Oh, and Todd Steed playing local music.

Steed has been playing in local bands since the early 1980s. A staunch supporter of indie music, he's been around long enough to see changes in the music scene from the inside.

He watched the drinking age rise from 18 to 21 and experienced firsthand the impact the law had on support for local music. He had an inside look at the disillusionment felt by local legends the Judybats because of tensions with a major label. He's participated in the rise of Knoxville's Disgraceland Records, an independent label.

Over the past two decades he's been a member of three local bands: Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes, the Opposable Thumbs, and now Apelife.

"Dave Nichols and I were in a punk band and found it starting to get constrictive," says Steed. "We found it conservative because we liked a lot of different kinds of music. So we ended that (band) and started Smokin' Dave. I played with Smokin' Dave for 11 years. We toured all over the East and South. We kind of lived the indie rock dream in the '80s."

After an 11-year stint with Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes, Steed moved overseas to teach in Lithuania. When he returned to the States, Steed began playing with Dave Jenkins and Paul Noe of the Judybats in the Opposable Thumbs.

In 1997, Steed again moved overseas. He returned in '98 but was determined not to start another band. So, like any good musician would do, he started another band anyway by placing an ad in the newspaper for two like-minded musicians.

Drummer Matt Richardson and bassist Ed Richardson (no relation) were the first to reply. The resulting combination was Apelife, a local rock mainstay that remains intact.

"I would say each band sort of defines itself," says Steed of his music past. "The songs sort of revolve around the members of the band and around what they're going through at the time and what they're into. With the Thumbs it was sort of a rock thing. With Apelife it's a rootsy, Americana thing. Matt likes Led Zeppelin and Ed likes jazz, and that plays into it. It's funny because I've given certain songs to each band to play, but some songs just fit better with certain bands."

Since Apelife evolved three years ago, the band has released one album, the seven-song EP "Natural Selections." Many local music aficionados say the tracks have helped put fun back into local rock 'n' roll. For Steed, that's what music is all about, being funny and having fun.

"Humor is something that feels really natural," says Steed. "If you think about it, humor really gets you through your day. We've all worked with people who don't have a sense of humor, and it's like being in a foreign prison. So it doesn't seem right taking humor out of the music. I don't care if people don't take us seriously. I'm doing it to have fun.

"I mean, take our song 'North Knoxville.' It makes some jokes about Knoxville, but the underlying message is that (Knoxville) is ugly. Humor is a way of getting those kinds of ideas across. Rock 'n' roll was initially fun. All the stuff from the '50s, R&B and bebop, it's fun stuff. It just seems to me that the fun of music is gone these days."

Next on the agenda for Steed and Apelife is a second EP, to be produced by R.S. Field, who has worked with Scott Miller and R.B. Morris.

"I think Apelife is only going to release EPs in honor of the short attention span. I mean, people go to the Disc Exchange and get a 65-minute CD, but some people can't make that kind of commitment. This way, we also don't go massively into debt."

Also ahead on Apelife's schedule is a Sept. 26 show with Cracker at Blue Cats.

"We played with Cracker in North Carolina earlier this summer, and it went really well," says Steed. "I'm looking forward to getting to play with them again. The last time Cracker played in Knoxville, they opened for Dave Matthews, and they got booed. I think if we opened for Dave Matthews, we'd get booed too."