Say it and you think of young guys sporting black T-shirts and permanent scowls, amps cranked to 11, angering the neighbors with, these days, covers of Korn or Creed.

Then there's the corner house on a quiet street just south of Texas Christian University. Had you come to the door and listened last Sunday, you would have heard a few Beatles covers and some of the most original, intelligent and melodic music ever to come out of Cowtown. Space Opera, the city's biggest band in the late '60s and early '70s, was once again hunkered down where they had been practicing since 1969, and once again tuning up for an upcoming hometown gig.

"Yeah, this is where it all started," said vocalist/guitarist Scott Fraser as fellow band members David Bullock, Brett Wilson and Philip White trickled in and took their places.

Now in their 50s and scattered around the Metroplex (except for White, who lives in Colorado), they barely resemble the longhaired guys who filled clubs and opened for (and sometimes bested) acts such as Jethro Tull, the Guess Who and the Jefferson Airplane way back when.

But the music was still as sublime as ever, suffused with ringing harmonies, interesting arrangements and rich ensemble playing.

The band had come together to rehearse for Sunday's show at the Aardvark, but there was even more of a sense of occasion: The show will be the release party for their first recording in 28 years.

Like their 1973 LP, it is also called Space Opera, and like that rare record, it shows the band's ample talents.

"You reach a point where you're not seeking fame and fortune, and when that's gone you go back to what you began doing it for - which is to play with these guys," says Bullock, who produces videos at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "You have a sense of freedom when you realize the big things aren't gonna happen."

Sitting nearby, Wilson nods.

"We've gotten enough positive feedback for us to continue to have a high opinion of ourselves," he says. "That's why the current CD is a pleasant bonus for us."

Indeed, 1973's Space Opera remains unreleased on CD. But it has become a collector's item, even earning praise from England's Mojo, one of the most respected rock mags in the world. Veteran Fort Worth fans' eyes light up at the mention of the band, and via the band's Web site (www.spaceopera.net) the quartet receives praise from around the world.

"They blew my mind every time I went to see them - they were better than anyone else out there," says Mark Lidell, co-owner of Zeke's Fish & Chips. "They didn't catch on because people weren't ready for them."

And because they were never willing to compromise.

Formed in 1969, Space Opera quickly became headliners at The HOP (now the Aardvark) and that same year played the giant Texas International Pop Festival, an all-weekend, Southern-fried version of Woodstock in Lewisville that featured Sly Stone, Freddie King and a then-largely-unknown Led Zeppelin.

Even then, the band was different, and proudly so, even if it meant struggle. Whereas most bands played all covers, Space Opera always played as many originals as possible, even if it meant fewer places to play. And in an era in which hard-rock acts like Grand Funk and Zeppelin were taking over, their music mixed Beatles/Byrds pop with touches of jazz-rock and classical.

"When most of the music being played was three-chord songs and very simple and crude, here's this group writing symphonic music that was completely original," says John Biegel, who owns an Arlington manufacturing company. "I saw them open for the Byrds at Panther Hall, and we were giddy. There was no better American band, and here was our own Space Opera sounding every bit as original and fresh."

The band subsequently headlined a show at Fort Worth's now-defunct Panther Hall, and opened arena shows for Stone and the Guess Who. In November 1970, the band astounded a hometown audience by playing an opening set for the Airplane that featured no breaks between songs - instrumental themes and Bullock's vocals provided the links as band members switched instruments. One of the linking themes, an old Scottish ballad called Awake, resurfaces on the new CD.

Record companies came to call, and the band turned down several offers from major industry players (including Clive Davis at CBS) because they insisted on total artistic control.

Finally, they got what they wanted: Signed to Columbia Records in Canada and the rest of the world and Epic in America, they released Space Opera in 1973.

"We were a fast-moving train," says Fraser. "We were pretty cocky. We knew what we were going to do and we got it done."

But expected promotion and tour support never materialized, and the LP fared poorly on the charts. The band continued to play together, doing its last show at The HOP in 1980.

There was, Fraser says, no bitterness over coming so close to rock stardom and not quite getting it.

"We never broke up," Fraser says. "We just said, 'We'll do this again later.' We all knew really young that what-if's in a person's life don't really exist. To second-guess and construct more successful scenarios is folly. We never felt like we made a mistake."

Bullock and Fraser continued to work together in New York for a while; they both, along with Wilson, settled into domestic lives, with marriages and children.

Finally, in 1997, all the hoopla surrounding the Beatles' Anthology series led Fraser to contact the others and the band about doing a reunion show at Caravan of Dreams.

"I thought, '[The Beatles] have all the money in the world, but they can never go out onstage and do that one thing they took for granted - play together as a band,' " Fraser said at the time. "And then I thought, 'We could get together again - and we'd be better than before.' "

The sold-out December 1997 show was pretty amazing, moving from songs on the old LP to newer material such as Bullock's Vieux Carre, which is on the new CD. Better than before? Debatable. Still unique and worth hearing? Definitely.

The band went into the studio and recorded in 1999, and finally, just a few weeks ago, signed off on the new, 12-track CD.

"It's the closest thing to time travel I can imagine - it's so very cool," says White of playing in the band again. "We started in Scott's garage, and I remember every nook and cranny and smell of it. The word 'reunion' is really thrown around these days - our fans bring their grandchildren. That's a reunion."

And in a way, the members of Space Opera were always anticipating being able to play for decades: Their music was never about easy, dumbed-down hit singles, or a strutting lead singer with a six-pack stomach and leather pants. They always valued musical integrity over selling a million records.

What will happen after the Sunday show, Fraser says, is "anybody's guess." The new CD, he says, is a cleaning of the band's slate. They'll never be four cocky young guys ready to take on the world again, but they still think what they have is very special. And for good reason.

"We thought that if we can make people happy, we'll do it," Fraser says. "We figured out a lot of things growing up - that was part of the time, thinking about the deeper issues.

"You have to seek your joy. Do I want to get onstage with these guys? Hell yeah. Is it going to be as enjoyable as it was? Absolutely. If not more so. Time has absolutely no effect on that whatsoever."

Dave Ferman, (817) 390-7839 dfer@star-telegram.com