Jeff Nelson describes his band as a cross between “The Brady Bunch” and Fishbone.

There truly is no description for the eight-piece mega energy of 3 Minute Hero, which mixes anything from punk to funk over a bed of ska and adds enthusiasm for flavor.

3 Minute Hero formed three years ago in Fargo, N.D., taking its name from a song off of “some old ska band’s album” (namely 2-Tone band The Selecter).

The “collective,” as they lovingly refer to themselves, all left college to pursue their interest in music. Back then Nelson had two goals.

“I wanted to get signed to Moon Ska Records and get a CD out,” he said.

Nelson and company only met one of his goals. In 1997, the band released its debut album “Bingo” on Barking Dog Records.

Now in its third pressing, the album has hit college radio charts throughout the Midwest, and the band recently released its sophomore effort “Everyday Ninjas.”

“Doing CDs is great,” Nelson said. “It’s like sex except with music, but you can keep doing it until you get it perfect, and it doesn’t taste like bacon.”

Excluding pork, “Everyday Ninjas” encompasses a wide array of themes, ranging from “The Dukes of Hazzard” to “The X-Files,” and even girls addicted to blender drinks. Nelson insists that every song has an inference to “Dante’s Inferno” in some way.

The concept of behaving like ninjas came from the result of heavy touring.

“Once we started touring, we had a whole new mentality. It was so new to us, and we weren’t used to that or seeing new people,” Nelson said. “We are like ninjas now. We rise up at night, survive on a minimal diet of grains, attack fiercely and then leave,” he added.

The influences of the band come from far corners of the spectrum. Saxophonist Paul Gronert is into funk, trombonist Eric Johnson prefers jazz and drummer/teen mag fodder Jonathon TeBeest likes Kiss. Nelson himself has mentors that include Fat Elvis, ABBA, David Lee Roth and James Brown.

With such a wide influx of tastes breaching the band’s borders, the question arises of just who 3 Minute Hero compares to. Nelson is stumped when he tries to think of a group.

“I guess it’s a good thing I can’t,” he said. “If you can’t compare yourself to anyone, you must be doing something special.”

Nelson is stumped again when trying to classify his band into a specific genre. After a short, yet fierce, inner struggle, he had it.

“Soft-core porn rock … no, hard-core porn rock,” he said.

“Bootie-shaking groove tunes,” his slightly more inhibited bandmate, Gronert, piped in.

No matter what you call it, it’s awesome to hear.

The band is known for its tightly honed sets of blasting horn sections and blazing guitars while band members run around rubbing each other’s tummies.

3 Minute Hero will play anything from album originals to covers of songs by Twisted Sister or Van Morrison, and the band does it like no other. The eclectic display of musicianship and comedy combine for one kicking show.

Nelson got his start as a musician in fourth grade when he was forced to take trombone lessons. His love was sports, but the Fates changed all of that.

“I wanted to be a big, bad ass football player. Then I got injured. Then came marching band,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize that marching band is more violent. You play really loud and hurt all those little instruments.”

Eventually Nelson reached college, only to drop out right before his student-teaching gig to follow more promising dreams.

“I was either going to be a teacher or a slave-wage rock star,” he said.

Nelson’s plans to become an English teacher wasn’t a waste, though, as can be seen in his intelligent, comical and surreal lyricism.

On “Valentine’s Day,” Nelson takes a strange look at love when he sings, “Valentine’s Day always makes me want to shoot up/Valentine’s Day always makes me want to shoot up your car, your house, your stereo.”

Another lyrical masterpiece is “Big Porch.” Nelson yearns for a life of simplicity including him, his porch, a six pack and his wife. His big porch will be the envy of all the neighbors and will have him insanely retorting, “God save the king, his majesty, the inbred cricket bat.”

The “collective,” a name inspired by Star Trek’s Borg, decided unanimously that leaving college behind was the best thing for them. Nelson said he learned valuable lessons in college, but he doesn’t miss it that much.

“One thing it taught me is if you jump in feet-first and go all the way, you can do something,” he said. “The only thing I miss, I guess, would be filling my backpack with cereal at the cafeteria.”

Now the band is out on the road on one of the heaviest tours it has done to date. All eight members travel around on a big “glamorous” bus that Nelson said has a happy history to it.

“We won our bus at a battle of the bands in Minnesota,” Nelson recalled. “We had been playing four weeks straight, and on the final night, I tore every ligament in my knee when I slipped on a cord.”

That performance won the band its means of travel and earned 3 Minute Hero a reputation of having one of the wildest and craziest shows around.

“We’re not violent crazy, just stupid crazy,” Nelson explained. “We have a lot of little problems that just aren’t good for one of us, but are good for the ‘collective’ as a whole.”

Nelson said that his band uses “bells, whistles, lights and magic, and a whole lot of fun” to produce its show — and has ninth band member, Rob Graff, to thank for it.

“Rob is a technical wizard. He is definitely a member of the band. He runs all of our sound, all of our lights and keeps everything else running as well. In fact, right now he’s working on the bus,” Nelson joked. “He’s like our mother.”

Being on the road has had a lot of adverse effects on the band, besides boosting its popularity.

One change is that none of the band members get to see their girlfriends anymore. More importantly, Nelson said he can identify each member by his scent. All he has to do is take a whiff and, disgustingly enough, know who is sitting by him without opening his eyes.

“We’re kind of like a scary fraternity now,” Nelson said. “Actually, a better description is that we are always going to camp, but never quite getting there. That’s the perfect summation of our lives right now.”

Thanks to touring, Nelson and his cohorts are finally starting to get rolling. The band has played throughout the Midwest, giving the group a chance to spread its joy to all of the Corn Belt’s inhabitants.

“Paul likes to blow bubbles out the window of the bus when we travel through small towns,” Nelson explained. “It’s our way of spreading joy to the people.”

3 Minute Hero is also recruiting roadies, Nelson said, “so if anyone out there wants to drop out of college and join a smelly, cool band — go for it.”

So the joy-spreading tour of 3 Minute Hero goes on. What will happen next is anyone’s guess, but it’s not keeping Nelson from setting ambitions.

His goal for now: “Total, complete world domination. Then maybe I’ll go back to college.”

3 Minute Hero plays tonight at People’s Bar and Grill at 9:30.