NIGHT LIFE: THE CLUB SCENE : Loud Vision : Listening to The Jesus and Mary Chain is like being kissed and kicked at the same time.

The Scottish rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain probably won’t get a lot of work doing Optimist Club fund-raisers. Not with songs such as “Head On” which features lyrics such as:

“And the way I feel tonight I could die and I wouldn’t mind.

And there’s something going on inside.

Makes you want to feel makes you want to try.

Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky.

I can’t stand up I can’t cool down.

I can’t get my head off the ground.”

The Jesus and Mary Chain are just the latest (and maybe greatest) soundtrack for all the weirdos in black who spend hours in front of the mirror practicing the blank “duh” look. Their fourth album, “Automatic,” is the band’s most successful effort yet and KROQ seemingly plays “Head On” every 15 minutes. And why not? It’s one great rock song--if you’re not looking pained, you’ll be dancing.

The Jesus and Mary Chain is the vision--a real loud vision--of brothers Jim and William Reid. Both play guitar and sing; William creates the feedback-crazy guitar sound while Jim sings like Lou Reed on downers. Richard Thomas on drums and Douglas Hart on bass complete the band.

The groups’s 1985 debut blew everybody’s mind, at least those who didn’t go deaf. It was loud--like a car crash in the machine shop. It was all about pounding guitar feedback with subtle, even mellow melodies: like being kissed and kicked at the same time. “Psychocandy” made just about every critic’s Top 10 list for 1985 and featured bunches of great Angst-laden tunes such as “Just Like Honey,” “Cut Dead,” “You Trip Me Up” and “Inside Me.” It was music to hang yourself by, with a great beat.

The next album, “Darklands” in 1987, featured less feedback (but still enough guitars for five other bands) and a lot more hooks. It’s worth the drive just to hear them do “Happy When It Rains.” “Darklands” was another Top 10 album.

“Barbed Wire Kisses” was the 1988 release featuring assorted B-sides and other weird stuff, the bands’s cover of “Surfin’ USA” being weirdest of all. The Beach Boys, obviously Californians, knew what they were talking about when they sang about all the famous SoCal surf spots, “Ventura county line . . . San Onofre and Sunland, Redondo Beach, L.A.” or “ . . . you’ll see ‘em wearin’ their baggies, huarache sandals, too. . . .” Anyway, this comes out much different when The Jesus and Mary Chain try it--either they don’t surf or don’t own an atlas, probably both. Let’s just say they don’t quite get it right.

The latest album, “Automatic,” released in November is the best yet, featuring plenty of depressing rockers. Probably the best album of 1989, this contains memorable songs such as “Here Comes Alice,” “Coast to Coast,” “Between Planets,” “Head On” and “Halfway to Crazy.”

Local radio has done its usual nothing in support of good new music such as this, instead continuing to inflict dinosaur rock and disco jive upon us. You need to get KROQ to get The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Now here is a band with four excellent albums and at least 15 or 20 excellent songs. How many concerts have you been to, just to see some band do one or two good songs? The Jesus And Mary Chain will be at The Ventura Theatre on Tuesday. Bring earplugs. Wear black.