Things are coming together for The 88

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, April 26, 2007

The 88 got its name from the number of keys on a piano. It’s also the name of a song by the French Kicks that was familiar to the Los Angeles band.

But The 88 could just as well represent how long it took the group to start making serious headway with its career. That’s 88 as in the number of months – nearly 71/2 years.

That’s roughly how long The 88 had been together before recording “Kind of Light,” the debut CD the band self-released in 2003.

But lately, the group, which includes guitarist-singer Keith Slettedahl, pianist Adam Merrin, bassist Todd O’Keefe and drummer Anthony Zimmitti, has started making up for lost time.

The group’s second CD, “Over and Over,” arrived in fall 2005 and gave The 88 two CDs of sharply crafted, crisply played guitar pop in its catalog. The band has also amassed an impressive list of credits in television and film for a group that has yet to sign a record contract.

The band’s song “How Good It Can Be” is featured in the new movie “Lucky You” and was also used in an episode of the CBS show “Numb3rs.” The band’s cover of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” plays during the end credits of “Failure to Launch,” a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. The band has also written the theme song to the new Fox network show “Free Ride” and had music featured in the television shows “What About Brian,” “The OC” and “Men in Trees.”

Now The 88, which until last year had not toured outside of the western United States, is doing a run of West Coast dates.

For a band that has paid dues as long as The 88 has, it’s somehow fitting that the group has had to wait so long to build a presence beyond the West Coast.

The band was formed by high school friends Slettedahl and Merrin in the mid-1990s as the Freeloaders.

But the Freeloaders wouldn’t begin to resemble The 88 until 1998, when Slettedahl took over as primary songwriter and began turning out concise, exceptionally well crafted guitar pop songs rooted in the classic pop of the Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones.

“I think (before) it was a little bit more blues based,” Merrin said of the original Freeloaders sound. “Definitely Beatles-influenced stuff has always been there, them being one of our favorite groups. It was a little more jammy, especially when we played live with solos.”

Once Slettedahl started concentrating on songwriting, the songs came in bunches.

“There was probably a collection, a huge amount, probably 25 or 30 new songs within a couple of months,” Merrin said. “He was just on fire, writing every day. And they were all really good songs.”

Unfortunately, on other fronts things weren’t going so well. In particular, Slettedahl was in the throes of a drug problem, and by late summer 1998 the group had slid into a breakup.

Slettedahl and Merrin both decided to tend to their own lives and went through rehab. After about a year, a healthier and refocused Slettedahl and Merrin decided to give the band another try.

“We just needed some time apart, time to focus on ourselves and then we just realized there was no way we would never be able to not play together again,” Merrin said.

The band, still called the Freeloaders, went to work on “Kind of Light.” But before the project was finished, a recent addition to the band, guitarist Brandon Jay (who has since left), convinced the other band members that the Freeloaders name didn’t fit the character of the music. A new name – The 88 – was chosen.

The newly rechristened band quickly began gaining momentum once “Kind of Light” was released. The 88 began getting airplay on KCRW, Santa Monica’s popular and influential public radio station. Opportunities began to come the band’s way.

“A lot of the television and film business is here in L.A. I’m sure they heard us on the radio,” Merrin said. “And then we started getting some press, and so people found out about us through reading about it. I think one thing led to another.”

While “Kind of Light” was a strong debut, “Over and Over” is a more focused, highly entertaining effort.

The CD features several energetic and catchy pop rockers (“Hide Another Mistake,” “Battle Scar” and “All ‘Cause of You”) that showcase Slettedahl’s pliable vocals and tight instrumental arrangements that combine hooky guitar riffs and Merrin’s tasty keyboard colorings. Such songs are balanced by a few more restrained, but equally appealing tunes, such as “Head Cut Off” and “Coming Home.”

Merrin said he and his bandmates are focusing on the “Over and Over” CD in its current live set.

“(We) usually play most of the songs from ‘Over and Over’ and we’ve been throwing in about two or three from the first album,” he said.

The 88 performs Saturday in Seattle.