Two days ago, bassist Rick Williams caught his back on a nail climbing into his group's practice space.

"Bleeding for my art," Williams retorted with a grin. Williams represents the pervading sentiment throughout his band, Load: as long as you're able to play, everything else will work out.

The band -- Williams a.k.a. "Dic Love," guitarist and lead singer Chris Pilione and drummer Jerry "Jer" Conrad -- formed when Pilione and Conrad's band, the Amazing Larrys, broke up. Williams, who sang back-up with the Larrys and who is also in Jonesing for Soma, sooned joined the two. Since forming, the band experienced its share of obstacles.

Along with the notorious nail, the old broken amps and anthills of dust, Load's rehearsal area is a source of woe. To get inside, members must crawl through a two-foot high horizontal opening -- there is no vertical door. Once inside, you'll understand why members have hung a "no crossing zone" sign up.

Despite the fact that band members admit that the room was cleaned two weeks ago, it is an essay in Uni-Mart build-up.

Almost the size of two walk-in closets, the room has dust and cigarette butts covering everything. Dust coats the book Slap It: Funk Studies for the Electric Bass, plenty of Pepsi products, a leaky Silver Floss Saurkraut can, stacks of black tapes with labels such as "Lose This Fucking Tape And I Will Kill U," crumpled Load flyers and song lists.

"I get a little antsy down here . . . a little high-strung," Pilione said.

Pilione and his band members have started to gain a rep as musicians tutored on patience and the glory days of college radio. Williams and Conrad share a love for fIREHOSE. Williams said he dedicated his bass to the legendary Mike Watt.

All band members share a love for Husker Du and Bob Mould's group Sugar. The group even sounds a bit like Zen Arcade-era Husker Du, which Pilione said he has to watch out for.

"It's kind of something I worry about when I'm writing," Pilione said, who writes the majority of the band's material. "A lot of the time, I don't know what it's going to sound like when I bring it down here."

But Conrad and Williams are quick to point out that Pilione's voice doesn't sound anything like Mould's.

Conrad describes it as: "Wayne Newton . . . not Wayne Newton, Merle Haggard. It sounds like a country singer singing new wave music with his nuts in a clamp."

Load's sound has offered members a small following and some regular shows at Cafe 210 West, 210 W. College Ave. The band plans to go into an area studio and record a demo in a few weeks.

While the band itself may be experiencing some success, Williams admitted he and his bandmates are deep in debt.

Just how poor? Pilione said, "I'm so poor, I can't pay attention."

In typical Load fashion, band members are finding ways to pay the bills and keep playing. Williams boils his old bass strings, a technique used to freshen the strings, instead buying new ones, and Conrad drums with Man Alive for some extra cash.

But one thing members haven't fully been able to avoid: "We don't want to do covers," Williams said.

Members have decided to move to Durham, N.C. in August, away from a town where cover bands dominate the bar scene. Williams has lived in Charlotte and basically convinced the band that the South would be the best place to gain acceptance.

Although the band is still at the stage where Pilione has to have his lyric sheets in front of him during shows, Load might be the next big thing to come through the Chapel Hill, N.C. area since Superchunk. At least, maybe they'll get a better practice space.