Being "cool" has become as difficult a term to describe as it is to keep up with. By being being tossed around in limitless quantities like head lice, adequately pinpointing the popular definition of "cool" is perplexing -- it means something unique to every social subset, and something entirely different to each individual. All of which make Rocket From the Crypt such an enigma: How have they managed to stay "cool" in an era when being thus is nearly impossible to define?

In his black T-shirt, greaser's hair and slightly chubby singer's body, Speedo (a k a John Reis) looks every bit the personification of cool. "It's just as simple as having fun," Rocket's leading lad says, explaining their unfaltering hipness. "Sounding good, playing well, having fun." Since the band's modest beginnings in San Diego, circa 1990, that's the APB RFTC have been sending out. Their unique brand of "punk" (another term that has lost all meaning), replete with horns, matching outfits, and a bucketful of attitude, has earned them thousands of fans, many of whom pledge allegiance to the rock & roll tinkerings of RFTC by branding themselves with the Rocket insignia (which is, in fact, a rocket). But what really draws people to Rocket is their old-school sense of "cool," their originality, and their unwavering attitude toward their craft, not their image or their popularity.

"Getting radio play and mainstream popularity is definitely not important, it's not our goal," says Speedo. "It should be enough success on any level that we made a great record, and can play 200 kick-ass shows in a year."

The record in reference, RFTC, their fourth proper, full-length release, raises Rocket's cool-factor one notch. Rather than opting for the "Wall of Sound" effect that Speedo went for on 1996's Scream, Dracula, Scream, they hired producer Kevin Shirley (Journey, Supertramp) to strip the sound down to basics. His mainstream production credits, most notably Aerosmith's "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)," were never a deterrent.

"If anything, [Kevin] helped keep it a lot rougher than we would have," says Speedo. "He wanted to do the whole thing live."

The result is a smooth, horn-laden, Fifties' dance-hall, party sensability that is a throw-back to Rocket days of yore. "It's pretty slick, and it's pretty easy on the ears," comments Speedo. "What I mean by that is, everything sounds really loud, but it's appealing -- no shreiking. On the last album, we did stuff that was over-the-top, and we made a huge, dense wall of rock & roll. We took the bricks and kept piling 'em up, piling 'em up, and we went for a density and a velocity that would be unmatched. This record is like, two guitars, bass, drums, horns, everybody on the record singing. It's got a live feel."

Rocket's love for the rawness of a live sound, their disinterest in mainstream popularity, and their attitude-laden brand of rock, all revert back to that Fifties' sense of "cool." In their flammable shirts, with their flammable hair, and steeped in their bad-boy attitudes, Rocket are reminiscent of the T-shirt-and-jeans-wearing, leather-clad hipsters of 1950's America. Rocket From the Crypt would do Brando proud.

HEIDI SHERMAN

RFTC listening party
9:00 p.m. (EST), Monday, June 1
Take me there...NOW!