Battle-tested from Provo: American Hitmen's rock 'n' awe sound

Some local bands form in high school, others in clubs or garages. The Utah band American Hitmen formed in hell.

The Provo rock quintet, performing Friday at ABG's, was created by four Marines who started playing together in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004 during Operation Phantom Fury. With the addition of new drummer Phil Snyder and the debut of its first album, the band hopes to continue on its highway out of hell.

"Our experiences set us apart," said lead singer and keyboardist Tim "Two Guns" Cord, 24, who, like the rest of the Marines in the band, was honorably discharged in 2007 but is still enrolled in the inactive reserve. "Most bands have a bad-ass attitude, but they have nothing to back it up."

"They're

poseurs," said Dan "The Hitman" Cord, Tim's 26-year-old brother and guitar player.

With bravado in his voice, Dan Cord describes the band's classic hard-rock sound as "postwar hardcore."

Despite the menacing band name and tough-sounding comments, in person the young men are unfailingly polite and respectful. The Cord brothers, plus bassist Daniel "Jay" Jarmon, still wear their hair skin-short. The notable exception is 25-year-old guitar player Ben "MegaBear" Porterfield, who hasn't cut his hair or shaved since he left active duty.

Phil Snyder, 33, is the only civilian of the bunch, and he's been impressed with his bandmates' professionalism. "I was in a band that wasn't doing much," he said about making the decision

to join the Hitmen. "A lot of bands are just excited about getting free drinks, and then they play like crap. We're here to not look stupid. It's fun to play well and impress people." (The band's original drummer is still on active duty, planning to make the military a career.)

Dan Cord describes the Iraq War's Operation Phantom Fury as the campaign when the Marines decided to "take the gloves off and do it Patton-style" to insurgents embedded in the province of Al Anbar, about 40 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River. Under Saddam Hussein, Fallujah was an important region of support for the regime and a breeding ground for terrorists. Operation Phantom Fury resulted in the death of some 1,500 insurgents, with about 100 American troops killed and more than 1,000 wounded.

The four Marines were living in a camp about a mile outside Fallujah. When they weren't on patrol, the Cord brothers began playing cheap acoustic guitars together in the camp's smoke pit during the enveloping darkness of desert night. The only illumination was cigarettes of fellow troops and intermittent flashes of artillery fire in the nearby sky. "A few times, our jam sessions got cut short by mortars," said Dan Cord, who was a combat engineer.

Porterfield, a talented songwriter and guitarist from Oregon, joined the Cords in the jam sessions, along with Jarmon, who didn't know how to play an instrument but was so moved by the music that he picked up a bass and taught himself to play. The four played covers as a morale-booster for troops at night, taking requests such as "Sweet Home Alabama, "Hotel California" and "Johnny B. Goode." (The band heard many requests for Extreme's "More Than Words" but refused to learn the sensitive love ballad.)

The band continued to play together when the four were sent to Camp Pendleton, Calif., between tours. (The Cord brothers and Jarmon served two military tours, and Porterfield served one.) Despite training all day -- "12 hours, if you were lucky," Porterfield said -- the band would travel to bars in San Diego and Los Angeles to perform, explaining to venue bookers and audience members they weren't a white supremacist band, despite the haircuts.

After four years in the military, the four friends decided to leave the service. The band of now-brothers had begun writing original material and wanted to continue. The Cords had lived in Utah County between 1989 and 1995 and still had some family living in the area, so they decided to relocate to Utah, where monthly rents were considerably lower than in San Diego.

Since then, American Hitmen has recorded its first album -- available on the band's Web site, www.americanhitmen.com -- and lined up a regular gig at Salt Lake City's Poplar Street Pub, playing every other Saturday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. During the Fourth of July weekend, the band will travel to Ventura, Calif., to perform at a music festival.

Band members admit to still having war-induced nightmares. "The hardest thing for me was not being able to do more," Tim Cord said. "There's more we could have done." Many of the lyrics -- but not all -- speak of the horrors the men faced in Iraq, but could also serve as metaphors for "civilian" emotions, as well: anger, sex, death, lost love.

Every day, and with every home phone that rings, Tim's wife, Rachel, worries about her husband and brother-in-law being recalled to active duty. The Marines will be on inactive duty until 2011 -- 2012 for Porterfield -- and in theory and practice, can be called up at any time. Each band member has friends who were on inactive duty but were recalled and sent on tours overseas. Dan Cord said: "If war breaks out in Iran, we'll be out there."

In the meantime, the band continues on, performing its original postwar hardcore -- a musical label that few, if any, bands can authentically claim.