WE HOPE YOU LIKE OUR NEW DIRECTION
The Saturn V has been accused of not being punk rock (which is not strange as they are a Frat band) but in the spirit of the Budget Rock Weekend at Thee Parkside, the boys left their blazers and skinny ties at home. Looky here...

Meet The New Sat.Vees That’s Pat Phelan MD behind the Farfisa. Dr. Pat is a UCLA grad and currently a medical student at UCSF. He is a member of Phi Delta Chi fraternity.

David E. Troutt is the bass player. Dave graduated with honors from USC and is already feuding with Pat. He is a member of Delta Tau.

“...It had been a while since we had been in NYC. Obviously since the events of 9-11-01, people are going around a little on edge. What struck us was how friendly everyone was being to a bunch of tourists like ourselves. Who knows, maybe Hizzoner laid down the law that you have to be nice to out-of-towners.

“In any event, every where we went in the Big Apple, the people seemed to go out of their way to be helpful and render assistance whenever necessary.

“Friday night of course was the big get-together sponsored by the fine folks on the Bomp mailing list... MORE »

September 9, 2007
“That feud is affecting the future of frat rock. And the past.” - Orbit

Q. The guys in the band have played in various groups ranging from ’50s–mid ’60s influences. What made you guys choose the early '60s frat sound this time around?
A. Well, I thought I remembered Johnny saying that he hated fuzz. I don’t think I've ever seen him wear a sweater! Other than the fact that we dearly love all that Kingsmen and Wailers trash, it’s that the frat stuff’s a lot easier to play when you’re loaded than other stuff we coulda picked.

I must tell you that me and Johnny are NUTS about that Gary Usher surf vocal sound! I musta worn out about ten Hondells albums in the last couple years... but try singing like that in a club... good luck! I envy the guys who used to be able to sing like that... Beach Boys... whew! Of course we also dig all that ’60s beat stuff like everyone else... Johnny's a big rockabilly fan, ask him about his rockabilly band!...

Q. What do you think of the newest trend in garage (in the USA); the increasing popularity of the early ’60s sound say, in relationship to the mid ’60s fuzz sound (of the mid ’80s) or the instro thing (of the early ’90s)?
A. I think the reason the early-type ’60s stuff works for us is it’s FUN and people enjoy dancing to it. The fuzz and flower power stuff is cool too but it may have been done by too many groups lately... As far as the all-instrumental groups go, they’re fine but I think people get tired of listening to just instros for a whole set...

Q. What songs do you do? What type of originals do you have? What covers do you do? Do you prefer to cover better known material or very obscure (I know you've got lots of non-comp resource!) stuff? Who writes your original material?
A. I think too many people are hung up on bands doing originals. I'd rather be playing cool covers than some crappy songs we wrote ourselves! I’m not against us writing our own tunes but it’s not a big priority... We're not too proud to do songs written by “songwriting professionals” but we try to make them our own. When we pick out a song to do, we don’t try to make it sound like the record, we just hammer it out and see what happens...

Everyone in the band writes songs but one reason we do lots of covers is, it prevents fist fights among band members over whose song we’re gonna do!... The thing about playing the more familiar oldies versus more obscure songs is interesting... We don’t want to do the obvious songs. (Well we kinda do, but people have heard ’em a million times!) There are tons of great obscure songs out there that are itchin' to be played. But sometimes I think people enjoy it more if they’re hearing some things they recognize...

We're tryin’ to strike the happy medium... We know we’ve made a good choice when we see guys from bands we respect, out in the audience, kickin’ themselves for not doing that song!!! The covers we do are workin’ out pretty well so far. Lessee... “She’s the One” by the Chartbusters... “Do the Flake” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys... “Say I Am” by Tommy James... Tommy James, very underrated indeed! Very cool stuff on Roulette Records!... and of course “Twist Fever” from the Wild Guitar sound track...

Q. We hear that you are a real wild man. What are your fave stage antics?
A. Well, it’s the beer talking... Nothing is premeditated, believe me...

(Interview by Richard & Glynnis Ward, excerpted from Feline Frenzy Teen 'Zine)