"L.A. Guns was a good starting point for us," said Justin Elliott, the Dallas band's lead singer and guitarist. "We knew we wanted a stripped-down, straight-up dirty, dark rock 'n' roll band."

And that just about sums up The Valentine Failures' modus operandi.

Elliott and drummer Wayne Stokely said they knew of each other from playing in similar bands in the Dallas music scene, so by 2005 they decided to form a band.

"We started writing songs together and started looking for a guitarist, but we were having a real hard time finding one," Elliott said, adding that one night, while tossing a few back at a Dallas bar, fate intervened.

"We saw this guy walk by in an L.A. Guns T-shirt, and I thought to myself, 'Man, I wish that dude played guitar,'" Elliott said.

It just so happened that he did, and that's how the band added guitarist Dillon Reid to the line-up.

"Dillon had the same mindset as us but helped to bring more of a modern edge to the band," Elliott said.

Bassist Brandon "Bombs" Stack joined after answering a musician-wanted classified ad.

"Bombs brought on the punk attitude," Elliott said.

Last year, The Valentine Failures released their Lights Out In Suicide City CD. The songs careen along at a frantic pace with lyrics about dead-end dreams and the tough streets of the big city.

Born Into This has that classic pre-hairspray, '80s L.A. metal sound, with turgid guitar riffs, galloping drums and a catchy almost-pop scream-along chorus.

Dead To You adds an almost gothic post-punk feel to the power chord ride, with Elliott's Vince Neil-esque vocals. Dark Stars shows off Stokely's powerful, commanding drums, and Bloodshot Eyes brings the stripper strut.

Although The Valentine Failures hail from Dallas, they consider themselves more of a regional band, playing Houston, Austin and all points in-between.

"Dallas doesn't have much of a music scene anymore," Elliott said. "There's lots of extreme metal here, but even that's dying out."

Elliott cited a lack of promotion and downloading to the shrinking live music scene.

"These days with so many other things competing for people's attention, you've got to bust your ass advertising, you can't just depend on MySpace bulletins to get people out."

It also helps to offer a nondownloadable experience, and The Valentine Failures offer a live show that is like bringing a stadium experience to a small club space.

"We bring our game no matter where we play or who we play for," Elliott said. The band strives to bring a large and professional show each gig without falling into Spinal Tap buffoonery, they said.

"Yeah, no Stonehenge for us yet!" Elliott joked.

It is with the live show in mind that The Valentine Failures planning to release a live DVD in the spring.

"I've got nothing against studio albums, but seeing a live band is much cooler to me," Elliott said.

The band has a large overseas fanbase and it hopes that a live DVD would help to show those fans what The Valentine Failures really are about, plus the band will include extras like footage from appearances on live television and unreleased tracks.

The Valentine Failures hope to get into the studio to record an EP or possibly a 7-inch single next summer, and expand their touring base outside Texas and the Southeast.

Whichever route The Valentine Failures take, the band hopes to attract new audiences to their metal-punk hybrid sound.

"It's cool to see extreme punk rockers mixed in with the metal fans at our shows," Elliott said. "We don't appeal to just one crowd, and we play every show as big and powerful as can be. That's just us."

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