There are countless bands in Tacoma - and this isn't even a very big place. Sure, we've got colleges, a lot of rain, and a lot of idle disillusionment - three constant fertilizers of important rock music over the years - but so do a lot of places. What really makes Tacoma different?

It's not going to earn me many high-fives from within the hip, T-town first circles, but truth is not much. There are plenty of places on earth kind of like Tacoma.

But the bands, my friend. There does seem to be a difference in the bands. Throughout the years, from the Sonics to Girl Trouble to Durango 95 and beyond - and even less genre specific, from Portrait of Poverty and I Defy to the Nightgowns, Paris Spleen and The Drug Purse to the Makeup Monsters, Apache Chief and the Gypsies - Tacoma hasn't always had a "sound," but there has always been a Tacoma "edge" to our bands. Maybe we've all just grown up underdogs, but bands from Tacoma have an underlying, unstated aesthetic that you can usually pick out of a lineup.

The Coloffs are a band from Tacoma. If you don't know them, you should.

(READ: Prolonged screech noise.)

OK, OK - I know. Technically the Coloffs aren't 100 percent from Tacoma - the members are spread all over these days, from the U-District to Covington to SeaTac and so on.

But the Coloffs are a Tacoma band. Trust me. You can hear it. Co-creators Brian Coloff and the only recently departed Stu Miller both have Grit City under their fingernails. Coloff and Miller created the Coloffs coming out of their former bands, the Valentine Killers and Midnight Thunder Express, and individually Coloff was also part of the Rhino Humpers. Miller, well, he's Chris Trashcan's brother - not that he'd put it on his resume. Even though Miller left the band three months ago for school, his large impression can surely still be felt.

The point here is the Coloffs are Tacoma, through and through. And - as I said before the screech - if you don't know them, you should.

"I think Tacoma treats us a little better," says Newsome, himself a Texas transplant four years ago who met Miller and Coloff on a tour stop in the Lone Star State when their bands played together.

Newsome had texted me earlier in the week, saying "the Coloffs are at The Red Hot if you want to come by," but unfortunately I was out of town. Eventually we were able to catch up by phone.

"In Seattle you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a musician. In Tacoma it's different," he tells me.

"I think that all goes back to Brian and Stu. They're Tacoma boys. We've always been treated very well there."

And rightly so.

In addition to unleashing two new members of the Coloffs on the crowd at The New Frontier Lounge Friday night, new rhythm guitarist Doug Horn and drummer Ken Russell - who Newsome calls a "show-off," in a good way - the Coloffs also plan to record and release a new five song EP within the next few months. Consider it just one more Tacoma touched record you'll soon want to own.

I'm not sure what it is - but you can say it for certain. There's something unique about bands from Tacoma. And there's something unique about the Coloffs.

If you don't know them, you should.

[The New Frontier Lounge, Friday, Feb. 5, with The Dignitaries, South Sound Bureau Chiefs, 9 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]