The Supergrass is greener

Hey! Hey! We’re not the Monkees.

The lads in Supergrass, the most inventive Britpop band to never be Britpop, have finally shucked their image problem.

For years, especially in the U.K., they were seen as a comedy act. That kind of thing is misunderstood in the U.S., but in Britain it’s like a capital offense. As a result, the masses just never took the band’s epic, infectious, Small Faces/Beatles/Kinks guitar-rock all that seriously.

But this has all been a big misunderstanding. Sure, the video to the band’s brilliant 1995 summer single, “Alright,” spoofed the opening sequence to the Monkees’ TV show. And yes, the irrepressible “Pumping On Your Stereo” video turned the band into Muppets. It is also true that Steven Spielberg once flew the band to L.A. to talk about working up some kind of comedy-variety show, which, band members say, they politely declined.

Still, none of this means they’re not depressed sometimes, or fighting with their girl, or upset about, like, the pubs closing so early.

These chums from Oxford are as self-flagellating as the next artist from the pain-inflected ‘90s. It’s just that they dress up their darkness and pain in science fiction and sarcasm and fun. After all, it’s hard to resist a life-affirming anthem like “In It for the Money,” the title track of their second album, with its blow-the-doors-down chorus and blaring synths. Or the roadhouse piano and lyrics to “Alright,” which contains one of the all-time greatest throwaway quatrains: “We get up/We go out/Smoke a fag/Put it out.”

“It’s not always kind of just fun, fun, fun,” says lead singer and guitarist Gaz Coombes, 27, who leads the band in a three-night blitz of L.A. clubs beginning Thursday. “I suppose that it’s more when we do TV things and videos -- you get a bit more into acting and you play up a bit.

“Musically, it’s very different. There’s plenty of darkness within all the songs. It’s that, when they’ve got the melodies that they have, maybe it’s kind of more friendly to the ear.”

Being friendly to the ear is a credo, and “Life on Other Planets,” the band’s fourth album (in stores Tuesday), finds Supergrass making its most compelling case yet for redeeming darkness via gorgeous, high-spirited guitar rock and outstanding vocal arrangements.

The first two songs for which videos were made, “Seen the Light” and “Grace,” combine T. Rex rave-ups with a muted, dark impulse that is more contemporary. It’s not as overtly self-important as Coldplay or the Doves, and it’s not as twitchy and impatient as the Datsuns or the White Stripes. Instead, it’s a giant step toward grown-up party music, a musical space of the Beatles or the Stones.

“I don’t think this is their masterpiece,” says Lewis Largent, Supergrass’ liaison at its new label, Island Def Jam Records. “They still have their ‘OK Computer’ in them, but this is the beginning of their time of greatness.

“When we signed them, people thought they were part of the Britpop old wave. But when Britpop was happening, these guys were like 16, 17 years old. They’re just beginning.”

Coombes and drummer Danny Goffey started playing music together at age 12 or so; eventually, they formed Supergrass with bassist-singer Mick Quinn in 1994. Britpop bubbled up all around them, and even though they were originally lumped in with such bands as Oasis, Blur, Elastica, the Charlatans and the Verve, Supergrass managed to slip off on its own. Band members identified more with the offbeat comic genius of Black Grape.

Which led them on a strange and bumpy ride. “Alright” and the busted-smoking-pot single “Caught by the Fuzz” were the delinquent tracks off their U.K. platinum debut, “I Should Coco.” But there was also a more introspective side, with “Sofa (of My Lethargy)” and an early composition, “Wait for the Sun.”

Rather than let that identity set like cement and harden into a prison, the boys set their amps on 11 and unleashed their self-produced 1997 album, “In It for the Money.” The humor was still there, but it was all but drowned out by roaring fuzz guitars and a rollicking, neo-psychedelic power-mod vibe.

With the pumping organ and stadium guitar of the single “Going Out,” the harder-rocking Supergrass that endures today emerged. That disk and the next, “Supergrass,” which featured the hand-clap anthem “Pumping On Your Stereo” and the beautiful, swift acoustic piece “Moving,” both went platinum in the U.K.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the silence was deafening. But with “Life on Other Planets,” the band may have hit on a more mature, songwriterly style that’s going to stick. The guitars are still big, and the disk has kind of an ELO inventiveness that gives it more breathing room. The band has also become a four-piece, with longtime tour keyboardist (and Gaz’s older brother) Rob Coombes now fully fledged.

And maybe the band’s more mature. Goffey, 29, has kids, as does Quinn, 33. On new songs such as “Evening of the Day,” the Pink Floyd-esque “Run,” and “La Song,” one can even sense that the band is getting -- gasp! -- personal.

“Their greatest day is going to come when they embrace the personal even more,” says Island def Jam’s Largent. “It’s going to be a little longer from ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to ‘Strawberry Fields.’ Took the Beatles three years, might take Supergrass nine years.”

“There’s more challenges,” says Gaz Coombes, meaning he’s trying to get into some more difficult material. “We’re still really young as a band. It’s only four records. In a way, we’re just at the beginning, you know?”