Ever since the release of their debut album “The Attic Tapes” in 2000, Lucero has played hard rock and roll with a back-road, loving country sound that you can only find in Memphis, Tenn.

The band have toured in North America for more then a decade. Upcoming shows include venues such as Riot Fest, the Majestic Theatre in Detroit, and The Loft in Lansing, Michigan. They will also headline the By The Seat of Your Pants tour, which travels from New York to California later this fall.

The Daily Egyptian talked to guitarist Brian Venable before Lucero comes to Hangar 9 on Friday as part of the Carbondale Rocks Revival Music Festival.

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Being from the competitive Memphis area, was it hard to break into the scene?

Memphis is a huge music scene that usually never makes it out of Memphis. That’s one of the amazing things, the quality of the bands that people start and few of them really leave Memphis. We are all friends looking at 16 years ago, which makes me feel real old, but that was the thing. We started out playing a few warehouse shows. Somebody from another band saw us and invited us to play with them at a beer club. I think that’s the big thing. They gave us a hand up.

Do you guys have any new studio music in the works recently?

Yes, for the last week or so we have been going down to the demo studio where we demoed the last few records, and we got four or five things that we are getting figured out. We still don’t know where we’re going with it or what we’re doing with it. We are just kind of throwing stuff on tape and seeing what we like and don’t like.

I noticed you guys are playing Riot Fest, which is coming up. Do you guys prefer playing festival style shows or smaller venues?

We like playing our own shows whether they’re big or small, of course. I think things like Riot Fest, Warped Tour and other shows that end in “Fest,” let you go see bands that you don’t normally get to see, or your other friends are playing … I like to play an appropriately timed show in the evening, somewhere inside with the people going crazy, but there’s something to be said about playing at 3:00 in the afternoon for 45 minutes then going and watching the Pixies. It’s how people get to see you. Festivals were not that big when I was a kid so it’s crazy to me. It’s crazy that you can go somewhere and see like 47 bands. Some of them you are excited about, some of them you might discover there.

You guys have released a number of albums over the years. Have you seen a progression in the band’s sound?

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We’re in an unusual situation in that a lot of bands that are in this situation haven’t been together as long, especially with all original members. We are very fortunate to be able to explore. I mean in the beginning we were just trying to find our sound. We didn’t know what Alt-Country was, but everyone else seemed to. As it goes along you learn to play better. You learn to play with each other. We wanted to make sad, slow waltz music because we were listening to a lot of Tom Waits and the Pogues and then all of a sudden we were like, “Man, we can make these rock records.” Then you discover things like, “Wait a minute, lets get the horns on something,” then all of a sudden you have a soul record.   Every record is a Lucero record, so it sort of has a similar sound, but naturally we get to progress every time we do something.

Chase Myers can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @chasemyers_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 273