A long way from the land of dixie and a couple hours northwest of Los Angeles sits Bakersfield, Calif. Bakersfield might be home to a more steadfast world of oil wells and refineries, but it is also the home base for Buck Owens and his Buckaroos, Merle Haggard, Gram Parsons and that tuned up twang that is the definition of the Bakersfield sound.

Speedbuggy makes it their duty to carry on that twang, blending their love for their country heroes with a spark of punk rock ingenuity and sweating it out with their work-horse ethic for the past two decades.  During that time, Timbo and company have been crisscrossing between both coasts and  all over Europe, introducing crowds to their own blend of country, punk and rock and roll. This week they'll be bringing their sound back to NYC, Thursday at Spike Hill in Williamsburg, and Friday at the Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan, with New York-based singer, Kara Suzanne.

DW: You guys started off as a punk outfit? How did ya'll get your country sound out of that?

Timbo: We started out more into cowpunk, we had one of the guys from NOFX playing with us back then. We were mixing country and punk rock and we ended up touring with other punk bands like Bad Religion and the Circle Jerks- then we just ended up saying fuck it, let's play country.

Over the next four years we started getting further away from punk rock and eventually weeded it all out and became full country. I guess the good thing about SoCal, bands move in and out of punk rock and into using  different style, bands getting into their roots and playing rockabilly,  and sometimes even psychobilly. The music is always evolving out there.

DW: How have your fans evolved with you? 

Timbo: We have a lot of loyal fans that have evolved with us as we continue to play, moving on, and rediscovering that sound they may have grown up with. Over the years, we've gained a whole new country fan base. The New York City fans are real curious about what we are doing and what the hell's going on out there. They sure don't hear a lot of that Bakersfield sound out here (laughs).

DW: You guys have toured across Europe and the U.S. How are the crowds different?

Timbo: The fans are more welcoming in Europe (laughs), we get invited to play rockabilly and rock and roll shows. We've even played some festivals where it was an all metal lineup. We've played on stages with bands like Hanoi Rocks, Twisted Sister. We show up in cowboy gear and do what we do, and it seems to go good over there. They just want to hear music, no matter what. And after this next record, we'll be playing Europe again.

DW: How often do you guys play NYC? Are there any particular places in NYC that you guys like to visit when you're here?

Timbo: We've been playing NYC a lot more in the last few years. We've played with the full band here before, but this time around we're playing a couple acoustic shows. After this record, we'll come back to play shows with the full band. Our pedal steel player lives in Brooklyn now, so I'm sure we'll play more shows here (laughs). Before we've played Pete's Candy Store, and we really like it there, we've had a good time. The same for the National Underground. We're looking forward to the Spike Hill show this time around. Honestly, we don't do much but hang around the venues, drink at some of the local bars. We like to go to the local guitar shops and come up with a dream list if we had more money(laughs).

And of course it's always an adventure getting around on the Subway.

DW: So after the tour, what are your next plans?

Timbo: We're recording a new album now, and we're focusing more on bringing the Bakersfield sound out more. Stuff like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, bringing out the whole Fender sound. The bands a mix of people who grew up all over and moved out to California and ended up embracing that California country sound. The term twang originated here in C-A, with the way the surfers played their Fender guitars, they got a lot of twang.  

On this record we want to write about the West, drive the lyrics to about what the West is for us. Before it was more all about the backwoods of Louisiana (where Timbo grew up), and maybe one or two songs about the west coast. Now we are out here doing our own twist on that sound of country. I moved out here to this boarded up town, and went to working construction on Buck Owen's movie sets. This record is going to be going through that and also about where we are now. 

Speedbuggy will be playing September 1 at Spike Hill in Brooklyn and September 2nd at Rockwood Music Hall in Manhattan.