One local band has a benefit for member to raise money for medication.

Brutally Frank, which has been together almost five years now, put on a show at the Bridge to raise money for Mell Clark, drummer and occasional vocalist. Clark was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and needed to raise money.

“I’m on a new medication that’s very expensive and I have to come up with $3,000 to pay for it,” Clark said.

If Clark doesn’t raise the money she may end up in a wheelchair.

So the band put on a benefit and invited other bands such as Frail, the Lonely and the Dead City Shakers, a band from Dallas.

But the Bridge show isn’t the only one the band has put on recently. It also played at Champs the night before the benefit, the Keystone on Dec. 1 and at Nathan P. Murphy’s on Dec. 3.

Brutally Frank will also be playing at the Kitchen Pass on Dec. 22 and the Bridge on Dec. 31.

Klyntt, guitar and lead vocals, describes the bands sound as “if you could speed up a horror movie and crawl in.”

This is a popular way to describe psychobilly, the type of music the band plays. Psychobilly is sometimes described as a mix between British punk rock of the 70s and American Rockabilly of the 50s. One of the main differences is that the music is played with an upright bass, played by Stevo, instead of an electric bass.

Brutally Frank said it’s not a new type of music, but it sounds new because no one around here really plays this type of music.

“There is a lot of really good bands that play what we play all over the place, especially in Texas,” Klyntt said. “But there’s nothing like us around here. It’s mostly metal or Emo.”

The band also said psychobilly is big in Europe and that there is even a documentary on it available at Hot Topic called The Psychobilly Sickness.Currently, Brutally Frank has one CD out named “Thirteen.” But plans on recording another one in the spring of 2006 and releasing it around August.

Thirteen is available at Hastings and at 11 Hot Topics, but not the Joplin Hot Topic. However, the CD can be ordered at any Hot Topic.

For more information about the band visit Brutally Frank at MySpace. The CD is also available through that site, as well as a video showing Stevo destroying his bass at a recent Memorial Hall show.