By Sean McCourt

Three is the magic number: Santa Cruz's Chop Tops are prepared to spread the rockabilly gospel with their upcoming album, Triple Deuces.

Witness the Santa Cruz combo's showing last year at the town's annual Battle of the Bands at the Catalyst, where six bands that made it to the final round duked it out in hopes of capturing the title of best band, along with a $4,000 cash prize.

As the house lights went down and the roar of the capacity crowd came up, the ominous sound of Star Wars' "Imperial March" blasted through the P.A. speakers. Three figures emerged from the back of the darkened stage – taking position by their instruments, the only light coming from the end of their lit cigarettes – and the moment the music ended, the drummer counted off on his sticks, and the band launched into a rollicking surf-rockabilly instrumental.

Moments after the first notes of "Sun Down" blazed off the stage, the audience was in motion, breaking into a wild mosh pit but soon filling in with couples dancing and onlookers hollering, rocking their heads, and raising their fists to the beat. Gary "Sinner" Marsh, who plays the drums standing up, never missed a beat while also handling the vocals, and indeed he sounded like a classic crooner as well as a hell-raising rocker in the tradition of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Shelby Legnon effortlessly pulled off scorching leads and changes on his vintage Gretsch guitar, and at one point during "Drink That Bottle Down," stepped off the tall stage, climbed onto someone's shoulders, and played the solo while being carried through the crowd. Even though he had recently crashed on his 1948 Panhead motorcycle, and had been hobbling around on crutches for the entire night, Roddy "Hot Rod" Larson was playing his stand-up bass doing exactly that – standing – an impressive sight considering what he'd just been through.

And the band has been through a lot. The next morning, Marsh got the call he'd been waiting for: the Chop Tops won by an impressive margin, securing the title of best band and the prize money.

Still, in the past year, the group continued to weather lineup changes as Larson departed, amicably, and former bassist Dusty Grave returned. Formed in Watsonville and residing in Santa Cruz, far from the larger hot-rodding hotbeds of rockabilly in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the Chop Tops remain a study in perseverance. They're poised to release their fourth album this summer, and their high-octane mixture of classic and contemporary has secured them an invitation to tour Europe in July and August. They've sold about 5,000 CDs total of their releases.

"We're not a tribute band. We've got our own sound: it's undiscovered, it's new, it's ours – it's revved-up rockabilly," Marsh says.

Hank was a punk rocker

Though their obvious rockabilly forefathers are Carl Perkins and Eddie Cochran, the Chop Tops see themselves as children of the Santa Cruz-area punk scene, where Marsh, whose intense zeal and determination have propelled the band, first cut his musical teeth. "Every member of this band grew up listening to punk rock," Marsh explains. He sees punk not merely as one particular type of music but as an overall attitude. "When Hank Williams was starting his music career, he couldn't play the country grand hall, otherwise known as the Grand Ole Opry. You wanna know why? Because he played punk fucking rock."

Taking the fierce spirit of independence gleaned from the punk underground, Marsh came back to his first musical love – rockabilly – and formed the Chop Tops with Legnon, who had previously played with rockabilly bandleader Lloyd Tripp in the Bay Area. After a few years of steady playing in local clubs and building a following, the Chop Tops self-released their first record, Tales of Hot Rods, Hot Broads, and Lucky Odds, in 1999, which was followed by 2000's Always Wild on Rollin' Rock, a renowned rockabilly label that has also released discs by such wild cats as Ray Campi and the Blasters.

Grave, who was friends with the band before he joined, came aboard in 2000, and the following year the group put out Evil Six, another self-released full-length that showcased their talent for taking inspiration from the classics of rock 'n' roll and infusing them with an attitude and fury that set them apart from any roots-revival act out there. The band also showed off a few of their other loves, covering AC/DC's "I'm a Rocker" and the Misfits' "American Nightmare."

Little nightmares

But the Chop Tops hit several speed bumps – all bass player-related. After the regional success of Evil Six, they were looking forward to the next step when Grave announced his departure in early 2002. Old friend Larson signed on. After three years of local and national shows and plenty of growth and the win at the Battle of the Bands last summer, the Chop Tops' profile had never been higher. And then last December, Larson decided to take a break from the rock 'n' roll life.

So the band welcomed Grave back into the fold. "It's good to have Mr. Grave back, things feel good, and the reaction to him being back has been good," Legnon says. "Hod Rod is loved and missed, but we totally understand his situation – he will always be a Chop Top."

With the lineup now firmly in place, the Chop Tops are looking over their past output and looking forward to releasing their next CD, Triple Deuces, for which they've received some major-label interest.

Non-rockabilly influences are making their way into the new songs, as well as real life. "We write stuff that's either something we've done, or an experience we've been through, so we aren't up there preaching and talking a bunch of tough-guy shit that you hear in a lot of rap or pop punk or some psychobilly bands," Marsh says. "They get up there and talk about how bad they are, and it's not fucking true. We don't try to write songs to be badasses."

Perhaps they're tired of languishing on the boardwalk, but they aren't shy about their crossover dreams. "Music is stale right now," Legnon says. "It's just the same band over and over with a whiny emo voice, with the same riffs over and over."

"This band is aiming to go as big as we can, do as much as we can, and bring rockabilly music – our breed of it – back to the forefront of the public's eyes," Marsh offers. "We're shopping labels and agents right now. We want to blow this thing as wide open as we can, and we're working really hard to keep the sound true, honest, and ripping. We do well on our own, but if somebody wants to pick us up and kick the doors open and publicize us all around the world, we're waiting." Chop Tops play Thurs/7, 7 p.m., StudioZ.tv, 314 11th St., S.F. $10. (415) 252-7666. They also play Fri/8, 8 p.m., Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building, 846 Front, Santa Cruz. $8. (831) 454-0478; with Agent Orange April 16, 7:30 p.m., Veterans Memorial Building. $10.