12 Volt Sex reuniting for a night

“You kind of forget, ‘People really liked this,’ ” Mike Stratton says a little bemusedly. “You kind of take for granted that you could mean something to somebody.”

Stratton’s band, Vegas power pop quartet 12 Volt Sex, meant more than a little something to this city’s music scene from the late-’90s on. They were the first local act to sign a major label deal while actually living here, earning a contract with RCA Records.

Before that, they scored airtime on commercial radio all on their own, with no label, distribution or even a manager, a real feat for an indie band, prefacing several significant signings by Vegas acts in recent years as groups such as The Killers, Panic! at the Disco, Escape the Fate, The Cab and others have landed deals.

“Kids were hearing a band on the radio, like, ‘Oh wait, they’re from here? Wow. I could start a band,’ ” Stratton recalls over an iced tea at The Beat coffeehouse on a recent Wednesday evening. “From that point, maybe it made it seem like a reachable goal to do that, because there really wasn’t any examples of that before us.”

Things didn’t work out as planned at RCA. The band recorded an album for the label (one of three total releases for the group, whose lineup is rounded out by singer Matt Gucu, bassist Jason Coleman and drummer Gary Wright), but never really saw eye to eye with them, eventually parting ways.

“It’s a pretty common story,” says Stratton, a stout dude dressed all in black with matching black rimmed glasses. “It was all politics and business. We probably could have grown relationships better than we did and got closer ties with the people that we were working with, but we just weren’t those guys at that point.”

All this would take its toll on the group, who split up about a decade ago. Gucu and Stratton, who currently collaborates with Vegas indie collective Halloween Town, would get back together a few years after that, but eventually decide that they weren’t feeling it any more..

Which brings us to today. This Saturday, 12 Volt Sex will be getting back together for a one-off reunion show at the Beauty Bar, though Stratton was initially lukewarm to the idea

“I was just not that into it. Why? What’s the point?” he says of being first approached about the idea about a year ago. “And then somebody started like a Facebook petition. So then I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe.’ ”

He smiles at the thought. The band got started for kicks, and that’s why it’s getting started up again — if only for a night.

“There’s no ulterior motive,” Stratton says. “It’s just for the hell of it. We’re going to play all the songs people want to hear and have fun.”

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.