MC 900 Ft Jesus Finds More Converts for His Tall Tales

MC 900 Ft Jesus is entering the 11th minute of his surreal monologue “New Moon.” With squinting eyes and a wide grin, the large, skinheaded performer stands on the stage of the Viper Room and strikes a smooth vocal cadence while his band contributes minimalist breaths of jazz. The audience is transfixed, waiting for the next turn of events in this quirky tale of a speed-demon heroine.

MC 900 Ft Jesus, whose real name is Mark Griffin, has been drawing this kind of attention since the release last summer of his album “One Step Ahead of the Spider,” which marks the Dallas-based Griffin’s move from the deep industrial/hip-hop underground into the broader alternative-rock world.

The album reached the Top 5 of the college radio airplay chart, and, after a tour in which he headlined the Palace, Griffin is back on the road as the opening act for the high-profile Cranberries--including shows on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Wiltern Theatre.

Griffin has made his move with a peculiar blend of words and music that falls somewhere between rap and the trendy spoken-word style.

“Originally I was trying to do something more rap-like, more metered and rhymed, but I kept running up against this brick wall of corniness,” says Griffin, sitting in a Hollywood diner. “It was just hokey. It had a bad, fake, beatnik vibe, and I just couldn’t make it any better than that. Eventually I thought, ‘Just tell the story and stop trying to be so clever.’ ”

Storytelling is one of the many strengths of “Spider,” his third album and major-label debut. The 38-year-old Griffin, who looks more like a fresh-faced 25-year-old, ranges from smoky, seedy drawl to sharp, cynical hiss while spinning tales of cranky couch potatoes and car rides into the abyss.

The music, which is played by up to nine musicians, is cool and laid-back, encompassing hip-hop beats, Eastern exotica and Miles Davis-like melodies. Griffin, a trained trumpeter, even does Davis’ “Stare and Stare” on the album.

“Late-’60s/early-’70s jazz fusion and funk is probably the strongest influence in there, then whatever else springs to mind,” says Griffin, who also plays guitar and keyboards. “That’s how I write songs. The more weird, left-field ideas I can throw into it, the happier I am. I just dump a whole bunch of stuff into the soup and see what happens.”

Growing up in Cincinnati, Griffin started out playing clarinet, but switched to trumpet in sixth grade after listening to his parents’ Tijuana Brass albums. He got a music scholarship to Kentucky’s Morehead State University and, after graduating, did his straight time playing commercial jingles, backing Engelbert Humperdinck when he appeared in town, and playing at an amusement park in Cincinnati.

“By the end of the season you’re playing your part while reading a copy of Time magazine,” he says of his show-tune gig at King’s Island. “You literally become a robot, just vaguely aware of the part you’re playing.

“I hated it and had a mini nervous breakdown and moved from Cincinnati to Dallas with a friend. I started playing guitar and trying to be conceptual artist doing these incredible, obtuse performances that no one would get. They were pointless exercises in showing myself how clever I am. That’s how I spent the ‘80s, embarrassing myself.”

He then started MC 900 Ft Jesus (the name was inspired by a vision evangelist Oral Roberts reported seeing), playing a mechanized, straight-ahead dance sound inspired by the many underground singles that came through the record shop where he worked.

He saved enough money to buy a sampler and press 2,000 copies of his own EP. The release created a fanzine buzz, and Vancouver-based independent label Nettwerk signed him in 1990. He put out two albums for Nettwerk, along the way adding real musicians and edging toward the sound that attracted the interest of American Recordings, which signed him last fall.

Although it’s the oddball appeal of Griffin’s music that has elevated him from record-store clerk to major-label artist, he strives to keep his work from becoming exclusive and obscure.

“I could make a record of just my esoteric jokes and all the (obscure) things I throw in, then say, ‘If you don’t get it you obviously aren’t intelligent enough.’ But to me that’s not the point. I want something that has a groove you can get into without even necessarily listening to the words.”

* MC 900 Ft Jesus appears with the Cranberries and Gigolo Aunts Tuesday and Wednesday at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., 8 p.m. Sold out. (213) 380-5005.

POP DATE BOOK

Tickets go on sale today for the concert featuring the metal band Slayer at the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 15.