One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Klyntt Cauthon, Joplin, found his first guitar in the garbage.

“I saw this old, red Johnson guitar in a trashcan at my friend’s house,” Cauthon said. “It was just screaming for me. It didn’t work or even have any strings, but it was the first guitar I ever held.”

That was eight years ago. In the last year and a half, Cauthon’s band, the three-piece punk powerhouse, Brutally Frank, has become one of the most popular bands in the area.

Cauthon, guitar and vocals, and Mell Clark, Oronogo, drums and vocals, formed Brutally Frank in March 2002. Steev Wamble, Webb City, replaced the band’s former bass player in Feb. 2003 to form the tight, energetic band in its rise to notoriety.

The members hesitantly describe themselves as “pissed off punk with a rockabilly twang.”

“Some people say we’re a punk band, some say we’re a rockabilly band and that we’ve lost our punk edge,” Cauthon said.

The band members have come a long way from the awkward teen years when they started their musical journey. Wambles found musical inspiration and guidance from an unlikely source.

“When I was a kid, I had this bus driver named Charlie Brown,” Wamble said. “He was an awesome guitarist, and he always encouraged me to play guitar.”

Wamble received his first guitar at age 16 and took lessons from Brown until a major scheduling conflict retired his guitar to the corner of his bedroom to remain untouched for several years. Eventually Wamble began playing guitar and bass again with some of his friends.

In 2000, he began a three-year stint playing with the two-piece band Aural Fidelity.

Clark began playing drums in the Webb City high school band.

“I was a band geek,” Clark said. “I did the whole half-time show thing, and I was captain of the band.”

Clark didn’t own a set of drums until Wamble helped her buy one in March 2002 so she could play with the band that would later become Brutally Frank.

The other band members respectfully recognize Clark’s early training as the asset it is.

“She’s the only one with any formal training, and it shows,” Cauthon said.

Since February, the band has gained momentum and fans, extending past the popular bars and clubs in the area to Kansas City, sometimes playing as many as four shows a weekend.

The Cesspool is Brutally Frank’s favorite venue because it’s all-ages policy admits the band’s most ardent fans, the majority of whom are still in high school. The band refers to these underage fans as “the Brutally Frank army.”

“When we did our sound check the crowd must have doubled,” Cauthon said. “Kids were just crawling out from under rocks. As soon as we started playing, 40 or 50 kids right up front started going crazy. I jumped into the crowd for my guitar solo, and the kids carried me around.”

The younger crowd brings a new, infecting energy to concerts.

“You can feed off of the crowd,” Clark said. “If you see that they’re having a good time, then you’ll have a good time. When I can feel the crowd’s energy, I could play forever and be all right.”

The members, who appear so confident on stage, are still unaccustomed to the fans and not quite comfortable with their own popularity.

“It’s flattering when people come up to you, but I get kind of embarrassed,” Clark said.

Cauthon thinks their reactions are understandable.

“It’s just weird, because a year ago, those same people were throwing pop cans at me on my way to work,” he said.

Brutally Frank has one CD available, Quickstart Full Loading, named after a VCR designation and the band’s energetic reputation. The band is currently recording it’s first full length studio album and will not perform again until their CD release concert in March at The Cesspool.

The members agree they make music, because it’s what they want to do.

“I think it’s fun, I can’t see myself doing anything else,” Cauthon said.