The Wonder Stuff: Parental Guidance

The purpose of rock ‘n’ roll?

Miles Hunt, lead singer of the English band the Wonder Stuff, holds to the traditional view that it’s to annoy parents. That’s why he’s delighted to see British teens latching on to the sounds and styles of such “acid revival” bands as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, even if he doesn’t always care for that music and fashion himself.

“I think it’s brilliant that this music is around and 15-year-old kids are getting into it and they know it’s wrong but that’s why they get into it,” he said by phone from his manager’s London office.

But Hunt, 23, admits that he is an exception to his own rule--his parents actively cultivated his love for rebellious rock.

“My dad bought me the Sex Pistols album for Christmas when I was about 10 and said, ‘You ought to listen to this, I think it’s important,’ ” he said. Meantime, all his friends had to hide the same record under their beds.

“My parents taught me to do what you . . . like, basically,” he said in a conversation peppered with expletives. “Don’t mill around being a (jerk). If you’ve got a point, get to it. I don’t like doing anything by halves, and that’s what they instilled in me.”

But if his rock ‘n’ roll attitude hasn’t offended his parents, it has offended others, notably the British rock press. He alienated many last year while the band was promoting its debut album, “The Eight Legged Groove Machine,” which introduced the Wonder Stuff’s brew of edgy garage-pop.

“That’s probably more my fault than anything, because I’m not one for particularly being reasonable,” Hunt said. “If I have something on my mind I come out and say it. I probably asked for it. I’ve kind of mellowed a little bit since then.”

He really asked for it when he mouthed off about the band the Mission U.K. But once he met the group all turned out well, and the two outfits are fast friends--in fact, they’re touring together, with the Wonder Stuff opening the shows. The bill plays the Hollywood Palladium on May 11.

“It was a jealousy thing really,” Hunt said of his initial dislike for the Mission. “I had a pet hate for them because they were big. But I like their music and these days I can’t be bothered with jealousy.”

Which isn’t to say he’s through mouthing off. With a second album, “Hup,” doing well in England and drawing considerable alternative-market attention in the U.S., Hunt is feeling his oats again.

“You want to (mess) with us, we’ll (mess) with anyone, ‘cause we feel strong again,” he said. “We got to the point last year where it got too easy. . . . But there’s a good mood about the band and we’re ready to (mess) with people again.”