Alternative has become a bad word. Anything alternative eventually becomes its own antithesis. But so far, no one has jumped on

the Naildrivers bandwagon. This up and coming college rock band has a unique sound that is, by definition, an alternative to homogenized household variety pop music.

Don’t be misled by the band’s name which suggests a bone-splintering, ear-drum blistering metal band. Their music is actually on the lighter side of alternative college rock. It’s keyboard and bass-heavy, with a lot of bubbling drum rolls underlying rich harmonies and oscillating melodies. They describe themselves as “R.E.M. meets The Cure at James Brown’s BBQ.”

The Naildrivers began in the fall of 1991, in Boulder, Colo. The band consists of Chet Harrison on bass and vocals, Keith Rabin on guitar and vocals, Scott Parsons on drums and percussion, and Aaran Porter on keyboards and vocals. After playing circuits in the ski resort towns of Aspen and Vail, they decided to take their show on the road.

So, in the spring of 1993, they sold their cars, invested in a 30-foot black R.V. and began touring the country. Eventually, they settled in Indianapolis and the Chesapeake area as their main fan bases.

“It’s hard to generate a following all over the country if you only play a place once a year,” Harrison said. “So we decided to pick two markets to hit on a regular basis.”

Since 1993, the band has toured constantly, stopping briefly to record three CDs and two videos.

Their third and most recent CD is Big Black Winnebago, after their original tour vehicle, which recently broke down. The band is scrambling

to find a new mode of transportation so they can finish their current tour.

This crisis doesn’t really phase the band, whose members are used to the life of fulltime rock ‘n’ roll.

“We do everything ourselves,” Harrison said. “We’ve got a management agency that we just started working with, but they’re really more like an advisory thing.”

Things have improved since the days of going “to the newest supermarkets in a town because they are always giving out free samples,” but the band still works hard to make it.

The Naildrivers have journeyed to Ames before and always want to come back, although it is out of their way. “It’s farther than we would really like to go,” Harrison said, “but our response there was incredible and we’d like to foster that.”