GYROMATICS’ MUSIC HITS A NEW CYCLE

When the Gyromatics debuted on the local music scene in 1982, the Huntington Beach-based quintet was clearly a long shot. The band’s music--originally a slightly twisted merging of Western swing and rockabilly--was among the most inventive and enjoyable around, but it wasn’t a style you’d figure would soon be topping the pop charts.

Much has changed for the group in recent months, however, and with the release of a new four-song, extended-play record--”Attack of the Tikis from Outer Space!”--the Gyromatics is beginning to look more like a front-runner in the race for commercial success.

One of the biggest changes for the band was the addition in 1985 of bassist John Wheeler. Wheeler replaced bassist Bob Petersen, who often shared the spotlight with lead singer Floyd Elliot and also contributed songs. (Rounding out the lineup are Ron Eglit, guitar and steel guitar; Alan Palmer, saxophones, keyboards and lyricon, and Tim Leitch, drums.)

“When John joined the band, that put the focus back on Floyd, which is how I envisioned the band when I started it 3 1/2 years ago,” Eglit said during an interview this week at his Huntington Beach residence, which also houses the band’s rehearsal studio. “I’m real happy with our musical direction now.”

Although Elliot’s resounding baritone still sounds like it would be most comfortable crooning cowboy ballads about the lone prairie, it is surprisingly at home on newer songs that have more in common with the percolator pop of Oingo Boingo than the laconic “ah-hah’s” of Bob Wills.

The record’s sci-fi surf-rocking title tune, the reggae flavored “Got to Get a Job,” the quirky “Party Zombie” and the extraterrestrial Western “Sacred Cowboys” should also give the group a better chance of appealing to pop music’s all-important teen population.

“Personally, I felt that the swing stuff wouldn’t be good as the mainstay of the band,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t tell anybody that when I joined the band, but when I write a song it’s not swing because I don’t write swing. We still do swing, but I think the other songs have a better chance of getting on the radio.”

Yet the band members insist that their musical evolution is a natural progression rather than a calculated move designed to sell records.

“Did we get more commercial? In a way we did, but not intentionally,” Eglit said. “It’s what we still like to do and what is creative in terms of the band, yet maybe a little bit more accessible.”

Said Leitch: “We’re interested in getting signed and making money. Of course if this doesn’t work we’ve got a whole bubble-gum package waiting: ‘The Gyromatics Sing the Archies’ Greatest Hits.’ ”

That pervasive sense of humor is also evident in the group’s “mascot”--the faceplate of a 1950s-vintage Bendix washing machine emblazoned with the term “gyromatic.”

The Gyromatics’ musical eclecticism, however, is neither a joke nor a pose, and the members profess to have a genuine affinity for a variety of musical styles. Leitch--a k a drummer Spit Stix of the Los Angeles punk band Fear--enjoys Arabic, reggae and other ethnic music, while Palmer frequently performs on locally made Vietnamese pop records.

“We like anything that’s good,” Eglit said. He said he and Elliot are enamored of Indian pop music as well as Eastern philosophy and religion, which partially explains such songs as “Sacred Cowboys” and “I Wanna Be a Hindu.”

But the group’s fascination with India was initially triggered in the unlikely locale of Fullerton, Elliot said.

“I used to live in Fullerton and I was walking down the street and all of a sudden I saw this guy dressed up in his turban and serape or whatever it’s called (a dhoti ), and I thought: ‘My, it must be hard being Hindu in Fullerton,’ ” Elliot said.

Yet nearly as difficult a task is being an original music act in Orange County. Like other groups on the way up, the Gyromatics are feeling the pinch of the county’s limited club scene. Lately, the group has appeared primarily at the Sunset Pub in Sunset Beach, where it will play tonight and Saturday, and Perk’s in Huntington Beach, where the band will play four days beginning Jan. 30.

But even with those frequent performances, in addition to periodic shows at a few other Orange County clubs, band members are anxious to break into the Los Angeles club circuit.

“We love Orange County,” Eglit said, “but we just can’t do it here. There’s nothing here. The Golden Bear is great, but it’s just not getting us anywhere to keep playing the same clubs.”

Added Elliot, with his characteristic deadpan delivery: “(Orange County clubs) still want to book us at 11 p.m. on Sunday nights, and we’re rock gods. We want to open for God.”

AROUND TOWN: Rock records, posters, buttons, T-shirts and a variety of memorabilia will be offered more than 40 exhibitors at Sunday’s Orange County Record Swap Meet at Quality Inn in Anaheim. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission for buyers is $2. The hotel is at 616 W. Convention Way. . . . A new monthly jazz series titled “Jazz at the Yacht Club” brings vocalist Ruth Price to the Capistrano Bay Yacht Club in Dana Point Harbor on Thursday for two shows. Shows at 7 and 9 p.m. will also feature clarinetist Mort Weiss. The yacht club is at 34555 Casitas Place. For additional information, call (714) 498-0188.

LIVE ACTION: Eddie & the Tide will play Wednesday at Louie Louie’s, 777 S. Main St. in Orange. . . . Ex-Plimsouls leader Peter Case will be at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach on Jan. 31. . . . King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew will perform at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach on Feb. 7.