ALBUM REVIEWS : Mirainga Scores on Raw Power

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MR. MIRAINGA

“[Expletive] the Scene”

Way Cool Music (vinyl and cassette only)

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This four-song EP is an auspicious debut for Mr. Mirainga, an Orange County (by way of Arizona) foursome, and for its locally based record company, a boutique label co-owned by entertainment giant MCA.

Mr. Mirainga (pronounced muh-RAIN-gay) doesn’t echo all the other punk-pop bands squirming for KROQ play, but, at the same time, its sound rests on familiar foundations that could draw in the large audience for neo-hard rock.

Singer Palms Poturalski, besides having one of the great new monikers in rock, can pipe up with a high, stringy yowl that sounds like such famous and bankable forebears as Perry Farrell and “Ziggy Stardust”-era David Bowie. Poturalski adds his own twist by taking his precursors’ stylized glam-theatricality and garbing it in the everyday dust of a sad-sack working (or work-shirking) schmo’s life.

On “Loaded,” he’s a lonely booze-hound, shunned by friends who can no longer stomach his excess. On “[Expletive] Go” (Mr. Mirainga’s titles pose certain syntactic challenges to a family newspaper), his protagonist is stuck in a rotten job and just waking up to the realization that life isn’t what he’d dreamed it would be. With scenarios like those, Mirainga could be the missing link between punk rock and Merle Haggard.

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Anchored by the onetime D.I. rhythm section of bassist Hedge and drummer Stevie Drt, the band hits with raw, clean power. The guitars scrape like steel claws, and the use of congas and other syncopating percussion lets the music do a lurching dance beyond the margins of commonplace punk.

“Loaded” does recycle overworked Seattle-style slab-chords, but there’s an overall sense here that Mirainga aspires to range freely in search of biting and catchy hard rock. This EP brings it back alive, with production help from Frank Agnew, the former Adolescents guitarist who is one of the most innately musical and stylistically omnivorous products of the early-’80s O.C. punk explosion.

Also on tap from the band is “Burnin’ Rubber,” a rowdily revving but yearning take on the old call-of-the-open-road theme; it isn’t on the EP but will be the first video and single from the upcoming “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” film soundtrack album.

Whatever a Mirainga might be, this first taste assures us that it’s not a lemon.

* Mr. Mirainga (with Sublime, the Grabbers and the Ziggens) plays Friday at 9 p.m. at the San Bernardino Arena, 137 S. G St . , San Bernardino. $10. (909) 715-2252.

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Purple Bosco

“Deeper”

I.R.S.

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This Huntington Beach power-rock trio plays with skill, variety and cohesiveness, but forgettable songwriting holds back its album debut. The chops to muster thrusting drive or biting funk are there, as Purple Bosco stirs in a batch of psychedelic Hendrix, a dash of Red Hot Chili Peppers and a taste of Metallica to go with its punk influences.

Lost in the mix are the melodies needed to sustain interest. “Walkin’ in the Sand” heats up a nice hook for the chorus but can’t follow through with catchy verses; this incompleteness in the writing dogs the album.

Guitarist Dale Anderson’s chesty voice is sturdy enough as he sings undistinguished lyrics about thorny relationships and their spiteful aftermaths, but he is too familiarly Vedderish to register without top-notch material.

The best songs come from the Police (a frenzied, punk-leaning “Truth Hits Everybody”) and the catalogue of ‘60s surf-instrumental classics (a good, psychedelicized run through the Pyramids’ “Penetration”). Purple Bosco might be worth a sip for fans who just want a band that can rumble and jam, but it isn’t flavorful enough for listeners who also need a tune to carry them along.