Dan Lukacinsky doesn't worry about being called a sellout.

Even if signing to a major label does go against the official DIY handbook of indie/punk kids.

"There's a group of those in every city," sighs Lukacinsky, guitarist and main songwriter in ska-punk band The Suicide Machines.

"I started going to shows when I was 14," he says. "It was way different back then -- it was genuinely underground. Major labels would never have touched any of the punk stuff they're doing today, back then.

"A band would have to change their sound to even be considered, so calling someone a sellout back then actually carried some weight. It certainly doesn't today."

After forming in 1991, the Detroit band quickly became a favorite opener of bands such as the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid and Buck-o-Nine, who they play with tonight at the Republik.

Although ska-punk's current popularity has helped The Suicide Machines -- who originally bore the charming name Jack Kevorkian and the Suicide Machines -- the band has little in common lyrics-wise with many other groups in the genre.

"A lot of the southern California ska-punk is mainly about being silly," says Lukacinsky. "I'm more into stuff that has a message. Detroit is a very working-class town, so we look at things from that perspective."

Lukacinsky says the band's success is largely due to their determination to keep touring.

"To get out of the city was a big deal for us at first, especially being from Detroit," he says. "There's a lot of talent there that's undiscovered because that area tends to get ignored."

The band's latest CD, Battle Hymns, is a more personal album, according to Lukacinsky, although it still contains the high-energy punk savvy as earlier releases like 1996's Destruction by Definition.

"We have more to say this time. This is the album we wanted to make at the time and I'm sure the next album will be different."