With Beatles sound, band beats system

Locksley lacks label, not moxie

Jesse Laz (left, with Sam Bair, Jordan Laz, and Kai Kennedy) says that while some major-label bands are unhappy, ''here we are, self-released and happy as clams.''

As a teenager growing up in Wisconsin during the late '90s, Jesse Laz heard only mainstream rock bands like Third Eye Blind or punk-pop outfits like Blink-182 when he turned on the radio.

"They sounded very professional," Laz, now 25, recalls. "It wasn't really exciting." What was exciting was his parents' stash of records that he had been listening to since, well, forever - specifically early Beatles albums like "A Hard Day's Night" and "With the Beatles."

"I don't remember a time when I didn't know Beatles songs," says Laz, who learned how to play guitar by practicing chords from a book of Fab Four guitar tablature. "I'm sure it was when my mom was pregnant with me, but even then, she probably had headphones on her belly."

Small wonder, then, that Laz sings not unlike a young John Lennon and plays rhythm guitar with Locksley, a fast-rising Brooklyn quartet, whose debut album, "Don't Make Me Wait," just happens to sound an awful lot like the revved-up, mop-top-era Beatles. (The band isn't, apparently, counting as an official debut its self-produced and long-out-of-print 2004 collection, "Safely From the City").

With 15 vivacious tracks clocking in at a mere 39 minutes, "Don't Make Me Wait" doesn't loiter or linger. Starting with the boisterous, pogoing rhythm that drives the opening title track, the album sounds like a little band in an exuberant hurry to get big.

If recent circumstances are any barometer - opening for the Plain White T's and the Dandy Warhols; touring with the Rapture and the Hives; co-headlining posh launch parties with the Bravery - Locksley just might get its wish. Tonight, the boys will kick off a monthlong national tour in conjunction with MTV's Choose or Lose voter-registration campaign, with a headlining slot at Café 939. As heady a buzz as it's been, Laz claims the past year has been as much about hard work as hot lights.

"It's funny - it's like when you have a birthday and people ask, 'How does it feel to be another year older?' and it feels just like it did yesterday," Laz says. "When we first got here [moving to New York], we did tons of promotion. It's not like we get to just hang out and play. Even with this tour, we're freaking out and hoping we can get people out to these shows because we've never done a headlining tour before. There's no guarantee."

The band may not have a guarantee of success, but one thing it is not lacking is moxie. Locksley - named after the "Robin of Locksley" (a.k.a. "Robin Hood") story - isn't exactly looking to rob the rich. But it will take their money if it can. The group initially self-released "Don't Make Me Wait" last year, hit the road, and hustled, playing for anybody who cared to hear them. They auditioned for MTV (which is, in large part, how they got the Choose or Lose gig), and, like most do-it-yourself stealth operations, rounded up street teams to help get the word out. Then, when the band's bass player suddenly quit, Jesse enlisted his elated 18-year-old brother, Jordan, as a replacement. Never mind that Jordan was a drummer, not a bassist.

Even though the band remains unsigned, its debut (which was recently rereleased with two bonus tracks and new artwork) is being nationally distributed through Fontana. "We're hungry and we're doing something we really believe in, so it's exciting," says Jesse Laz. "A lot of times we'll talk to other bands on big labels who are really unhappy, and here we are, self-released and happy as clams. Everything seems to be coming together.

"I don't want to give the wrong idea - it's not like we've written off major labels or anything," he clarifies. "If we found a good match in a partner, we'd be really excited. But to me the most important thing is, do they believe in you? Do they like you? I think the biggest problem is that they're not signing bands that they like, necessarily. It's based on who they think they can make money with. Major labels can blame downloading all they want. But I think part of [declining album sales] has to do with the fact that they're not putting out stuff that people want to hear."

"Don't Make Me Wait" is so improbably impressive because of how fresh and full of vitality something this unabashedly retro can sound. Ultimately, what makes Locksley so good isn't that they tap so believably into a British Invasion vibe. It's that they've got a batch of superbly catchy songs to back up the pose. Instead of sounding haplessly out of their time, they sound right on it.

"I actually think it's the perfect time to be doing this," Laz says. "It's funny to think about, because now what we do is considered very poppy. But if we were doing this back in the early '60s, with the faster tempos and the harder guitars that we have, I think it would have been considered revolutionary."