There’s no telling how many

Hoboken

musicians and music fans

Brian Musikoff

has served in his dozen years behind the bar at

Louise & Jerry's

, one of the Mile Square City’s oldest and most beloved watering holes. Let’s just say that if he ever decided to run for mayor, the incumbents at City Hall would be nervously looking over their shoulders.

Fortunately, Musikoff isn’t interested in a career in politics. In fact he’s not even that passionate about bartending. “I do it because it gives me time to play in bands and publish my cartoons,” says the musician and graphic artist. “I’m sure I could make more money doing something else, but I wouldn’t be anywhere near as creative.”

A Hoboken resident since the early Nineties, Musikoff’s artwork has graced album jackets, magazine covers, art galleries, and the walls at Maxwell’s. But on Saturday, June 11, it will be his other passion - music – that brings him back to Hoboken’s premier indie-rock venue, when his band Stuyvesant performs to celebrate the release of the group’s second full-length album, “Fret Sounds.”

Stuyvesant came together when the members of two other well-respected Jersey bands - Footstone and Friends, Romans, Countrymen - decided to join forces in the mid-2000’s. Musikoff and singer/guitarist Sean Adams of FRC teamed up with Footstone singer/guitarist Ralph Malanga and the chemistry was immediate. “Sean and Ralph’s strengths just really complement each other,” says bassist Musikoff. Drummer Peter Martinez, owner of Hoboken’s Drum Den, completes the lineup.

“Sean’s songs tend to be little slices of his life, he’s always writing about people he knows or places he’s been. Ralph’s songs tend to be more abstract,” Musikoff notes. “When we’re coming up with new songs, Sean will usually write something at home and bring it to the band, and it’s pretty much ready to go. Ralph on the other hand will make up stuff in the studio as we go along. The two of us also write a lot of songs together.”

Stuyvesant’s sound rechannels the power-pop and indie-rock tunefulness of classic Eighties bands like Soul Asylum and the Lemonheads, with a hint of Husker Du-like aggression and a nod towards the Replacements’ playfulness. “Fret Sounds” (a pun on the Beach Boys’ classic “Pet Sounds”) will be released June 14 on Dromedary Records.

“We recorded the album with (producer) Mike Moebius at his Moonlight Mile studio in Hoboken,” Musikoff explains. “Mike was really rejuvenating for us to work with. He really understands our music and where we’re coming from, and everything came together really well in working with him.”

“This is our first record that someone else is actually putting out for us, so we’re very excited about that,” he added. “Everything else we’ve ever done was paid for and released by the band. So we’re really happy to be working with Dromedary Records. The next record is already written, we just have to record it. And we’re hoping that will be on Dromedary too.”

Dromedary Records had been a force in Jersey indie rock in the Nineties, but owner Al Crisafulli retired the idea for a time, and revived it a few years ago, originally as a digital-only label. “Fret Sounds” however will be released on CD . “I think it’s really important to still have something you can hold in your hands,” Musikoff says. “I really like designing the artwork and the packaging, it’s an important part of putting out a record to me. And having real CD’s is important for radio and for magazines and websites. I think the odds of someone paying attention to your record are much better when they actually can hold product in their hand and look at the artwork and read the liner notes. I’d love to be able to put it out on vinyl at some point too.”

Stuyvesant will perform at Maxwell's (1039 Washington Street, Hoboken) on Saturday, June 11, open for touring country-punk act Those Darlins. Showtime is 9 pm and admission is $10. Copies of "Fret Sounds" will be available at the show. The album officially goes on sale June 14 and is available from www.dromedaryrecords.com. The Star Ledger recently featured the video for the album's first single "Duly Noted" as "Song Of The Day," which can be viewed here .