PUNK-FUNK BAND SPECIALIZES IN THE UNEXPECTED

You know you’re not dealing with any ordinary rock band when one member shows up for a rehearsal in a T-shirt emblazoned with the grimacing image of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider while another is sporting the logo of Los Angeles punk band Fear.

The apparent dichotomy is, however, representative of the sense of the unexpected that characterizes El Grupo Sexo, an Orange County punk-funk band whose outrageously theatrical stage shows have made it one of the most talked about acts on the local music scene.

“We listen to so many different things,” said guitarist-accordionplayer Don Carroll during a group interview earlier this week at a Santa Ana practice studio. “I started out liking Emerson, Lake & Palmer, then moved to the Sex Pistols and then to Parliament-Funkadelic.” Maintaining a deadpan expression, he added, “It’s a natural progression.”

In addition to opening for the Minutemen on Sunday at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach, El Grupo Sexo will be at Madame Wong’s in Los Angeles’ Chinatown on Aug. 16 and at Spatz in Huntington Harbour on Aug. 17 and 30.

The seven-member band was formed in 1982 as a merger of two other groups, the Front and the Firemen. The Firemen gained local fame briefly for its parody hit “Jocko Bozo,” which incorporated Devo’s “Jocko Homo” with the theme songs from the “Bozo the Clown” and “Green Acres” television shows.

“That tells you what we listen to more--TV, not the radio,” said Carroll, who is joined in the group by lead singer and guitarist Jason Mann, tenor saxophonist Vince Meghrouni, bassist John Karasawa, woodwind player Robley Atherton, trumpeter Dave Otto and drummer Miles Gillett.

Mann said the band’s name came about because “we were wondering how to get noticed in a market where all these other bands are using sexual innuendo and we have none.”

“Somebody joked, ‘We might as well be called the Sex Band.’ So we decided to come right out with it--El Grupo Sexo, the Mexican Sex Band,” Mann said.

Although the band strives to have fun on stage, Mann said, “We don’t want to be thought of as a comedy or a novelty band. We aren’t.”

Explained Carroll, “George Clinton said that good funk should make you feel like no matter how bad things are, it’ll be OK by Thursday.”

El Grupo Sexo’s sound is based in propulsive, horn-accented dance music. But the band also displays an eclecticism that is instinctively humorous and intellectually stimulating.

At a recent performance at Safari Sam’s, the group played a song called “Cranberry Castaways,” for which each band member portrayed a “Gilligan’s Island” character while singing the show’s theme song to the tune of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret.”

Another musical marriage that is part of the group’s act is “Like a War Pig,” which merges Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” with Black Sabbath’s “War Pig.” (“They actually go together very well,” Carroll said.)

If there is a point to be made, it is in the whole the group forges from the diverse parts.

“We’d like to break down the barriers between the different demographic groups, like punk and heavy metal, put a stop to the polarization and, you know, end all wars,” Meghrouni said, punctuating the last part of his comment with a wry smile.

“I think the intensity in our music is the common denominator,” Mann said.

Added Carroll, “I think if you give audiences some credit and let them decide for themselves, they won’t automatically hate something just because it’s different.”

Yet to record companies that often shy away from anything that can not be instantly categorized, El Grupo Sexo’s chief asset--its individuality--could be a liability to commercial success. So although the group has been performing on the local circuit for three years, it has yet to land a record deal.

“Maybe that’s why it’s taken us so long to get noticed,” Mann said. “Maybe it holds us back because we’re not a punk band, or a funk band, or a jazz band or a heavy metal band, but we’ve got elements of each.”

Added Meghrouni, “People have been asking us for three years what kind of music we play and we still don’t have an answer.”

“We feel it can happen, if anybody out there is ready for it,” Mann continued. “There was a time when we thought the band was never going to happen on a big scale, but we just keep on going. I don’t think I’d ever want to be accepted by the whole, mainstream audience. If we ever had a hit across the AM dial,” he added with a devious laugh, “we’d probably do something terrible to destroy it.”

FROTHY FINALE: Lone Justice concluded its five-week stint opening for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with a high-spirited performance Sunday at the Pacific Amphitheatre that was capped by a climax worthy of the Three Stooges. Toward the end of the quintet’s set, as lead singer Maria McKee was belting out “Wait ‘Til We Get Home,” members of the band’s road crew apparently caught the musicians by surprise by pelting them with a volley of whipped cream pies. Although much of the audience had been only partially attentive during the rest of the set, the crowd responded to the pie-throwing incident by jumping to its feet and offering a thunderous round of applause. McKee laughed, shrugged and said, “After all that, this is what it takes to get a standing ovation?”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Sunday for the Y&T;, Helix and Mama’s Boys concert at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Sept. 6. Tickets will be available Monday for shows Sept. 14 with X and Oct. 19 with Kenny Loggins. . . . The Dio-Rough Cutt concert Aug. 16 at the Pacific Amphitheatre has been canceled. Refunds are available at point of purchase. . . . The Joneses will be at Radio City in Anaheim on Aug. 30. . . . Bill Monroe returns to the Crazy Horse Steak House on Aug. 26. . . . Social Distortion will play Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach on Aug. 19-20.