It’s a sweltering summer’s evening and members of the local rockabilly-punk fusion band The Reztones are working up a sweat in the back bedroom of drummer Tommy Hardy’s midtown Tucson home.
Surrounded by “Star Wars” models and action figures, one of Hardy’s favorite movies, the group has the room shaking harder than a Memphis nightclub, while 3D prints of Chewbacca, R2-D2 and Princess Leia watch on.
It’s not exactly your classic rockabilly sound, said Reztones frontman Wallace Book.
“I’d say we play psychobilly,” Book said. “Although it is complicated to fit our music in a specific genre. We like to do something different. Rockabilly is very much … Elvis, Johnny Cash, retro. Our music is more punk, very much dark, like the horror movie ’50-’60s genre.”
The band also incorporates elements of the Navajo language into their music. Book and guitar player Chris Yazzie both hail from the Navajo Nation.
“We put small Navajo words in a few songs as reference to whatever the song is about,” Book said.
Music fans can determine the sound for themselves when the band plays Che’s Lounge, 350 N. Fourth Ave., on Saturday, Aug. 6.
The bar is hosting Bob Fest, a fundraiser for Bob Friel, a longtime patron, who is recovering from a recent stroke.
Musical influences
The Reztones is one of the younger bands in the lineup, having formed in 2019, but its members have long loved music.
Book said rockabilly made an impact on him at an early age.
“Classic rockabilly was always a part of my household,” he said. “Many Navajo people listen to KTNN radio on the reservation. They would play classic Sun Records songs.”
His dad’s record collection, covering a wide swath of artists, including Bob Marley, The Police, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, The English Beat and The Specials, also influenced his musical tastes — as did his early days in Tucson.
“Psychobilly came into my life in the early 2000s, when I first heard Nekromantix and Zombie Ghost Train, but I didn't experience it live until I moved to Tucson in 2009 when I saw The Last Call Brawlers at the Surly Wench,” Book said.
Hardy, who is originally from Maryland but has lived in Tucson since 1995, started playing bass in high school. He was in a band called Pasta Rocket in the early 2000s that was fairly well-known locally, he said.
Hardy said he and Wallace started jamming together in 2016, “playing Tom Petty songs, Beatles, ‘Twilight Zone’.”
When they decided to form the Reztones three years later, after their original guitarist left for personal reasons, they looked to Yazzie to help round out the group.
Yazzie, who is working on his Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University of Arizona, learned to play guitar when he was 6 or 7. He performed in punk bands in the California Bay Area, but had been out of the scene for a decade when Book reached out to him.
“I was bored and I posted some videos on Instagram,” said Yazzie, who knew Book from singing karaoke together. “Wallace saw them and asked me if I wanted to join.”
The last member of group, Robert Bailey, is the new kid in town; he recently moved to Tucson from Ozark, Missouri.
“I met up with these guys just from liking their band,” Bailey said. “I stumbled across them playing shows. I spent years working as a session musician and they needed an extra member. Now we are on the fourth show together and they haven’t fired me yet.”
Bailey, who plays the upright bass, jokes about the fact that none of the members is playing the instrument they play best.
“I’m a bassist,” said Book, the singer.
“I think I’m not really good at anything,” Hardy joked. “Sometimes we switch instruments during our rehearsal. We are thinking about doing that in a gig in the future.”
Name recognition
The pandemic hit just as The Reztones were getting started. The band formed in 2019, but didn’t do their first show until 2020 — with a different guitar player — one week before everything was shut down.
Still, over the past two years, the group has managed to play with some notable groups in the genre, including The Meteors, Nekromantix, Delta Bummers and Three Back Jacks.
“There’s a festival in Las Vegas, the Viva Las Vegas, where we go every year,” Book said. “This past time a lot of people recognized us. It was surreal. A lot of those famous guys recognized me and knew who I was. That has been really humbling. To have idols that know you and appreciate you, it’s really unbelievable.”
Not every show is perfect: strings can break; voices get raw and raspy; but the band has learned to navigate through these small hardships.
“Every show we just bring all that we have, all our energy and passion,” Book said. “We like to have a good time, show our positivity and our stage presence.”
The Reztones have a new album in the works, “Custer Had it Coming,” tentatively due out in August.
They are also talking about playing more outside of Arizona, but “you have to figure out gas money,” Hardy said. “You gotta save money to tour. You don’t make money with a tour.”
Bob Fest starts at 6 p.m. at Che’s Lounge, 350 N. Fourth Ave with a lineup that includes Greyhound Soul, B Cinco, Leila Lopez and The Brian Green Machine, The Demons and Pork Torta. Admission is free.
Follow The Reztones on facebook.com/thereztones or thereztones.com.
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