"If you read the magazines, there's not really a rock genre anymore," John Stubblefield, bassist for the band Lucero, proclaimed.

For this reason, Lucero, which hails from Memphis, is often categorized as sub-genres like southern rock or alt-country — a label the band has been trying to dispel with the sound of its latest albums.

Last Wednesday at Mad Planet, Lucero continued to vigorously shrug off these comparisons as it kicked off its tour in Milwaukee in support of its new album Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers.

All the band has to say is that it covers, very convincingly, Jawbreaker's "Kiss the Bottle" to convince most people that Lucero is more punk than country-fried anything.

They are friends with singer-songwriter openers Rocky Votolato and William Elliot Whitmore. Ben Nichols, lead singer of Lucero, said the tour beginning in Milwaukee was "appropriate," as the band met Whitmore at the Cactus Club years before. Drummer Roy Berry was pulling double-duty, as he also drummed for Votolato with indiscernibly little practice.

"I think a lot of times that's the only way you get to see your friends; either you go on tour with them for 30 days, or when you play their town, or they play your town," said guitar player Brian Venable.

Lucero kicked up the tempo on songs off of its last record, Nobody's Darlings, such as "Sixteen." Recorded in the venerable Jim Dickinson's (The Replacements, Rolling Stones) barn, Nichols went into the last album with the intent of "a more stripped-down" sound.

"We wanted to make something that sounds pretty much exactly the way we do live," he said.

The newer songs came across as such, but the older songs felt like they had grown up with the band, as they injected new life into the more twangy songs. More so in sound than subject matter discussed, it is difficult to separate the band from its roots with Nichols singing "I ain't so lonely" with a lap steel in the background.

Nichols breathed a sigh of relief after this musical interlude through some of their older songs from almost eight years ago, saying, "The hard part is over."

"It's our sixth album, and we realized we're always constantly looking ahead," Venable said. "We realized there's some songs we left behind. We had to practice to relearn our songs."

Hence the emergence of the acoustic guitar that added a good contrast to the show and illuminated Lucero's creative breadth. True to Nichols' appreciation of Lucero's fans, who have stuck with them throughout the changes, the crowd was respectfully quieter during the acoustic portion.

As for future plans, Nichols views the band as a small business. "We pay taxes, and have expenses. Now the goal is to make the small business slightly more profitable, where we don't have to all live together."

Though not entirely individually self-supportive, some fans have accused Lucero of "selling out" because they now have a larger following.

Stubblefield doesn't see it that way.

"Selling out would be like giving it up and going to work at a McDonalds," he said. "It's just a fact of sticking to it."