‘Mandy’ Dives Is Pushed Into the Mosh Pit

What do these sets of artists have in common?

Iggy Pop and Barry Manilow.

Johnny Rotten and John Denver.

Patti Smith and Tammy Wynette.

If you ask the punk-rock all-star group known as Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s, the answer is: a whole lot.

The wacky cover band--consisting of members of NOFX, the Foo Fighters, the Swingin’ Utters and Lagwagon--grows out of an irreverent love of old pop tunes, the cornier the better.

And, as their punk-i-fied versions of such mainstream numbers as Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” or Manilow’s “Mandy” prove, all that really separates the seemingly opposing genres is a little speed and a lot of attitude.

The band--which will bring its madcap karaoke-like mania to the main stage of the Warped Tour today at Ventura’s Seaside Park and Friday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum--isn’t trying to make any grand statements.

“Doing covers seemed like the easiest way to get drunk and have fun,” declares singer Spike Slawson, who says he was handpicked for the band by Fat Mike (owner of the Fat Wreck Chords record label and leader of NOFX) from the company’s shipping department because he was always singing everything from Stevie Wonder to Alice Cooper in the office.

Formed in San Francisco in the mid-’90s, the band--which will be joined on the Warped shows by more serious punk acts such as Rancid, the Rollins Band and Pennywise--includes Fat Mike on bass, Chris Shiflett on guitar (now of the Foo Fighters), guitarist Joey Cape and drummer Dave Raun (both in Lagwagon) and singer Slawson (the Swingin’ Utters).

The original plan was to simply release occasional singles of their punk treatments of the pop tunes and play only a few local shows, but they soon found that they’d created a monster.

Their first gig was at Chameleon, a San Francisco bar. The response was mostly positive, but Slawson does remember “looking up and seeing some horrified faces.”

Still, the band rocked on, and after releasing several singles featuring revved-up versions of mostly ‘70s hits from Manilow, Neil Diamond and the like, they compiled the track’s full album, 1997’s “Have a Ball” on Fat Wreck Chords.

A couple of years later, the Gimme Gimme’s tackled show tunes, a choice that would prove as challenging as it was daring.

“We did that because it was so far removed from what we had already done,” explains Jackson, a guitarist in the group who uses a single name. .

Songs From ‘Phantom,’

Show Tunes

D’Evita’ Done in Drag

To match the flamboyance of the material, the band decided to cross-dress on the cover of its second release, ‘99’s “Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s Are a Drag,” which included songs from “Evita” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

The problem was that the album lacked the recognition factor that made the previous release so ironic for the group’s younger fans.

“I think it just confused the 13-year-olds who bought the record,” says Shiflett. “With the other stuff, they know the songs from their parents. But I don’t think they got the show tunes.”

With their latest album, “Blow in the Wind,” the band returns to the zany, ferocious formula that makes the debut album so delightful, and it even picked tunes that a self-respecting punk wouldn’t necessarily be embarrassed to admit liking--such as the Beatles’ “All My Loving”’ and the Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B.” It also incorporates intros and outros from bands such as the Clash and the Ramones into its rowdy renditions, a device that reveals just how similar the structures of pop (even at its most accessible) and punk can be.

“In a way, we’re saying that the songs we’re covering are no less classic,” says Slawson. “But it kind of reduces a band like the Ramones to, say, Huey Lewis and the News.”

If punk purists take issue with that comparison, then this band is definitely is not for them. Members of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes don’t wear spikes or Mohawks or even Doc Martens.

Instead, they usually don colorful Hawaiian shirts at shows, and for the Warped Tour they’ll continue the Polynesian theme with a fully stocked tiki bar on stage.

If it weren’t for the brisker-than-average beats and reputations of their respective groups, the band’s members--all in their mid-30s--might find it hard to please mosh-pit hungry kids. How will they fit in on the Warped Tour?

“A lot of the bands on Warped [play] real aggressive, testosterone-fueled punk-rock, and we’ll be a break from that,” says Shiflett.

“We’re going to be the ramblin’ cover band where everybody just laughs and has a good time.” *

Vans Warped Tour 2001, today at Seaside Park, Ventura County Fairgrounds, Ventura, noon. $27.50. (805) 648-3370. Also Friday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 3911 S. Figueroa St., L.A., noon. $25. (213) 748-6136.