Grain USA loved its crowds. One Valentine’s Day, the former Ames band handed out Valentine’s Day cards to everyone who walked into the club where the band was playing.

Two songs into Grain USA’s set, frontman Lee Bellon announced that someone in the audience was holding a special card that made him the winner of a Valentine’s Day surprise.

The lucky concert-goer walked away with a half-eaten box of chocolates, an old sweater and a jar of Vaseline.

That was the way the Ames music scene used to be, Bellon said from his new home in Union City, Calif. Everybody knew each other. Everybody had a band.

“It was more like being at a party with all of your friends than playing a show,” Bellon said. “We never worried about being professional. As long as we were having a good time it didn’t matter.”

Grain USA spent a surprising four years playing the Ames club circuit, sharing the stage with such national acts as Filter, Archers of Loaf, Helmet, Poster Children, Superchunk and Sun 60, yet Bellow said the band never took its music seriously.

A former music critic for the Iowa State Daily once wrote, “Bellon took his guitar off twice in the song, indicating his wish for it to be over, and exclaimed when it was done, ‘Sorry, that’s our worst song.'”

Grain USA was also known for the song “Open Mic,” which featured Bellon bringing a crowd member (usually a musician from another band) on stage to provide impromptu lyrics.

“It was always kind of a joke,” Bellon said. “Most bands today are on the professional tip. We were all in the design college, so we were coming from the artistic end.”

But not even on-stage self-mockery could keep Grain USA from garnering national attention.

After appearances at South By Southwest (one of 450 chosen from 9,000 applicants) and the TicketMaster showcase (one of 200 chosen from 10,000 applicants), Grain USA was approached by Capitol Records and Warner Brothers.

“We didn’t say no, we just said this is how it has to be,” Bellon said. “We weren’t interested in being a major label’s token indie band. That didn’t sound fun to us.”

Grain USA formed in 1992 when Bellow suckered some of his friends into playing the music he had been writing since he was 12 years old.

Originally known as Grain, the trio added the USA after learning that five other Grains existed in different parts of the country.

“We wanted a simple Midwestern word,” Bellon said. “We were always true to being a Midwestern band — we wanted to pride ourselves on that. Every other band was tacking either Super in front of their name or UK after, and we didn’t want to be Supergrain.”

A few days after the band changed its name, Bellon received a phone call from former Uncle Tupelo frontman Jay Farrar asking if he could buy the rights to the name Grain.

“I told him that we had just changed ours because there were five others,” Bellon said. “So he decided on Son Volt.”

Grain USA’s original drummer Nathan Japel and bassist Tom Glorfield graduated from Iowa State in 1994 and were replaced by drummer Jack Smrekar and bassist Brian Buhman.

“I have always played with friends so it was always fun to be on stage with them,” Bellon said.

Friendships also blossomed between Grain USA and members of other local bands, which eventually led to the formation of the Ames Independent Music Society.

“People pooled their efforts,” Bellon said. “We couldn’t afford to release our own CDs, so we did the ‘AIMS Compilation’ and it gave everyone a chance.

“I think the feeling of most of the local bands was that music was part of their life, but it wasn’t their entire life,” Bellon said. “We were all more doing it for fun, which tends to make music more enjoyable.

“Ames had such a rich scene back then, it’s too bad that it can’t be documented. In a college town, people just aren’t there long enough for it to be remembered,” Bellon said.

Bellon once described Grain USA as a “breath of fresh catchy power pop in a time of hardcore metal and gargled grunge.”

In his final days in Ames, Bellon began writing less punky, more poppy material, which once again placed him on a national pedestal.

“A lot of indie labels are interested in the new direction I am taking,” Bellon said. “Before I moved, we recorded 14 songs that represent the past two years since our last release. I was going to self-release it, but I’ve had some interest from a few labels, so I’m kind of holding out.”

Grain USA released three 7″ E.P.s and one 6-song demo cassette while the band was together, none of which are still available.

Bellon said, however, that copies of the “AIMS Compilation” can be found at most radio stations and some used CD stores around Iowa.