Radio Cure’s David Carl sips a large coffee at True Love Coffeehouse a few hours before their CD release show. He takes a look at bandmate Nathan Lortz and asks, “Did you shower before you got here?”

“Not yet,” replies Lortz, who provides Radio Cure with bass.”Yeah, we have a pre-show showering policy in this band, kind of an unwritten rule,” chimes in Matt Woodcheke.

Barely six months after their formation, and the four-piece local band Radio Cure is on the verge of releasing a second EP. In fact, tonight’s show at the prestigious True Love is one of many they’ve already played. In such a short span, these guys have solidified themselves as a top local act. So, how’d they get here so fast?

THE STORY

When David Carl and Matt Woodcheke wanted to name their pending band after a Wilco song, they decided the best way to solidify it was to ask Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy for permission, face-to-face.

So last September, that’s what they did.

Following a Wilco performance in San Francisco, Carl and Woodcheke waited out by Wilco’s tour bus in the freezing cold. Eons later, Tweedy walked out. The two local songwriters introduced themselves and asked for Tweedy’s blessing.

“He said he’d have to check with his lawyer first,” said Carl, a current Sacramento State student with a major in English. “But he was just pulling our leg. He thought it was great. He gave us his blessing.”

At that moment, Radio Cure, named after a track off of Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” was officially on the map. The next step for Carl and Woodcheke was to complete the band.

The bass player was an easy pick. Woodcheke’s former high school friend Nathan Lortz had recently moved into the same building as him and “he already had gear and everything,” he said.

“I was never really into music,” said Lortz. “Then I went to a Primus concert and saw Les Claypool. I thought, if I could play bass like that, my life could be complete.”

A drummer wasn’t as easy to find.

“I met Cameron Monty at True Love one night,” said Woodcheke, co-singer/guitarist of the band. “We were talking and he mentioned he played drums. I asked about the kind of music he listened to and he said metal, which worried me. But, we needed a drummer, so we gave him a test run with the rest of us. We kinda knew right there, this was it.”

Only a few months later, the now four-piece band has conquered the Sacramento-area alternative music scene. In fact, Radio Cure has played just about every venue there is for a non-punk band to play, including True Love, Java Cafe, Fox and Goose and Old Ironsides.

“I think making influential friends has helped us out a lot,” said Carl.

“I mean, we are always getting help and tips from guys like Kevin Seconds (of 7Seconds and Go National fame), David Houston and Cary Rodda.”

“We are good friends with great and popular acts like Squish the Bad Man and Estereo,” said Woodcheke. “It’s weird to see these guys on stage and just be in awe of them, and then go on after them. The way the audience perceives us is the same as them, which makes me realize, we’re that good.”

THE INFLUENCE

The most intriguing thing about the band is their wide variety of influences.

“We have an alt-country songwriter, mixed with a pop songwriter, an industrial bass player and a metal drummer, so it comes together and makes an interesting sound,” said Woodcheke, who cites Wilco and most early-’90s alternative as his influences.

Carl, the other songwriter/singer of the band, lists artists like Elvis Costello, Superdrag and the Beatles as influences, and attributes nearly all of his songs to all the times he’s been “done wrong.””Although we’ve got a happy song now, since he’s been with the current girl,” joked Woodcheke.

With so many bands fading in and out of the Sacramento music scene these days, Radio Cure looks to stay strong. With their brand new EP “Running In The Red,” more shows lined up at Old Ironsides and True Love and a passion to expand through Northern California, there’s no sign that Radio Cure will be slowing down any time soon.

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