rockers Fairport Convention, they haven't signed on to the alt-country scene and aren't committed to working only in the underground.
"Hopefully, not. It doesn't have to be that way," Peterson says. "You know what, we're not trying to be pop stars, we don't care, we're doing this anyway. But we wouldn't run away from it. It's not an integrity issue with us. We have no problem with having a hit record."
While this is clearly a more organic venture, some of Peter's songs, like the bouncy "Way of the World," sound like they could easily be Bangles hits. In fact, because the Drifters is an "open marriage," she's working on the beginnings of a Bangles comeback. Still, she has a hard time deciphering what's a Bangles song and what belongs to the Drifters.
"I haven't been able to put my finger on it yet," she says. "I'll write a song and say, 'I hear the Drifters playing this one, I can't get my head around this being a Bangles song.' There's a subtle but important difference, but I'm not sure yet."
She does know that the working environment is a lot different.
"With this band, we'll show up for rehearsal, and it's usually in somebody's living room with acoustic instruments. We don't make a big production out of it at all. We just show each other the chord changes, and the band kind of falls into place. It's not a majorly though-out, over-directed thing."
Hitting the road is a little more complicated in that the members are older - some have day jobs and small kids. So, most of the touring is limited to the weekend warrior variety. Finally, they've made it up this far north with a heavy set of "Vermilion" songs. One thing fans should not do is show up yelling for "Walk Like an Egyptian."
"We just want to keep thing clean and clear," Peterson says. "We're moving on and we're writing songs that we like now. We just want to keep that separate. There's so much going on here, there's no need for it. Every now and then we get someone wanting to hear a dB's song or a Bangles song, but it's really not that much of a problem."
Mache says the best thing about this band is how happy they are to be playing together.
"We played a three-hour set last night and we were having so much fun, we forgot to stop. We had about an hour-and-a-half of songs in our set list and three hours later we were still going."
Continental Drifters
Where: Rosebud, Strip
When: Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 day of show
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