10w40. It’s a motor oil. It’s a band. It’s a lubricant. IT’S ROCK AND ROLL, AND IT DOESN’T COME IN A SPRAY CAN. It’s proof that music transcends all boundaries. It’s a drummer from Texas, a DJ from New Jersey, a songwriter from the Minnesota northwoods, a bass player from a previous generation, and a trombonist from a distant planet. It’s been underground, it’s been decomposing for millennia, and it stinks. Now it’s ready. If you can dig, you can strike gold. Black gold, that is.

Like the oil, 10w-40’s sound is greasy – and like getting your hands into a car’s engine, a 10w-40 show will leave dark stains on your palms and dirt under your nails. Begun in 1998, and originally comprised of different members (with the exception of Edlund and Michels, the founders), 10w-40 went through a number of local players (ex-Magnolias Tom Lischmann, Best Fight Story Chad Johnson, Sam O’Steen, ex-Youngers Joe Habiger, You and Whose Army Jon Schrader, etc.) only to fold in July of 2000. After a year and a half hiatus and Edlund’s chosen departure from another band, Jake Wisti and The Centurions, Edlund called Michels and proposed that the band reform with new players, new songs and a new sound. Concerning this “sound,” the band’s frenetic guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, James Edlund, qualifies it in the following: “One minute we might be in a drum and bass or Philadelphia kind of hip-hop groove and the next minute it’s free jazz, scorching blues, or math rock. It’s like ADHD or something...none of us can stay in one style or idiom too long. Marose calls it pornojazz, and Hinton says felonious punk, but I call it it humpabilly.”

James “Scab” Edlund, songwriter, vocals, multi-instrumentalist, and lead harp felon, has performed locally with Jake Wisti and the Centurions, Ted Vig (uptown guitar guru/former bandmate of Jason Keillor in Coolidge Effect), Andy Miller (bassist/Big Wu), J.J.’s Zydeco Paydirt, The Youngers, etc., besides laying down guitar, piano, and harmonica on various albums in the past five years. When asked about his music and his influences, Edlund remarked, “Everyone I’ve ever heard. Now, I’d rather talk about fishing. I enjoy any discourse of rivers, fish and fishing. Actually, I stole that from Izaak Walton.”

Bassist Jim Michels has performed with various ensembles throughout his twenty-plus years, including blue-black dyed Sonny Vincent -- which was once confused as the band Skinny Puppy when touring through Milwaukee – Bob Stinson’s Shotgun Rationale, Go Great Guns (w/ Tom Cook), The Mixers (also w/ Tom Cook), Three Below (w/ Paul Holland of SupaFuzz,) Armed and Hammered (with Sam O’Steen, Gwar collaborator), Hut Hut Hike, Nude Lipstick, and The Fragments. Although not easy for bassists this side of Jaco Pastorius, Michels has own unique style and sound. Tuning the bass down two whole steps on all strings (EADGAE becomes CFBbEbFC), Michels is perpetually in that subterranean rumble that taxes loudspeakers and hits people in the chest.

Mike Hinton, the band’s drummer, is a transplant from Michigan (by way of Texas) who recently moved to Minneapolis. A former member of the band Blank (project of Todd Mikkelson, co-owner of Unknown Alloy Studios, guitarist/keyboardist, Fixx of Seagulls, Emmaline Muchmore), Hinton is highly sought after for studio session work. Hinton is not only an accomplished drummer, but a very facile pianist, damned good golfer, student of Japanese, and fantastic beer drinker. His lefty slings from downtown stink like Bob Cousy. Also a member of Brian Nelson and His Sideswipers, Hinton is all about makin’ music.

Chris Marose, turntablist and Jersey native, relocated to the Midway area of St. Paul in May of 2001 to “get out of the tri-state area” and try something new. Influenced by QBert (whom he considers the “God of scratching”) and dub pioneer Scientist, Marose, at a precocious 21, is an extremely proficient and remarkable DJ. Equally adept and drum ‘n’ bass and jungle, his style also shows a healthy understanding of hip-hop. Proficient at beat-matching and straight-up pattern scratching, Marose is also a master of playing sub-bass melody lines with the pitch control, a technique that recalls DJ Hurricane and Mixmaster Mike at their best.

Trombonist Zach Zins is a forensic psychologist who moonlights as 10w-40’s chief “brasshole”. When he’s not performing, Zins and his Olympian liver can be found playing b-ball or drinking rare Slavic beers. Zins, besides having his parents’ acid-induced idea of a name (Zachary Zephyr Zins), is perhaps the best solo dancer in the world. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about his epileptic Bill Cosby crack spasms