Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers on slow march.

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

The Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers' music is everywhere these days.

You just have to know where to look for it.

The Eugene rock band is starting to see its songs seep into the pop culture subconsciousness. The Soldiers' tunes are cropping up on teeny-bopper TV shows, in big name video games, on vinyl records and on radio stations in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Most recently, the group's song "Funny Little Feeling" appeared on an iTunes music sampler given away to all new iPod owners.

Despite all the new places to find the Soldiers' music, it's still not being found on a full-length album. The band, which last summer signed a multirecord deal with Atlantic Re- cords, is expected to release its big debut this summer.

"It's frustrating," frontman Marty Larson-Xu admits. "It's annoying to see a bunch of bands get put out before us and do their thing."

Andrew Brightman, the Soldiers' manager, says the decision by Atlantic to hold the band's release is a tactical one. By creating buzz in underground outlets such as video games and Internet music samplers, the label is laying the groundwork for listeners to discover the band on their own.

"When we go to radio stations later in the year, programmers will say, `This sounds familiar; I've heard this,' ' Bright- man explains. "That way, it's not completely coming out of nowhere."

The decision of when to push a band into the spotlight can be a pivotal one, Brightman says. He points to the band Papa Roach, which sold millions of records but did not have the established fan base to support touring and a sustainable, long-term career.

"What we really need to do is grow gradually but steadily," Brightman says. "If you skip a step, if you don't make it with the music fans first, if you try to go straight out and try to make it with MTV, it might happen.

`But there's probably going to be a reluctance from press and radio to work with the band because the band hasn't put in its time."

Brightman says the "discovery" process is a huge part of what makes or breaks a band. If music mavens are allowed to explore a band's music on their own, instead of being force-fed, they're more likely to become devoted fans.

One of the ways the Soldiers are allowing the discovery process to happen naturally is by releasing their music on smaller indie labels before the big Atlantic rollout.

The band released a vinyl EP of songs from its early years, titled "The High School Sessions," on the small Gearhead label (http://usa.scratchrecords .com).

That CD is due to be followed this month by another vinyl EP featuring newer songs from the band's Atlantic recording sessions.

Both of those EPs are being released in CD format by East West, an "incubator" label affiliated with Atlantic. The label will help jump start the band in anticipation of the full-length release this summer, Brightman said.

Well-known studio engineer Dave Sardy is currently work- ing with the Soldiers to prepare that major label debut. Sardy, who is mixing the band's album, produced the forthcoming Oasis CD and also has worked with Hot Hot Heat and Jet.

Other buzz-building tactics that are being used to hype the Soldiers include sending the band to music industry gatherings, such as the recent South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, where it performed alongside other Atlantic artists, played a gig at a strip club and gave an interview to MTV news.

That segment is expected to air on MTV's "You Hear It First" sometime this month.

The Soldiers' songs also can be heard on the video games "Gran Turismo 4' and "MVP Baseball 2005." A recent San Francisco show attracted a group of new Soldiers fans who had heard the band's music solely from playing the baseball game, Larson-Xu says.

The Soldiers also have picked up new fans on the Web site myspace.com, and they've raised their profile among teen listeners by having their music featured on the WB Network's TV shows "One Tree Hill" and "Summerland."

The band's song "Funny Little Feeling" appeared on the "One Tree Hill" soundtrack CD alongside tracks by Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Eat World and Gavin DeGraw.

CAPTION(S):

The Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers have released a vinyl EP of songs from the band's early years in Eugene.