POP MUSIC REVIEW : Lunachicks Improve Their Act

Meet the Lunachicks, sort of a gimmicky New York female funny-punk band--its first album was called “Babysitters on Acid”--trying to transform itself into one of those tight, ultra-political grrrl bands that are all the underground rage. At a Coconut Teaszer on Thursday, the Lunachicks’ sound was monochromatic, tight and clean, a big improvement from last year. The crowd, heavy on rock ‘n’ roll women and the sort of dudes who wear tall, floppy stocking caps, grooved on the band.

The band rides a thick, blocky guitar sound, standard-issue double-time hard-core punk beats, auctioneer-speed vocals--like the Ramones, but without that group’s sense of structure or pop hooks, except when sped up to Dickies’ pop-thrash pace or slowed to a harder-rocking Cosmic Psychos or L7 tempo.

Still, this is about as political as the cheerfully offensive Lunachicks got all night: “There was this big scare that Snapple was sponsoring pro-life groups, but they’re not. So this is a song about how much we love Snapple.”

Maybe the Lunachicks are still a gimmicky funny-punk band, but a more professional one.