Not sure how many degrees of separation it puts the band from Kevin Bacon, but if you look at the wall in Columbus’ apartment near the beginning of the movie Zombieland there’s a poster for the band Throttlerod. It’s one of many ways the band is showing up in popular culture despite a lack of chart positions, platinum sales numbers or any of the other once typical measures of success in the music industry.

Formed in Columbia just over a decade ago and since relocated to Richmond, Va., singer and guitarist Matt Whitehead is the only remaining member of that original lineup. He filled Free Times in recently on the band’s past, present, and potential future.

“Aside from relocating to Richmond, changing drummers once, becoming a three-piece and going through four other players, not much has changed with the band,” Whitehead says sarcastically. “Seriously, I view the world very differently from the way I did seven or eight years ago. We’ve learned so much from touring, recording with a producer, making mistakes, watching other bands make mistakes and watching other bands really succeed.”

All that life experience as a band, Whitehead says, has influenced its outlook.

“We have a much healthier, realistic idea of the way things should be done,” he says.

The way the band does things on Pig Charmer, Throttlerod’s latest slab of heavy, raucous rock, is to create a tightly focused yet barely controlled sonic assault that’s complicated enough to escape easy comparison, though names like Helmet and Unsane have been offered up in valiant attempts to try.

“I like the way reviewers have been unable to pin us down,” Whitehead says. “We change with every record and have never been afraid to take chances, which is what I’m most proud of in our recordings.”

There is a method to the band’s sledgehammer-pounding madness, he adds.

“Something we really try and do each time we write a song, especially with Pig Charmer, is to try and challenge both the listener and ourselves. We want people to pay attention and wonder what is going to happen next, instead of putting us on as background music.”

This can make the band’s output a bit schizophrenic and obtuse, as hard rock goes, something Whitehead acknowledges.

“It can be a bit masochistic at times when we write a whole album in which 4/4 [time signature] is the weapon and exception instead of the rule, but we enjoy it, and I hope our fans appreciate it,” he says.

As an indie band on a small label — Detroit-based Small Stone Recordings — Whitehead is fully acquainted with the difficulties of pursuing a career playing music of any kind, let alone ‘difficult’ hard rock, but he says there are ways to prosper even in the current environment.

“The power and the burden are with the band now,” he says. “Depending on what kind of band and what goals you have, there’s not a real need to be on a big label. Secondly, people don’t buy CDs any more, and that sucks because it’s one factor in a chain reaction affecting bands, labels, promoters, clubs, and fans. We’ve gotten involved with publishing a lot in the past few years, and been fortunate enough to gain exposure through song placement on MTV shows like Nitro Circus and Viva La Bam, some video games and movies.”

One misconception that persists about Throttlerod, at least in some of the national press they’ve received, is that they’re part of the stoner rock crowd.

“It surprises a lot of people when they go see us on the same bill as a stoner rock band,” Whitehead says. “We don’t get up and rehash every Sabbath and Kyuss song, or solo for five minutes, or sing songs about wizardry, pot smoking, or drinking. We generally try to get up on stage and make a statement with an exclamation point at the end, and leave all the noodling to the other bands.”

Labels, accurate or not, don’t really matter to the band any more, Whitehead says.

“It doesn’t bother us as much as it used to be to get lumped into that or any other category,” Whitehead says. “Honestly, we’re just thankful that we have any sort of group to associate with and are even more thankful that we’re even still around.”

Art Bar is at 1211 Park St. in The Vista. Doors open at 8 p.m.; admission is $4. Death Valley Driver, Carolina Chupacabra and Acid Roach open. Call 929-0198 or visit artbarsc.com for more information.