Dog might or might not be your copilot — feline fanciers wouldn't stand for it, and "tac" makes no sense, anyway — but spelling things backward is fun. That is, it's fun unless you're a nun named Otto, and then it doesn't matter.

All of this brings us to the band Emilbus, which gets its backward name from Sublime, the groundbreaking ska-punk group from Long Beach that rose to fame in the early 1990s and then quickly flamed out.

Emilbus, set to play Sublime's biggies Friday night at Sans Souci in Ventura, has thus far managed to avoid going out like a rock star and overdosing on heroin, which is what Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell did in May 1996, leaving behind millions of stunned fans and lots of cool songs.

Picking up the musical pieces is Emilbus. We're talking about the Oxnard-based Emilbus, by the way, not the other backward-named Sublime tribute band that hails from Portugal.

Once upon a time, Sublime had it going on with a bunch of catchy reggae-flavored punk songs like "Santeria," "Same in the End" and "Wrong Way." In fact, the group had a gig scheduled at Nicholby's in Ventura on that fateful Memorial Day weekend 11 years ago when Nowell died.

In an ironic twist, the party people's choice out of Oxnard, the Ska Daddyz, was scheduled to open the show. Sort of like Raging Arb & the Redheads except from Silver Strand, the Ska Daddyz provided the soundtrack for drinking, dancing and more drinking, setting a series of new lows during countless weekend gigs at the Bombay Bar & Grill in Ventura.

Two members from Ska Daddyz, guitar player Darren "Zorba" Cruz and keyboard player Billy Davis, are in Emilbus.

Cruz, still as funny as ever, says the Ska Daddyz are poised to make a comeback later in the year, but for now, he's concentrating on Emilbus. To that end, he consented to a recent grilling about his new cover band.

So what's up with that band from Portugal with the funny name, Emilbus?

Oh, you saw that? You know what? It's all the same and we're doing it for a good cause. We're not trying to trademark anything and maybe we can connect with the boys in Portugal. My mom lives there.

Sublime spelled backward? What's up with that?

It's like when you look in your rearview mirror at an ambulance. You can actually read it.

Um, that's right and weird. So who's in the band?

There's myself, Bobby Campbell on vocals, Gabe Hernandez on bass, Alex Iker on drums.

How do you spell "Iker"?

Um, I-k-e-r? Who cares? He's never had his name in the paper before, so he won't mind. There's Linus on percussion, just like the Snoopy guy. And Billy Davis on keyboards.

How long has the band been together?

Since the beginning of summer. We're rolling — we haven't even changed members yet. We've played about 20 times. We've played at the Beachcomber, the Moorpark fireworks show. We're playing at the Sans Souci on the 31st, and the Cali Bud Crew is going to be on the bill with us. They're just one crewman now, Paul Shinn.

Why Sublime and not Slayer or Kenny G?

Growing up in the day with Ska Daddyz, we got to play with No Doubt and Sublime, and when the Ska Daddyz did cover songs, we covered Sublime. It's righteous music, and I've never heard one person say anything bad about Sublime.

Allow me to be the first: Overdosing on heroin is a bad career move.

You know what? We were scheduled to play with them at Nicholby's that night.

I remember. I came back early from a Civil War re-enactment that Memorial Day weekend and cruised Main Street past the club and everything was dark.

Yeah, it was insane. I work for the Santa Barbara Bowl now as a rigger and the other night, Gwen Stefani came off stage surrounded by her entourage. She wasn't stopping to talk to anybody. But I yelled out, "Hey, Gwen — it's Zorba from the Ska Daddyz!" That stopped her in her tracks and she made time to come back to say, "Hi, how you guys doing?"

How many Sublime songs do you guys know?

Fifty. We're just a straight-up Sublime tribute band. We're donating 10 percent of whatever we make to the Bradley Nowell Kid Foundation, or whatever it is. What we're doing is nothing but respect. We'll get a hold of their record label — Skunk Records — and say, "Look here — we're making money," so bimonthly, we'll send them something. It's just to pay homage. If I died, I hope somebody would do something for me, although I can't imagine a Ska Daddyz tribute band.

Maybe a Ska Daddyz tribute drinking team. How was your return to the Bombay, this time as part of Emilbus?

It was good. They want us to do it again as soon as we can; you might be seeing us doing Fridays and Saturdays there again. We bring a lot of people.

What was your craziest gig so far?

That would have to be my dad's funeral. You're not going to love this, but print it anyway: He was the biggest USC fan in the world. I got pictures of him with Matt Leinert and Jake Rogers and all that, so if you see me at a gig wearing a USC jersey, it's homage to my dad.

What's the Emilbus plan?

To just spread the love of playing music again. You know, I saw two girls that used to come see the Ska Daddyz at Bombay and they were, like, 40. And they still look good. And Sublime will never die and I don't think I will, either — in this decade. We play and learn it just the way it is on the albums, so that means we put a lot of time and effort into it.

You've seen a few bands and clubs come and go. What do you think the scene could use the most?

The scene needs to be back to original bands like Lion I's, Raging Arb, Ska Daddyz, Bloody Mary Morning, April's Motel Room, The Upbeat. I think the clubs need to give live music another shot. The Alpine's the only one that's doing anything and it's pretty much angry grunge.

Try the Red Cove.

We're going to play every dive bar in America.

— E-mail music writer Bill Locey at blocey@pacbell.net.