It's tempting to draw comparisons when listening to a new band, to make pronouncements like: "Oh yeah, those guys remind me of so-and-so." You can't really do that with 54 Seconds, a lush pop band with a loose sound and a musicians' affinity for inviting famous friends like Ian Moore, Ephram Owens and Will Sexton on stage. In the past three months, the electronically ubiquitous band has created a grassroots following through online media and has bolstered that popularity with regular Monday night gigs at the Speakeasy, where most of the above cameos have occurred.

Though they've been together for more than two years, 54 Seconds seems to have come out of nowhere. Their fan base at Speakeasy is reaching cult status. Since December, their download-friendliness - if that's the word - has placed them in top categories on MP3.com and AustinMP3.com*. Last month, KLBJ radio station interviewed them and now occasionally plays songs like "Jaded," "It Got You Thinking," "Wanted" and "Strange Day." And a few local media pundits have drawn Fastball parallels, pointing to the fact that 54 Seconds is by no means a household name. And yet, the foursome has achieved buzz, a sense of impending success makes tongues wag.

The band doesn't have a manager or a recording contract. They don't draw standing room only crowds like The Scabs or Toni Price or the Sexton Brothers. And they don't have the history of cult long-timers like the Wannabes, the Meat Puppets or The Butthole Surfers. How is it, then, that singer/guitarist Spencer Gibb, keyboard/synth man Stewart Cochran, percussionist J.J. Johnson and bass player/pianist Glenn McGregor have copped a buzz?

Perhaps it's best to revert to ... comparison. For if comparisons are unavoidable, and they really are in what Gibb calls a "satanic" business, then consider the immortal croonage of Frank Sinatra: Like the defiant Ol' Blue Eyes, 54 Seconds is determined to do it their way. And for the purposes of making music without compromise, and getting it out to the great unwashed, their way seems to work.

"We've never really looked to be the next big thing," says Gibb, sitting on the patio of Shady Grove, his compadres huddled around, talking shop and dreams and bogus astrological attributes. "We don't want to be a trend... We've never really discussed the vision or the sound of the band. It just is what it is."

What, exactly, is it? Jokingly, the table at Shady Grove throws out possible definitions for 54 Seconds' "sound." Cochran: "We write happy love songs." (Right.) Johnson: "We're a rock band." (OK.) Gibb: "We're kind of like the Carpenters, but without Karen or Richard..." (Not.) McGregor: "Definitely on the darker side, but there is also a sense of hope." (True enough.)

In your humble hack's opinion, "it" falls into a nebulous non-category. 54 Seconds' music is ambient, lush, melancholy, large, characterized by unexpected chord progressions and strange, catchy hooks. The band is spacious, almost experimental - but not jangly, jazzy, noodley, or jammy. They have a pop-rock sensibility, but they don't evoke any particluar artist (the four do share a reverence for Neil Young, Mingus and Joni Mitchell).

The band's name is derived from a formula once offered by a potential manager. "We were meeting with several managers," Cochran recalls. "And one of them really liked our stuff but said he didn't think we'd go anywhere because of the scientifically proven fact that the perfect pop song had to arrive at the chorus within 54 seconds. We didn't end up hiring him."

Which leads to another refreshing fact about 54 Seconds. With SXSW coming on like a freight train, the band is gearing up like any other band, but they aren't jonesing for a big-label gig. Nor are they capitalizing on the fact that their lead singer is the son of Bee Gee Robin Gibb.

On the contrary, they say they're leery of recording contracts, and even more reluctant to discuss Spencer Gibb's famous father. "If my father were a famous welder, nobody would care," Gibb said. Band members say 54 Seconds downplay the Bee Gee link to avoid accusations of coat-tailing.

Underscoring their independent streak is the fact that 54 Seconds' music is self-produced at Gibb's studio in Austin and their EP is self-distributed at shows and over the net. What they do hope to gain from SXSW is a manager. London-based Mark Chapman takes care of business across the pond and Cochran says Chapman is lining up shows in France and England this summer.

But for their Thursday evening slot during SXSW, 54 Seconds will court management companies, not A&R reps. That's not to say the foursome wouldn't sign a recording contract, Gibb admits. If a label wanted them for their music - as it is - with no ifs or buts or just-do-more-of-this's, then of course they'd be interested. But the band doesn't expect that to happen, especially now, with the industry's shake-'em-up, ship-'em-out state.

Reflecting on the biz, Gibb explains his view with typical aplomb: "I wouldn't call it a cat-and-mouse game. I'd call it a fox hunt... It varies, who the cat is. But in terms of the fox hunt, it's always about the artist being put in a corner and slowly destroyed... I don't want to appear bitter or cynical, but I'm definitely a realist. It's like, these days, you're at someone else's mercy. It wasn't engineered to be that way. It wasn't always that way."

In the meantime, 54 Seconds plans to keep doing it... their way. Who knows, one day soon on some top-40 radio station, you might hear the band crooning "Jaded" or "Wanted" or one of the new tunes they're working on. If so, try counting the seconds before the chorus kicks in. Chances are, the count will be more than 54.

...Upcoming gigs: Friday and Monday at Speakeasy, Tuesday at the Mercury Club and March 16 at Speakeasy during SXSW. To hear them online, check bigjam.com, clubcastlive.com*, MP3.com, or AustinMP3.com*. For general info, log on to 54seconds.com.

Copyright © 2000, The Austin American-Statesman

*Webmaster's note: The websites Clubcastlive.com and AustinMP3.com no longer exist.