Welcome to the Pearsphere

New Orleans–based quartet Pears is a modern spin on the punk bands of the late ’80s and early ’90s — groups such as the Victims Family, Nomeansno, and My Name, bands that employed the Minutemen’s model of borrowing styles from several musical genres and then weaving those influences into ferocious songs.

“I kind of think of what we do as art-punk, but we’re subtler, less broad than other bands that have touted the title,” singer Zach Quinn stated in an email. “I think we share a lot of that spirit, the difference being time and context. Like, Pears is aware of history but not really all that nostalgic. We’re just running through the prism of having lived through the ’90s and 2000s, and this is where we arrived.”

And speaking of living through a prism, the band’s name originated during a period in 2013 when Quinn and bassist Erich Goodyear ate psychedelic mushrooms. The two spent the night holding bananas over their heads and came up with the concept of “orbiting the Bananasphere.” The Bananasphere is pure, perfect, with no pain or suffering. But when Quinn endured a bad trip a week later, a different fruit came to mind...

“Erich was at my house, and he said, ‘Man, you didn’t go to the Bananasphere, you went to the Pearsphere — that fruit sucks,’” Quinn explained. “Pears” became slang for problems or bullshit — and their band name.

Pears’ new record, Green Star, is a fitting grab-bag of crazy. Punk anthems like “Christmas ’91” are offset by moments like the gentle piano interlude “Jump the Fuckin’ Ship” and the Japanese pop-influenced melodies in the verses of “Snowflake.” The video for the album’s title track echoes the mood of the disc, with manic footage of the band performing the song juxtaposed with the members quietly traveling in their tour van, which sports a patriotic vinyl wrap and gets blown up at the end of the video.

“Ah, that was ‘Old Glory.’ We bought that from a war vet in some weird suburb outside of New Orleans. He had a collection of cars with equally ridiculous designs, all brainchildren of his wife. They had bought the van for trips, but after his wife became ill, they decided they didn’t need it anymore. Feel kinda bad about destroying a sick artist’s work, but then I remember that it was weird U.S.-flag-worship porn, and I feel less bad. The team that blew up the van was the effects team from NCIS: New Orleans. They were rad,” Quinn said.

Pears has rolled through San Diego four times now, and although Quinn says he loves the beaches, he insists he was “born to live and die in New Orleans.”

Pears plays Soda Bar on Saturday, August 20, with Direct Hit!, DFMK, and Pissed Regardless.