Susan Poag / The Times-PicayuneJosh Cohen, plays Friday, June 20 at One Eyed Jack's.

The Web site for the venerated annual music festival known as Bonnaroo called the Morning 40 Federation "a mutant hybrid of punk, jazz and what New Orleans old-timers call 'fonk.' "

Couldn't say it better myself. So I won't try. Stalwarts of the 9th Ward hipster music scene, the 40s are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a blowout at One Eyed Jack's tonight.

I say "blowout" rather than "concert" because, well -- just read the interview below. It's with 40's founding member and saxophonist Josh Cohen.

Describe your band's music.

It's grimy, dirty and reckless. But that recklessness is intentional. Some notes on the guitar are unintentional, yet the overall sound is mostly deliberate. We don't want to sound crisp and clean and noodley like a jam band. We want to sound thick and rich and a bit chaotic.

Thick and rich and chaotic. Sounds like Dinty Moore Stew.

Yes exactly. Over time, I have learned to like dirtier music like the Stooges and some of the guitar work on Tom Waits records. It sounds awkward and jumpy and weird, but in a perfect way. It's not predictable or formulaic.

For the uninformed, can you give an explanation of the name of your band.

It's kind of multi-dimensional. First of all, the idea of drinking a 40 in the morning is a "you've stepped over the edge" kind of thing. When you drink a 40 in the morning, it's almost like you've given up, crossed the line. The Morning 40 Federation would be a government-sponsored agency that would force individuals to drink malt liquor every morning to keep the public dumb so they wouldn't question policies.

Let's step back. For those in the audience who may not be familiar with the term "40, " could you clarify?

It's a 40-ounce malt liquor beverage that is not purchased for flavor but for bang; it is a low-cost, high-alcohol beverage, which is found mostly in low income neighborhoods -- so there's a whole lot of implied meaning in the name of our band. A 40 is not for your beer connoisseur. It's for someone who is trying to scrounge up enough change to get one drink that's really gonna create a lasting effect.

Let's talk about your music again. Explain it please.

Some artists convey great beauty from the filth and the dirt of culture. Tom Waits comes to mind again. The subjects of his songs are often found in seedy little dumpy bars where prostitutes and other less reputable characters hang out. We have embraced that aspect of glorifying the underdog aspects of society.

So are you satire, parody or are you guys all really alcoholics?

Well, when we get together, we certainly start drinking. This might be because the type of humor we generate is a lot more funny when we're inebriated. I mean, there are some jokes you would laugh at when you're drunk, but if you were sober you might just shake your head.

So are you guys more entertaining when you're drunk or when the audience is drunk?

I would say we're more entertaining when both are drunk. I don't think we've ever played a sober show. We alter our consciousness in order to become conduits of a reckless yet refined dirty sound. That sound is drunken. And if we are actually drunk when we perform, it's more honestly drunken.

I'm still confused. So this is all an act, right?

No I don't think it's an act. We didn't strategize this. We didn't say there is a missing aspect of New Orleans music that we want to fill. But New Orleans has largely shaped who we are and now we are simply expressing through music what we have become as a result of night after night of drinking in bars.

Well then, it all leads to this: How in God's name has a band as screwed up as you guys are managed to last 10 years?

I don't think any one of us wants to quit the band because we don't want to ruin something that we interpret as special. The momentum has built to the point where it's too late to turn back. Also it's a great release. At least for me it is. It's kind of healing to get up onstage and express myself with such angst and such audacious veracity that, by the time the show is over, I feel I have released a lot of pent up energy and have also contributed to a lot of people having a good time. That gives it all a sense of purpose.

Columnist Chris Rose can be reached at chris.rose@timespicayune.com; or at (504) 352-2535 or (504) 826-3309.