PLAIN WRAP COVERS WIDE MUSICAL RANGE

In the delightfully offbeat 1984 film “Repo Man,” Emilio Estevez played a teen-age punk rock fan who ate his meals out of cans generically labeled “Food.”

If the film had been set in Orange County, Estevez’s character probably would have been a fan of Plain Wrap, a Huntington Beach trio that plays “original music for a generic world.”

Sitting in a Santa Ana rehearsal studio before a practice session earlier this week, the band members--lead singer Don Wrap, bassist Bob Gnarly and drummer Greg Keen--talked about the unusual and good-humored combination of punk, speed metal, melodic pop and white funk evident on their impressive self-titled debut album.

“We try to be experimental,” said Wrap, 22. “Too many bands try to play it safe. If every band did that music would just stagnate.”

The other advantage in working with a varied musical palette, Gnarly said, is that “we could do anything on the next album and it wouldn’t be too much of a shocker.”

Added Wrap, “For the next record, I see a lot of classical influences coming up. That’s almost all I’m listening to now. We might call it ‘Rap City Rhapsody.’ ”

Plain Wrap takes its name from the generic food product line at one of the Southland’s major grocery chains, but the moniker, like the music on the album, works on several levels.

“It symbolizes the genericizing and dehumanizing of mankind today,” Wrap said. But the name also is a double-entendre on the funk element in the band’s music.

In its song “Plain Rap,” for example, the band offers its own version of rapping over a musical background that alternates between Led Zeppelin and James Brown.

Another of the album’s 12 cuts is “Green Light, Red Light,” a supersonic musical version of the old children’s game of stop and go that is one of Plain Wrap’s most popular songs. (The album’s lyric sheet reads, “Green light, green light, red light, green light, etc. You get the idea.”)

“The punks really like that one,” Gnarly said with a laugh. “When we play it, Don is the policeman and if anybody moves after he says, ‘Red light,’ they get thrown out.”

The medium-tempo folk guitar introduction to “Emotional Takeover,” which recalls the Bee Gees’ 1968 hit “I Started a Joke,” is an example of the more melodic pop side of the group’s varied music.

“People seem to like it. A lot of people seem to think it’s refreshing,” Wrap said.

Since the band recorded the album last fall, it has played few live shows, but that is changing now that the album, on Enigma Records, has been released. After an appearance last Wednesday at Safari Sam’s, Plain Wrap returns to its home turf for a performance of acoustic music Sunday at 3 p.m. at Atomic Records in Huntington Beach. The group will also play at Club Lingerie in Hollywood on July 10.

Don Wrap, who started the band in 1983, is the group’s only remaining original member. Gnarly joined in 1984 and Keen became the latest Plain Wrapper earlier this year.

Because it is usually classified as a punk band, Plain Wrap has had few opportunities to perform in Orange County and usually has to leave the county to find work. That hasn’t been all bad, however, because Plain Wrap has gained more exposure than it could locally by playing large punk shows staged at the Olympic Auditorium by GoldenVoice Presents.

“I like playing the big GoldenVoice shows,” Wrap said. “Some people complain that they are commercializing this alternative music, but I think they are just promoting and giving more people who don’t normally get exposed a chance to experience it. It’s like a mega-party.”

Last year, Plain Wrap also played shows in San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego, and went out of state for performances in several Southwest states. This fall, Wrap said he hopes to line up a more extensive national tour if the three musicians can pool enough money from their respective day jobs.

“None of us live at home and we all have to work,” Wrap said. “So right now, it’s kind of hard to get enough money to go anywhere. I’d be really, really happy if we could just make enough money (on tour) to live.”

MAIDEN U.S.A.: You don’t often hear a heavy metal band urging its fans to restrain themselves at a concert. But England’s Iron Maiden is requesting that fans resist the temptation to bring fireworks to the group’s day-after-Independence Day performance at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre today.

A statement issued by an Iron Maiden spokesman said, “We are aware of the significance of fireworks on Independence Day, and (we) will be letting off a whole lot ourselves at the gig, so we ask our fans not to bring them.

“There is a small element of people who think it is very clever to get drunk and throw firecrackers, M-80s and the rest around,” the statement said. “Well, we don’t. We don’t want any of our fans injured or blinded. To insure safety for everyone at the show, we have made arrangements with the promoter and security staffs that anyone seen misusing any fireworks will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. So please, use your common sense! You have been warned.”

Jeff Apregan, Irvine Meadows director of operations, said that standard amphitheater security precautions, which include individual searches at the gate, will be in effect. He added that anyone igniting fireworks during the show will be ejected.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS: Several local reggae musicians have organized a benefit concert to raise money to help pay for medical bills of Rebel Rockers keyboard player G.T. Clinton, who has been undergoing treatments for cancer.

The 9:30 p.m. concert Monday at the White House in Laguna Beach will feature the Rebel Rockers, the International Reggae All-Stars, Talk Back, Forward Motion and Barbara Paige. Tickets are $8.

LIVE ACTION: James Intveld & the Rockin’ Shadows will play Radio City in Anaheim July 12. . . . Eddy Raven comes to the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana July 15. . . . Blood on the Saddle will perform at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach July 20. . . . The Red Hot Chili Peppers will be at Spatz in Huntington Harbour July 26.