The first and only time the band members of Lynus trashed a hotel room, they did so to get back at the women who gave them the room.

Dragged out of their room at 3 a.m. by the drunken older women in “dingy white underwear,” they were begged for 45 minutes to get in a murky hot tub. After a guilt trip by the women, the guys returned to their room.

“The room smelled like someone had died,” said guitar player Blake Spurlock, 19. “Come to find out it was rotting chicken underneath the bed.”

They found the chicken after they retaliated by smashing apples in the bathroom and rubbing roast beef into the carpet.

“We wouldn’t have done it in any other town,” said lead singer Joe Senna, 20. “But they deserved it.”

The band, which will perform at noon today at Serna Plaza outside of the University Union, formed when all of the members were in middle school. Spurlock, Senna and drummer Minh Ngo, 19, were in the seventh grade and bass player Jason Brown, 21, was in the eighth grade.

A talent show at the school provided the motive for them to form, but once they started “it was all about making music,” Senna said.

For a short time, in the beginning of the band’s existence, there was a fifth, older member who sang and called the band Penhead. However, when things didn’t work out with their singer, they fired him via instant message and went back to being Lynus.

Senna’s mother came up with the idea for the name Lynus, like the “Peanuts” character only spelled differently. They changed the I to a Y for “a little seventh grade spice,” Spurlock said.

“He was optimistic, always looking on the bright side of things,” Senna said of the character. “I like to take that approach to life, I guess.”

At first, the band met about once a week, playing when they could get their parents to give them a ride to practice. They started off playing covers of songs by Nirvana, Third Eye Blind and Bush for the first year and then transitioned to Blink 182 and Lagwagon. Towards their senior year at Sheldon High School, where all the band members attended, they got into more harder-edged music.

“Our early songs were like three chords, and we didn’t have words, so Joe just soloed the whole time,” Spurlock said with a laugh.

The band’s current influences range from Superdrag and the Strokes to Elliot Smith and Reggie and the Full Effect.

“I don’t think anyone could pick apart one of our influences just by listening to us,” Senna said, adding they categorize themselves as indie-pop.

The band practices in a small room at a warehouse-looking practice facility off of Fruitridge Road, between South Watt and Howe Ave. The walls are lined with the faces of the Beatles, KISS and Luke Skywalker. There’s a mini-fridge, two couches and a TV with a VCR. The band seemingly spends a lot of time here, as it’s set up to resemble something like a teenager’s bedroom.

The band is unsigned, which can be attributed to the lack of similar types of music coming out of the Sacramento music scene, Senna said.

In 2003, Lynus won a spot on the Vans Warped Tour on the Ernie Ball stage, which is the stage reserved for local musicians for each concert. Senna entered them in a contest on the Ernie Ball Web site, and didn’t tell the band about it until they won.

“It actually turned out to be pretty cool,” Spurlock said. “We had a big crowd that day.”

Last year, the band released an EP titled “Hang in There Holly Near,” which can be found at all Dimple Records locations and on Interpunk.com for $5.

One of the tracks, “Good Night Inn,” is about Senna’s cat, Emily, who died last year.

“I write mainly about life experiences,” Senna said, who handles the lyrics and comes up with the main parts of the music as well. “I don’t think I could sing about what someone else wrote.”

All of the band members hold day jobs while trying to work around their practice and touring schedule. Senna works at Hooters, which he calls “a fun job.” Ngo and Spurlock work at Original Pete’s, and Brown works at “the ghetto mall,” a reference to Florin Mall.

Brown said that he’d like to just be successful with this band, and be able to support himself with music.

“No doubt about it, in five years I see myself on TV,” Senna deadpans. “It would be nice to be able to play music for the rest of my life and not worry about having a job.”

Frank Miller can be reached at [email protected]