Bent Scepters frontman Doug Roberson likes to live by the words of Frank Sinatra and his beloved Rat Pack.

“You gotta love livin’ ’cause dyin’s a pain in the ass,” Roberson said, imitating Sinatra’s voice.

And like Sinatra, Iowa City’s Bent Scepters like to party it up and sing about “cars, booze, broads and kicks,” things that Roberson said aren’t serious matters.

Making quality music is the band’s first priority, and having a blast doing it is just thick icing on the cake.

“We want the music to be good,” he said, vowing that he doesn’t want to compromise the music solely for the purpose of being entertaining.

When the Scepters play bars, Roberson hopes their lively shows are a form of “escape” to concertgoers who will cast off the fetters of everyday life and unleash their grooving sides.

Roberson described his band in a 1995 interview with the Dubuque Telegraph Herald as the “self-appointed ambassadors of garage rock.” His opinion hasn’t wavered since then.

He explained that people share the misconception that garage rock is synonymous with unrefined and unprofessional music.

“Most people nowadays think garage rock is crummy rock,” he said.

Punk rock as we know it today in America got its humble beginnings in garages around the country.

Though the group doesn’t play in a lot of garages, it tours, plays festivals and at benefits in its hometown.

The strangest benefit concert the Bent Scepters played was for two Iowa City women who were trying unsuccessfully to get loans from local banks in order to build a hair salon.

Although he concedes that the Scepters’ music isn’t paving new territory in today’s musical realm, he did say the group’s music might “seem fresh to younger kids” who haven’t experienced artists like Link Wray and The Ventures.

Garage rocking forerunners Wray and the Sonics and Rocket From the Crypt, a relative newcomer to the scene, are the Scepters’ biggest influences.

Some of the band’s live concerts even resemble shows from the bygone era of garage rock. Roberson said female audience members have jumped on stage and started go-go dancing.

“We’re fairly animated on stage,” he said, adding that the band’s shows are conducive to making people “jump around.”

In the summer of 1996, the Scepters played Chapel Hill, N.C.’s garage rock festival “Sleazefest.” Evidently the festival lives up to its raunchy name — Roberson said there are a lot of females dancing in cages in the buff and participating in other freakish activities.

“The sleaze factor is encouraged … and people’s clothes tended to come off,” he said.

Speaking of garb, in the early and mid-’90s the band was known for wearing matching suits or similar racing jackets, which Roberson said was common among early garage bands. In the past couple years, the band has strayed away from the practice of dressing alike for every show.

“We like to dress up,” he said, but it has lost its novelty to the band and concertgoers due to many popular bands today — namely ska and swing bands — wearing matching suits.

The band has cranked out two full-length CDs, a cassette and various seven-inch vinyl albums since its inception in 1991. In 1996, the Scepters released “Blind Date With Destiny” on its own Prescription Records.

Hollywood label Bizarre Planet signed the band and re-released the first album with new artwork, packaging and eight new songs in the fall of 1997.

The band has made plans to put out a new album in the near future, to be released on Ginger Records, a label owned by a friend of Roberson.

Old Blue Eyes said it best with his “you gotta love livin'” quote. The Bent Scepters are wrapped around it.

The Bent Scepters play with The Glenmont Popes Friday at 9 p.m. at The M-Shop. Tickets are $4 for students and $5 general admission and are available at Ticketmaster outlets.