Cobra Skulls: Break may turn into breakup

The Cobra Skulls' Devin Peralta (left), Luke Ray and Tony Teixeira have a few shows this week. The Cobra Skulls' Devin Peralta (left), Luke Ray and Tony Teixeira have a few shows this week. Photo: Ryan Russell Photo: Ryan Russell Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Cobra Skulls: Break may turn into breakup 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Reconcile the get-in-the-van lifestyle of a touring hard-core unit and that of a farmer tending wind machines day and night in an effort to keep a precious Clementine crop from freezing temps, and you get an inkling of where Cobra Skulls front man Devin Peralta's head is. It's high noon at his family's farm, Mulholland Citrus, in the Central Valley, and his hands are dirty, his mind far away - undoubtedly with the mandarins.

So he doesn't sound too broken up when he announces that the band he began while attending the University of Nevada is, as he puts it, "hanging up the hat."

"I'll release the news here that we're focusing on other projects and, otherwise, work," says the former ACLU canvasser and onetime bilingual student counselor.

With drummer Luke Ray living in Santa Rosa and guitarist Tony Teixeira bunking down in S.F., the Skulls have scattered to the winds, and though they've been getting together to practice regularly during the past year, their upcoming Bay Area shows are among their last, for now.

"I don't know if we'll not play shows for a year - or never again," Peralta, 31, offers. "But we have other projects we want to focus on, and sometimes it's better not to do too much. That's why we won't be doing Cobra Skulls in the foreseeable future."

Fans will have to content themselves with the threesome's recorded output, which climaxed with a last impassioned album, 2011's "Agitations," on Fat Wreck Chords. Robust punk-pop hook-athons a la "Iron Lung" and moshable anthems like "The Mockery" are sprinkled with country-punk workouts such as "Hiding" and even folky interludes like closer "Believe."

Located in that sweet spot between a head bang and a brain tease is a reservoir of political idealism, evinced by titles like "Solastalgia," which Peralta patiently breaks down from his reading of Glenn Albrecht.

As for Cobra Skulls' legacy, Peralta has no regrets: "We've been a band since 2005. That's a long time for a punk band to exist."

Regardless, he adds, "I feel really proud of what we accomplished," with one foot in the Latino punk scene - the vocalist sings some of Cobra Skulls' songs in Spanish - and the other in what he describes as the "suburban kid" camp.

Although he counts himself as one of the latter crew, Peralta has plenty in common with his pals in local bilingual punk outfit La Plebe.

"Latino kids actually have something to say right now regarding immigration issues, which I also personally understand," he explains, referring to his 75-year-old father, who emigrated from Argentina. "They actually have something to be pissed off about."

If you go

Cobra Skulls: 9 p.m. Thursday (Dec. 19). $13-$15. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., S.F. (415) 621-4455. www.bottomofthehill.com. 8 p.m. Friday. $16-$18. The Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. www.catalystclub.com.