•Scotty Holderby – vocals
•Greg Ingraham– guitar
•Jeff Hashfield – organ
•Henry Austin – bass
•Guy Alvarez– drums

“Looking for a singer. Needs to be kind of a prick, but not a total asshole.”

For a band that updates and reinvigorates a classic mod/garage rock sound, it’s no surprise that The Hi-Nobles—a group with decades of collective music experience and more than a few personal stories involving Pearl Jam, the Sex Pistols and the Bay Area metal scene—can put a 21st century spin on the standard “how we formed” story.

For this band, it all began with a snarky Craigslist ad—the one quoted above.

“I saw that ad, and I’m like ‘I’ve gotta call them up!’” says Scott Holderby, a Bay Area music vet probably best remembered for his time in the genre-bending metal group Mordred. “And it was perfect timing; I was looking for a band to try out for me. So I thought I’d go to their audition and give them a chance.” He laughs. “Because, you know, I’m a prick, not an asshole.”

The singer made quite a first impression on the makeshift group, which at the time was serving as a side project for a couple of big-name local musicians (including members of the Black Furies, who you definitely know if you’re from the Bay Area). When Holderby arrived at the audition, he was already several drinks into the night and holding a “to go” cup of White Russians. Professional? Perhaps not. But as the band ripped through two originals and a Sonics cover, both parties felt a common, possibly drunken, musical bond. That night, The Hi-Nobles were born.

“I think my suit helped, too” says Holderby. “I was wearing a $20 thrift store, thin lapel suit. They’re like, ‘that’s the look! We should all do that!’ So now we all dress up.”

A few months of songwriting, some line-up changes and a couple of buzzed-about local gigs later, Craigslist brought in another important part of the group – guitarist Greg Ingraham, best known for his work with the Avengers. Although the legendary punk band had reformed a few years back, Ingraham had time on his hands and an itch to do something original. “I needed something more to occupy me,” says the guitarist. “So I saw the ad, looked ‘em up on MySpace and thought they were really cool.”

“I love having Greg in the band,” says Holderby. “He brings wisdom, patience, understanding…and, a little edge. I mean, we’re still tight, but he makes us hooligans.”

Oddly enough, Ingraham—possibly the only guy in the world who has “opened for the Sex Pistols at Winterland” and “jammed with Pearl Jam” on his musical resume—initially had worries about fitting in. “At the time, The Hi-Nobles had a clean sound. That was a challenge for me,” he says. “I’m a punk, hard rock, blues kind of guy. But the more I played with them, the more I worked in some distortion. I made the songs a little dirty.”

You can definitely hear the “dirty” on Shake, The Hi-Nobles’ debut for the new label Zaentz Records. The two loudest tracks, “Ain’t No Sin” and “Miss Addy,” feature Ingraham, as he says, “laying on the heavy fuzz.” Elsewhere, the album is a tour de force of garage rock and soul, with revved-up tempos (“Shake”), pop aspirations (“Shelter”) and a groovy, organ-drenched blast of R&B (“Stings a Bit”), featuring the manic keys of Hi-Nobles secret weapon Jeff Hashfield.

“Jeff comes off as this real quiet guy in practice, but on stage, wow,” says Holderby. “The first time we played together, he was going nuts. I’m jumping around, Jeff’s jumping around…our original guitarist was in-between me and him, and he just ended up folding himself up between two amps, scared out of his mind. He was so angry at us after the show.”

Lyrically, Holderby keeps things simple; although he wails that “politics/ race/ religion/ is causing all this war and division” in “International Playboys,” most of his Hi-Nobles tuneage revolves around the classics: “Sex, love, betrayal…you know, the normal stuff.”

Although most of the songs are initially penned by Holderby and Hashfield, the band as a whole helps out on arrangements and individual parts. “Anyone who wants to contribute can,” says Ingraham. “That’s how I added my own sound to the mix. It’s pretty collaborative.” (The group is rounded out by bassist Henry Austin and drummer Guy Alvarez, who provide the groovin’ backbeat).

For the guitarist, Shake represents a long overdue return to the spotlight. Although the Avengers remain active and much loved in the music world – it was Pearl Jam who personally requested the group come on stage a few years ago to perform their punk classic “The American in Me” – The Hi-Nobles gives Ingraham a chance to shape an up-and-coming group. It’s something that hasn’t happened in nearly three decades.

“With the Avengers, I think we started in June of ’77 and I quit by December of ’78,” he says. “I mean, I can remember us opening for the Sex Pistols on their last U.S. tour date and watching the band get pelted by beer cans, clothes and anything else you can think of, and watching everyone freak out backstage. Bill Graham was not amused. But yeah, since the Avengers, I’ve done a lot of smaller groups, but nothing that really toured or went anywhere. It’s nice to be back in the studio, and get back out on the road, with something really cool and new.”