Party Animals Flocking to Ugly Kid Joe’s Debut Album

“Booze, women, booze, women, booze, women.”

Ugly Kid Joe’s singer Whitfield Crane IV, eyes closed and a goofy grin on his face, was recalling a recent night in Daytona Beach during spring break. “It was the best night of my life,” he said wistfully.

The group’s chief creative force, guitarist Klaus Eichstadt, sitting across the table during breakfast in Westwood, volunteered a bit of information about that Florida fling: “One night he was so drunk a bellboy had to take him up to his room in a wheelchair.”

Juvenile frat-boy behavior?

Some would say that. But many rowdy young metal-heads find it irresistible. These are the fans who have suddenly made Ugly Kid Joe’s first record, the Mercury Records EP (extended play mini-album) “As Ugly as They Want to Be,” a surprise force on the Billboard sales chart in the last month. This week it’s settled in at No. 13.

“This EP is for party animals everywhere,” said Crane, who will front the band when it opens for Ozzy Osbourne on Thursday at the Long Beach Arena.

The EP’s rowdy, bawdy, hang-loose spirit and irreverent songs like “Madman” (about a psycho on the loose in Disneyland) have also struck a nerve with the collegiate, sun ‘n’ surf crowd that Ugly Kid Joe has been playing for in the Santa Barbara area in recent years.

“I wish I could do nothing but party all night and play music all day,” Crane said. “That’s my idea of heaven.”

Some of the music sounds as if it was recorded after a drunken party--rough and unpolished, with a garage-band feel. “We made this EP in six days, with only one day for the vocals,” Eichstadt said. “There are a lot of mistakes on it. I cringe when I listen to them now.”

Eichstadt and Crane, both 24, grew up together in Palo Alto. A few years ago they were hanging out in Santa Barbara when they decided to start a band. The membership, which includes guitarist Roger Lahr and drummer Mark Davis, was completed about a year ago when bassist Cordell Crockett joined up.

They were playing clubs and bars in the Santa Barbara area when Mercury Records talent scouts, after listening to a tape, offered a deal.

The label decided to introduce Ugly Kid Joe with the low-cost, five-song EP last October, hoping for sales of 15,000. “As Ugly As They Want to Be” has now passed the half-million mark after picking up steam six weeks ago, and Ugly Kid Joe is set to record a full album for summer release. By then, the group will be in the middle of a tour with Osbourne--their rock ‘n’ roll hero.

“He was an incredible influence on me,” said Eichstadt, excited at the prospect of meeting Osbourne at Thursday’s Long Beach concert. “When I was about 15 I used to dream I was in Ozzy’s band--that I was (the late guitarist) Randy Rhoads playing next to Ozzy.”

Added Crane, “If my house was burning down, I’d grab my Ozzy records and run.”

U2 Bomb: No, U2 is not calling for the bombing of Japan. A report that supposedly created an international incident is all a big misunderstanding, according to the Irish band.

The flap began when an Atlanta Journal and Constitution review reported that the phrase “Bomb Japan Now” appeared among the words being flashed on TV screens during U2’s Atlanta concert.

But, according to group spokeswoman Regine Moylett, the words were among a stream of about 60 words flashed rapid-fire on the screens, but were separated by others words and didn’t have the meaning the newspaper suggested. The section in question: “. . . except you bomb whore ultimately Japan chaos I want everything I want it now gun.”

In a prepared statement, the band said: “U2 have no wish to offend the people of Japan, where they have many fans.”