POP MUSIC REVIEW : Lack of Focus Hampers Set by Magnuson

Rock and modern art have often been an uneasy alliance--just ask Yoko Ono.

Actress and performance artist Ann Magnuson has frequently tapped that uncomfortable quality in her own musical ventures, notably the noisy dream/nightmare records by Bongwater and the Village folk parodies of the trio Bleeker Street Incident.

Premiering her latest rock act at LunaPark on Sunday in advance of her major-label debut album, Magnuson again mixed the friendly with the fiendish, but lacked artistic focus.

Part pixie, part vixen in pigtails and tight, white vinyl, Magnuson sometimes smiled serenely and sometimes howled maniacally. Often she did both at once as she and her band--billed this night as Super Session and anchored by the sturdy drumming of noted visual artist Mike Kelley--trod just to the left of rock conventions with emphases on Zeppelinesque riffage and unkempt ‘60s garage-rock.

In art terms, it was an exhibit of deconstructionism, with the music largely built on familiar-sounding fragments and Magnuson’s lyrics and persona aggressively tearing apart female images and stereotypes. The problem is that the great art-rock intersections--the Velvet Underground, John Lydon, Sonic Youth--revolved around invigorating re constructions. Magnuson and band failed to show a talent for that Sunday.

The best moment came in the encores, when Magnuson returned to the stage in a babydoll nightie to sing an obscure, raunchy Troggs song. A parody of Courtney Love? Maybe, maybe not. But for art or rock of this stripe, sometimes it’s best to leave ‘em guessing.