Las Vegas Weekly

Sprockets: A German TV show, muppets or three guys in a garage?

Local band Sprockets

Merriam Webster, eat your heart out. It’s time to bust out your pop culture dictionary for an overload of ‘80s and ‘90s television references.

A sprocket (singular, common noun) is a toothed wheel whose teeth engage the links of a chain. Meanwhile, Sprocket (singular, proper noun) is the name of the intelligent sheepdog on Fraggle Rock. He often sees those crazy muppets but never quite manages to get owner Doc’s attention in time. When made plural, Sprockets becomes part of the company owned by George Jetson’s boss, Mr. Spacely, on The Jetsons: Spacely’s Space Sprockets. Creative, right? Finally, Sprockets is also the name of a German talk show hosted by Dieter in a reoccurring Mike Myers skit on Saturday Night Live.

None of these incarnations of the word “sprocket” seems to really explain why a punk-ish alternative band with albums titled Sympathetic Addictions, Screaming Over Car Alarms and Medicated Empty would name themselves after comedy, cartoons or muppets. But that’s exactly what Brodie Knight Vans of Sprockets did.

“We’re a pretty serious band with our lyrics, but our band [name] is kind of cheesy,” the 25-year-old lead singer/guitarist says. “It’s ridiculous, but we love it.”

Many of Sprockets’ younger fans don’t understand the pop culture nods behind the name, but Vans doesn’t mind. “It’s fun in that sense,” he says. “You have that history.”

The name does have its downside, however. With so many associations, the band is difficult to find through online search engines, frustrating for a group beginning to make a marketing push. Still, the Boise, Idaho-formed band, which relocated to Vegas earlier this year, is making headway. Vans and Sprockets bassist Dave Schwaller have been playing together for nearly a decade, and their latest album, Medicated Empty was produced by MxPx bassist Mike Herrera and released in March. Now, after a summer of touring, the band is having an album release performance at Blue Martini on Nov. 8.

The trio will also be promoting a new street team/forum for depression, called We Are Medicated Empty. According to Vans, Sprockets fans that join the street team will be able to purchase, or earn, T-shirts and other band merch. More importantly, they’ll also be able to use the forum to speak openly and anonymously about issues they’re facing.

“I think kids have a hard time opening up,” Vans says. “If you kind of give it a rock ‘n’ roll, younger feel to it, maybe it’ll open these doors up and help kids out.”

The serious push to get the Sprockets name out there (in a way that doesn’t evoke muppets or Jetsons) and make their music matter comes from growing up, settling on a sound and gaining some support.

“We have people investing in us,” Vans says. “We’re not three guys in our garage anymore. We’re three guys in the garage with a lot of pressure. So we have to figure out how to get out of the garage.”