SOUTH BAY, LOS ANGELES: Vida's rehearsal space is down near the beach, in a garage on a dead end tucked away behind some apartments. There's a cool patio outside, with paintings and collages and weird hanging things, a couple of ancient American Martyrs flyers, a faded Stars and Stripes overhead-- that total South Bay hippie fading into punk into hippie thing. La Vida.

The song rumbling inside ceases and the door slides open. It's Bill the bass player-- pony tailed, goateed, a little stoned, maybe, or just a surfer. "Come on in, man-- we're playing some new shit!" Really comfortable space, this, a far cry from the gloomy beer stained bunkers that pass for rehearsal rooms in Hollywood. Great old couch, pillows, lots of cool carpeting against the walls, on the floor and ceiling. Loose wires, old gear stuffed in corners, stage paintings, a Bootsy poster, more odd things. Dez Cadena--ex-Black Flag, Red Cross, DC3 and a million other projects--offers a beer. The other lead guitarist, Tom Troccoli (Nig Heist, October Faction, Tom Troccoli's Dog, not to mention his years as an SST roadie) is going over a new tune with drummer George Hurley. By eighties levels, anyway, Hurley is a fucking superstar, being in the Minutemen, fer chrissakes, and Firehose; but he listens carefully as Trocolli explains. "The thing about Vida is the rhythm thing," Tom tells him, "if we just power through everything we're not Vida." George nods.

It's called "Sweet Repose II", and the tune needs a segue from "Sweet Repose", which you can hear on their great self-titled debut album on Blue Man Records (distributed nationally--check your cooler stores). It's one for the ladies, alright: Dez the crooner amid some almost funky rhythms and swirling guitars. Tom stops him to discuss some guitar passages, while Bill and George jam away on variations to the rhythm. George is much looser in rehearsal, experimenting with accents and fills. They all come back in together to play "Sweet Repose Parts I and II" back to back and it's some way cool stuff, beginning hard and urgent till it runs smack into a big stoned jolt of late sixties psychedelia; an echo of D. Boon, a hint of Zappa. Pretty remarkable for a bunch of old punks. "But I wasn't a punk" Bill says, "the American Martyrs were into U2 and the Smiths." Flashback to Dez screaming in front of Black Flag, George wailing away on those under sixty second songs, Tom playing stark naked to a bunch of outraged skins. "But playing with Vida has brought out some punk in me." He then takes the mike and belts out "Shit Or Get Off the Pot, NOW!", which begins on a relaxed jazzy feel and ends up a smart-assed pissed-off punk anthem, like something Red Cross would have done in their classic days if they'd really known how to play their instruments. Bill and Tom wrote it, and you can hear the old punk influences mixing with the more (shall we say) musical influences that is a big part of what Vida is all about.

The band came together very loosely a couple years ago, after the demise of Dez's long running DC3. Dez had known Bill--formerly a professional bicycle racer--for a while, and they started jamming over refreshments at Bill's place, working out some tunes that Dez, bandless for the first time in ages, was stuck with. Players came and went, but as they began to get a little more serious, Firehose suddenly called it quits and George Hurley became available. Having known each other since the creation (or the early SST days, anyway) the match-up of George and Dez was a natural. An early demo got into Tom Troccoli's hands. Troccoli had spent most of the past ten years holed up in the Pasadena City Library, battered and more than a little burned out after five years in the punk rock trenches. It had really seemed like war back then, people getting hurt, getting busted, dying.... He'd been avoiding gigs and playing, but this Vida tape really got to him. "You know that song "My Heart Is Half Full"-- that's the one that made me decide that Dez needed me in his band" Troccoli says. It's probably the best tune on the album, a pensive little rocker with something about it reminiscent of the late Rory Gallagher. And Troccoli's all over it, it's a little hard to imagine it without him. Still, Dez was a little hesitant, apparently, perhaps remembering that crazed Tom Troccoli's Dog album, or the long hair baiting the hardcore kids (and getting beaten for it) at the Black Flag gigs, or maybe wondering just what the hell he'd been doing shelving books for the better part of a decade.

But you could never tell now, though, as the band launches into another new one, "Attractions of Love", Troccoli shouting out the chord changes like an aerobics instructor. It falls apart and the band stops. "This is a fake blues number" he explains, "lotsa space." They start up again--"Nightmare City horses/on an empty stomach/searching for garages with ten lamps/no maybe eleven..."--talk about spaced.... Not the kind of thing you'd expect from George Hurley. "Don't be asking me about those lyrics now" he laughs, but does say they were written in '82 or '83. "I got a whole cigar box full of 'em, going way back." Hurley seems to have more input into this band than he's had in a long time--writing, singing. Since Dez plays drums around town (in Carnage Asada, among others) and George writes on guitar, have they ever considered switching off for a bit? Dez is non-committal. George laughs, "nobody ever wants me to play guitar in their band!" They play the song through this time. This is bar music for the weirdo crowd-- tight, well played and so sparse it would probably drive the Blues Society purists up the wall. It ought to be great live.

Vida must be seen live to be truly appreciated. No matter how much you like their CD, there is something about these guys in a club that is really special. Dez has become quite the frontman, a real smooth talking wise-ass ax-man who keeps up the patter between songs in a way that the more bombastically inclined DC3 never really allowed for (there's something about Mountain covers that kind of overwhelms a sense of humor...), while on one side of the stage Bill dances around with that ancient bass of his, and on the other Tom, fretting over tiny slip ups that noboby else can possibly notice, makes odd jokes, sings his heart out on back up and plays some really fine guitar. And of course, in the back is George Hurley, beating out those fast Vida rhythms, joining in on the harmonies, taking a couple lead vocals himself (first time since the Minutemen!), and removing his shirt as the girls sigh.... It all makes for a terrific club act that seems to really get the crowds stirred up. There was a show last New Year's Eve in Hollywood, that was only one of about a million other shows in town that night, and the turnout was, well, not great. People stood around drinking and smoking, watching the replay on TV of that stupid ball in Times Square, making feeble bleats on their noise makers and feeling a little silly in their funny hats, wondering where everybody was. Then Vida took the stage, and by the time they were halfway through their opener, the rollicking, seventies-sounding "Brother", those couple dozen people were screaming and dancing like a couple hundred. Maybe it was the booze, maybe it was the streamers, maybe it was the champagne being passed round and round. I think it was the sounds.

Back at the rehearsal, Dez launches into "Catfish" with some really fine fast picking. It's another great Dez tune, fitting in perfectly with the sound on the album. Then it's Tom's turn at the mike. For a guy that can outtalk the other three combined, he's a bit of an introvert when it's time to singing lead, hanging back a little. But he's got a great voice, sounding now a bit like, believe it or not, Jack Bruce. Of course he's the oldest of the bunch, with that "genuine, no lie, late sixties hippie bent" who had something of an epiphany on seeing the Minutemen for the first time. Still, the old hippie influences remained (remember the completely straight "Girl From North Country" on his Dog LP?), and this new tune is a great one. But then all these new tunes seem to hold together particularly well. "The songs on the album were pretty much ones that me and George had written ourselves, and then taught to the band as Vida formed. These new tunes are more band tunes, ideas we bring in and work out among ourselves as a band." Watching them develop the segue between the two parts of "Sweet Repose", a nifty little bridge that is more complex than it sounds to the casual listener, was a nice little example of this in action. Musical ideas that would leave many bands screaming (or simply staring dumbly) at one another are worked out with a kind of casual efficiency that normally only comes after having been together for years. The word "organic" comes to mind except that it's a little too hippie. Or "synchronicity", except that only assholes use that one.... Maybe it's just that Vida are a tight band whose roots in the old "South Bay" sound-attitude-lifestyle-experiences, from those incredibly violent punk shows to long, long jams on the beach, and all the endless touring and recording and shit jobs in between, seem to translate easily into some great, jamming, funny, passionate and a little strange rock'n'roll.

The band is packing up. Bill runs back into his room off the patio to watch the tail end of the World Series. George tears down his kit with his precious UFIP clang cymbals for the millionth time and loads up the van. Tom's on his way out the door to go all the way back to Pasadena. Dez takes a drag and talks about the old days, about Darby. They all start up about their gig at the worst little dump in Hollywood when old friends the Meat Puppets and Foo Fighters showed up and Pat Smear jumped on stage and started stomping on Dez's boxes and they had to push him off and what a hysterical time that was. Funny, when you think about, how Darby's dead and Pat Smear's a star now and after all these years Dez and George and Bill and long lost Tom have come together and are cranking out the killer tunes. What a crazy life this is....

Yeah, but that's what it's all about. The life. La Vida.