As Loser frontman Joe Grah might say, it's all about starting over.

Formerly the leader of Dallas-based rock band Jibe, Grah and three other veterans are wiping the slate clean with their new band, Loser, which opens for Staind at the Bricktown Events Center tonight.

The majority of references to Loser in the press so far have focused on the band's guitarist, John Lowery, who Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie fans might know a little better as John 5.

Lowery joined Manson's band after the recording of the "Mechanical Animals" album and left after the touring cycle for "The Golden Age of Grotesque" completed. He's since joined Rob Zombie's band, and will appear on his new album, "Educated Horses," which will be released in March.

Loser and Staind Concert

o Loser will perform along with Staind and Theory of a Deadman

o The concert will take place at Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center

o Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $30. They can be purchased at the door or online at www.startickets.com

Source: www.dcfconcerts.com

However, this high-profile day job won't stand in the way of Loser pushing ahead to build up expectation for its debut, "Just Like You," scheduled for an early May release.

Grah plans to follow the Zombie touring circus in a rental car, doing acoustic sets with Lowery at radio stations along the touring route.

Loser got its start in 2004 with a handful of gigs in Los Angeles, which created some buzz. The band signed to Island/Def Jam, and has been working on its debut since.

A handful of tracks from the forthcoming album have been made available online, and announce that Loser will be a nearly exclusively melodic affair.

The songs feature a sort of unencumbered, non-ostentatious simplicity, which is somewhat surprising for a band featuring a player known for his technical ability, such as Lowery.

"We could sit at home and jerk off all day by ourselves, but when we come together, we want to do something that we can all enjoy and we're all about hooky melodies," Grah said. "I like stuff you can sing along to but makes you want to wet your pants at the same time, it's so intense. We have songs that are light and ethereal and dreamy, we have songs that are straight rock, and we have songs that are aggressive and intense."

Even though Grah and Lowery might be best known for their previous work, they aren't too nervous about converting fans to their new project.

According to Grah's accounts, audiences are eating up the material the band is playing live.

"We go up and a lot of people are like 'who the hell is this,' and by the second chorus, they're singing along," he said. "They're jumping around and crowd surfing -- it's been really surprising for us. This band is on a path, and I really don't think we can be stopped right now. It's really weird for a band like us to be out with a big band without a record or a single, so we're pretty excited, we're just taking it all in."
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