Denton, Texas, band Brave Combo has taken its eclectic sense of songwriting to TV to score the first prime-time animated series on PBS.

Brave Combo recorded the music for “Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns,” the new TV show for longtime “Car Talk” brothers and partners in car-talk shenanigans, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, who started their popular National Public Radio call-in show 31 years ago in Boston.

On the radio, the Click and Clack Tappet brothers have both humored and helped listeners with their automobile conundrums. The first TV show episode aired Wednesday on PBS stations.

And Brave Combo, led by Texarkana native and Texas High School graduate Carl Finch, appears a natural fit for “As the Wrench Turns” with music that’s energetic, fun, and whimsical.

“There’s a lot of variety in the musical needs of the show,” said Finch.

And that’s tuned right to Brave Combo’s way of thinking, musically speaking. Brave Combo has, in its 28 years, become well-versed in polka, jazz, rock, zydeco, cocktail tunes and other forms of music taken for a spin by the band. They’ve also earned two Grammy wins for their albums.

Finch said the band already knew the radio show producers and had worked with the “Click & Clack” combo before. After interest was expressed in Brave Combo doing the TV show’s theme song (the band’s version of the “William Tell Overture”), the show’s producers then asked for the whole season of 10 shows, he said.

“I think they felt like we were the right pick,” Finch said, noting the idea of the band was to start out as a rock band that also wanted to elevate other forms of music, like polka, into their songwriting. That led, for example, to exploring different types of polka like Czech and Mexican.

“We allow ourselves to dig very deeply into whatever music we are playing,” said Finch.

He said the band will kick back and see what happens with the TV series. For now, the band is enjoying the continued success.

“The best thing about it is we’re getting paid really well for having a lot of fun,” said Finch.

The Brave Combo crew—which consists of Finch, Jeffrey Barnes, Danny O’Brien, Arjuna Contreras and Ann Marie Harrop—has had music used in several other TV shows and movies, including the flicks “True Stories,” “Envy,” and “Fools Rush In,” as well as TV shows “Ugly Betty,” “The Simpsons,” and “History Detectives.”

In “The Simpsons,” a cartoon version of the band appeared.

“Click & Clack’s As the Wrench Turns” will next air Wednesday at 7 p.m. (Check local listings as times may vary.)



(On the Net: www.pbs.org/wrenchturns and www.brave.com.)