AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Is America ready...

AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE: Is America ready for Poguemania? Will pop fans go for head Pogue Shane MacGowan, who looks like he hasn’t brushed his teeth since the end of the Vietnam War? MCA Records has finally released the band’s 1985 record, “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash,” as well as an EP, “Pogeutry in Motion,” with four more recent cuts from the band. (See Record Rack, Page 67.) Meanwhile, Enigma Records (now distributed by Capitol) will get into the act next month too, with the release of the band’s debut album, “Red Roses for Me.” The band is slated to tour the United States this summer, with an L.A. date tentatively scheduled for early July. After that, according to MacGowan, who was recently in New York with the band, playing a few East Coast dates, the band hopes to record an album with Tom Waits handling the production. “We do it like a joke, a joke that we enjoy,” said MacGowan. “We’re not . . . philosophers. If we were, we’d be writing philosophy, but we’re just a bunch of people who like playing music and singing.”