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Dave Black

American band: The boys of VietNam, (from left) Berko, Foss, Grubb, unidentified pal and Gerner, return to Brooklyn on Feb. 23 to play at Southpaw with college radio alumni The Lemonheads.

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It’s 3 pm and Josh Grubb, guitarist for VietNam, has just woken up. His band is heading to play a show in New Orleans roughly two weeks into the second leg of its American winter tour, and it’s time for one of the band’s favorite tour rituals: a pit stop at the Cracker Barrel.

“We like to have a good sit-down dinner at the Cracker Barrel every few days,” he told GO Brooklyn, his voice somewhat muffled by a bad cellular connection. “I seriously love the Cracker Barrel!”

Aside from enjoying frequent meals at one of the country’s finer roadside eateries, the increasingly hype-worthy, long-haired Brooklyn blues rockers (or is it booze rockers?) have had more than a few interesting moments while on the road this year.

An “18-year-old f––k-up kind of mall rat chick” tried to hustle them out of merch money, a burly bouncer threatened to kick their tour manager’s ass, an uptight hotel owner nearly called the cops because he was convinced they were going to throw a party in one of the rooms (they didn’t — this time) and, not least of all, they opened each night for one of the most influential indie rock bands of the 1990s — the Lemonheads.

“We met Evan [Dando] this past summer through a mutual friend and hung out with him a few times,” Grubb explained of how the band’s 10-week stint supporting the formerly famous frontman came about. “He was really into VietNam and asked if we wanted to come out on tour. It worked out great for us.”

Of course with Lemonheads shows come older crowds, the “secretary set” as Grubb refers to them, which are a far cry from the scruffy Williamsburg hipsters for whom VietNam is used to playing at home.

Based on the band members’ appearances, it would be easy to mistake VietNam — Grubb, singer and guitarist Michael Gerner, drummer Mike Foss and bassist Ivan Berko — for hippies rather than kids who grew up on punk. That’s ironic, considering they came about during the heyday of Brooklyn’s post-punk and electroclash craze and were inevitably thrown onto bills that weren’t quite appropriate for the band’s “stripped down, electric city blues,” as Grubb calls it.

The band has since amassed a devoted following of friends and fans, packing shows that make them feel comfortable rather than out of place, and playing alongside marquee acts like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Fiery Furnaces, as well as local favorites like Psychic Ills and Blood on the Wall.

Yet VietNam has a highly accessible, classic rock ’n’ roll sound.

“Our music’s pretty straight ahead,” said Grubb. “It’s not so weird that most people can’t understand it, like Gang Gang Dance or something. So far people have been really into it.”

Over the years, VietNam’s gone through plenty of lineup changes and called numerous cities home before settling down in Williamsburg in 2002, when Vice Records gave them a deal for the EP that would be their first. The relationship with Vice soon went sour, and VietNam forged ahead on its own, recording a pricey album in 2005 with the financial support of Maroon 5 bass player Mickey Madden.

No labels seemed interested in the album until more than six months later when Manhattan-based label Kemado Records picked it up. The self-titled record finally hit shelves last month, drawing comparisons from Bob Dylan to Lou Reed to Spiritualized. Surprisingly, though, its release was somewhat anti-climactic for the band.

“The day the record came out was weird,” said Grubb. “It’d been so long in the making, I didn’t even have a real reaction. I’d have thought we’d be popping bottles of champagne or something, but it wasn’t as epic as I’d expected. We were definitely all excited, but everything leading up to it coming out was so much that we were all just sort of relieved more than anything.”

Next up for VietNam are three limited 12-inch EPs on Brooklyn label the Social Registry, which are slated for a Mar. 6 release.

At the moment, all four members still share a storefront apartment in Williamsburg. Grubb said they love living in New York because there are so many places to play and so many bands to play with, but they eventually might want to give some other cities a chance: “There are a lot of places we’d still like to try out because you get a different vibe anywhere you go. Who knows, maybe next we’ll end up in Little Rock.”

Devil’s haircuts

Luscious rock locks were around way before VietNam. Take a look at some of the best and brightest manes in rock and roll history.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper