The Song, Not the Singer

Watkins: ”It could be really, really awful. We‘d be pelted with stuffed animals.“

Though Lacques is the only original member of Double Naught Spy Car (the name’s a reference to Jethro‘s vehicle in The Beverly Hillbillies, of course), the three stringmen have strung together for five years, with Joseph Berardi kicking in a year and a half ago. All the members have other gigs. Lacques plays in the country band I See Hawks in L.A., for instance, and he and Doten recently flew to Japan to back up the Hawaiian singer-comedian King Kukulele. Watkins plays with French rock stars. Berardi’s activities have ranged from avant (Non Credo) to bent pop (Stan Ridgway). They can pull off practically anything, but they especially enjoy the periodic waves of activity in Spy Car, which Lacques calls a ”long-term labor of love.“

Pop stardom isn‘t the point, and Lacques thinks the Spies don’t need to worry about it: ”You look at Rolling Stone‘s Top 50 artists of the year -- they all look like 18-year-old models. And the average listener is preconditioned to hearing perfect time and kind of sterile musical situations. Everything else sounds like noise.“

Strange sounds get under the skin of some people, though. After that happens, the world of pop drops right out of sight and they become music explorers or, God help them, musicians. For Doten, the turning point was Ozzy. For Watkins, it was King Crimson. For Lacques, at age 12, it was Dylan: ”He sounded like some insane person. Like any kind of music I would come to love, it was threatening at first.“

And who really wants to be Motley Crue? We’ve all seen Behind the Music. If you‘re huge, you’ve got to go out on the road for years at a time, and you become drug addicts, and your manager steals your money, and you lose your girlfriends.

Watkins: ”But think of all the girlfriends you gain . . .“

Doten: ”Yeah, by playing instrumental surf music of a harsh nature.“

Berardi: ”Well, I think it‘s kind of sexy.“

Double Naught Spy Car plays Zen Sushi, 2609 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake, on Monday, February 11, 18 and 25.