I’m pretty sure that in more than three years of writing this column, the group Afghan Banana Stand may be the most ridiculous band name I have heard yet. I don’t even know what train of thought leads to putting those three words together and deciding that that’s the name for you. I’m going to call my band, like, Kangaroo Pancake Explosion. Or Firetruck Wolverine Coffee Mug. Hey, it’ll get you noticed, that’s for sure.

However, that is precisely the reason I am so entertained by and enamored of Afghan Banana Stand. Along with the fact that they play snotty, hyper ska-punk, they’re all 18 and 19, and they are from my home territory, Belfast. Waldo County represent, yo.

Singer Vint Whitcomb, bassist Aaron Mitchell, guitarist Paul Staples and drummer Austin Turner met in 2005, while all four were still in high school working at the Belfast Hannaford supermarket. While the boys were loading stacks of broccoli, carrots and – yes, bananas – into the produce section, the discussion would inevitably turn to music.

“Eventually it was like, ‘Wow, let’s start a band,'” said Staples. “For a long time, we just practiced and wrote songs and hung out. In March of last year, we actually started playing live.”

A shared love of bands like NOFX, Bad Religion and the Bloodhound Gang meant that they wanted to play fast, they wanted to play funny, and they wanted to play raunchy. And that’s exactly what they did. Early songs included gems such as “Lulu the Blow Up Doll.” Remember, they were all 17 years old. That stuff is hilarious when you’re a teenager. Actually, it’s still funny when you’re an adult. But I digress.

Anyway, upon graduating from high school, ABS decided to try to take it to the next level – but with all four planning to attend college, finding time to practice and play live became a huge challenge.

“We’ve overcome a lot, actually,” said Staples. “We all go to college, so we have to plan way in advance to practice and stuff. We’re a summer band. In the months we have available, we go out and play and record, and the rest of the time we just try to promote ourselves.”

This summer, ABS already has a full schedule of shows lined up, including a minitour of the East Coast, kicking off with a show on June 19 at the legendary Genos Rock Club in Portland. The tour will take them as far south as Pennsylvania, and barring gas prices going up even more, they won’t be back until July.

“We’re so psyched. That’s the best part about being in a band, getting to meet new people and [going] to new places,” said Whitcomb. “Who else is going to go sleep in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania? It’s an adventure.”

Upon returning to Maine, ABS will play a Fourth of July show at the Belfast City Park titled Banana Stalk (har har).

“We figure, we’ll go into the middle of our city and play a show. That way no one has an excuse not to go,” said Mitchell. “People always say, ‘Oh, it’s too far,’ or, ‘Oh, it’s too expensive’ as excuses to not go to shows. We say, ‘This is free and in town!’ If you don’t show, you are 1,000 kinds of lame. We’re the kind of people that give rides to people to come to our shows. We are totally motivated.”

And, most importantly, ABS just recorded four new songs, which they will release once a week beginning tonight on their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/afghanbananastand). They’ll have a live, on-air interview at 9 p.m. Thursday, May 29, on Rockland’s WRFR-FM (www.wrfr.org to stream online) where they’ll play all their new material. In July, they’ll release their first full-length album. Needless to say, the summer of 2008 will be an eventful one for ABS. For a band that started out as a joke, it certainly seems pretty serious.

“The band started as a joke. We don’t even really remember how we got the name,” said Whitcomb. “When we decided to get serious about it, we thought about changing it, but we decided against it. We’re definitely serious about recording and touring and trying to make it happen, but we still joke around and goof off a lot. Those are our roots.”

eburnham@bangordailynews.net

990-8270