LOUD: Catching Up With …

"I was just looking at this thing, and it was a wall of noise, in terms of what we were playing and how the songs were being interpreted. I'd come with a song and then everybody would just do their own thing. I felt like the songs deserved more love than they were getting,” Damron, 43, explains. "And there were personal issues as well. I didn't feel like we were friends. After all this time together, it had never risen above just being a band and tolerating each other.”

Thee Loyal Bastards—which Damron describes as "more musical, more country ... it can get soft and be quiet”—feature some serious musical artillery: ex-Wipers drummer Sam Henry, former Eels bassist Alan Hunter and Drunken Prayer frontman Morgan Green on guitar. Damron expects the foursome to release its debut album late this summer.