Paranoid Social Club hits the road this month, spreading the good word about Portland’s music scene from coast to coast.

Fronted by Dave Gutter and Jon Roods of Rustic Overtones fame, PSC is no stranger to a steady dose of road work. The band has spent a lot of time on the highways and byways of this fine country.

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Paranoid Social Club is heading to California, where it will film its first national television appearance. Courtesy photo

This week, the tour pauses for stops in Austin, Texas, where PSC will play at the important and influential SXSW music festival. Then it’s on to California and the Southwest, before the band works its way back home with stops across the Midwest.

In addition to Gutter and Roods, the PSC lineup includes Trent Gay and Craig Sala. We caught up with Gutter after the band began its tour last weekend with a send-off at the Big Easy in Portland.

Let’s talk about this tour. You’re going all the way to California, with a stop at SXSW. How do you view SXSW, and why is it seen as such an important gig?

SXSW is a three-day music and film festival in Austin, Texas. There is a constant rotation of artists at every venue in town. It’s a gig that Tom Waits performs at every year, and this year, Fiona Apple will be performing, too. There are a ton of indie bands I’m looking forward to seeing this year, too; Blitzen Trapper, Band of Skulls, A$AP Rocky, to name a few. I also am excited to attend a music panel discussion that Nas will be speaking at.

For bands like us, it’s a melting pot of inspiration, and for smaller artists like PSC, it’s a great place to get your music heard. Rolling Stone, Spin, MTV and Pitchfork all cover SXSW, so the possibilities are endless. Last time I performed at SXSW, I ended up hanging with the late, great Guru (Gangstarr) and Slick Rick. This year, we perform at 2 a.m. just after St. Patty’s Day, and it’s an open bar. Should be a good time.

How do you get up for a tour like this, and what do you do to stay sharp on the road?

I don’t have any usual routine for getting geared up for a tour. Pack light and make friends. The thing that keeps me sharp on the road is being immersed in music. Playing every night keeps me sharp.

Do you have favorite stops along the way? Places you have always been welcomed and where you do well?

Looking forward to Los Angeles. We have lots of musician friends from Portland that are now based in Southern California. We’re going to be filming for our first national television appearance at NBC Studios as musical guests on a new show called “Beta.” We’ve also been getting a ton of love from Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols at KROQ-LA radio, and we are looking forward to meeting him. He’s created a pretty big buzz in Southern Cali playing our new record. He’s truly one of our musical heroes.

Your last record, “Axis IV,” was released last spring. Plans for a follow-up?

“Axis V” has already been tracked, and we’ll be mixing a bulk of it on tour for a tentative late-summer release.

You’ve been in bands for a long time. How and when do you know that a band has hit its stride and is doing something that can be sustained? And when did you know it with Paranoid Social Club?

Building a music career, for me anyway, has been a series of small triumphs — reviews, radio, video, live shows. When all these things coincide with one another, that’s when I feel most productive. This tour coming together was a big indication that PSC was hitting our stride.

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Twitter: pphbkeyes

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