Nymphs’ Singer Lorre Dares to Be Audacious : * Pop music: The L.A. band, which headlines the Roxy tonight, is known as much for Lorre’s wild antics as for its tormented punk-metal songs.

“But I really did those naaasssstttyyyy things,” purrs Inger Lorre, the lead singer of the Nymphs, with a wicked gleam in her eye.

Because of those “nasty things,” Lorre has been nicknamed the Gross-Out Queen. In one widely reported incident, the 25-year-old ex-fashion model protested the reassignment of their record producer to Guns N’ Roses sessions by urinating on the desk of Geffen Records executive Tom Zutaut.

“I did it because I was angry,” she says now. “I’d do it again.”

Then there’s the video for “Sad and Damned,” a single from the L.A. band’s debut album of tormented, brooding punk-metal songs. After drinking from a cup, Lorre is shown savoring a mouthful of maggots.

“They were clean, grown in a lab,” said Lorre, who will be leading the Nymphs at the Roxy tonight. “They didn’t come from rotting meat or anything like that. I did it on a dare. Don’t dare me to do anything because I’m liable to do it.”

All this fits the Nymphs’ m.o. as naughty eccentrics of the L.A. rock scene, a reputation based on Lorre’s numerous escapades and public tantrums. But while Lorre proudly admits an affinity for “the sleazy side of life,” she adds, “all this stuff is minor. It’s the music that counts.”

But so far not too many people have been listening. The album, which has received some critical acclaim, has sold just 40,000 copies since its fall release, Lorre reported. But the band, which also includes guitarist jet freedom, bassist Cliff D., drummer Alex Kirst and guitarist Sam Merrick, hasn’t toured, and airplay has been largely limited to college radio.

A major problem, Lorre charges, is that the label hasn’t given the band full support.

“They think the band is unstable,” she says. “They think I’m this lunatic drug addict who can’t be trusted. They probably have an easier time with Axl Rose.”

In a separate interview, Robert Smith, Geffen’s vice president of marketing, disputed the lack-of-support charge, insisting that since the album’s release the label has given the Nymphs total support.

During the early afternoon lunch in Beverly Hills, Lorre speaks freely about a heroin habit that’s plagued her since she migrated to California from New Jersey in the mid-’80s. “I got into it because so many people in the L.A. music scene were into it,” she says. “Dumbest thing I ever did.”

Her drug habit, she adds, is a big reason why the band has been warring with the label. Though signed in September, 1989, the Nymphs, a hot local property at the time, didn’t release its first album until last November.

“We were on ice for two years, mainly because the label was upset by my drug habit,” she says. “We were all frustrated and very bitter because we were years behind schedule.”

(Geffen’s Smith said that in waiting to release the album, the company wasn’t punishing the band for Lorre’s drug addiction. He said the label released the album as soon as it had a satisfactory finished product, adding that two years between signing and album release is fairly common for rookie artists.)

Lorre, whose parents are scientists, grew up in a small New Jersey town. She eventually turned to music, finding inspiration in blues greats Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith and rocker-poet Patti Smith.

After moving to Los Angeles seven years ago, Lorre worked as a fashion model and tried bass playing before settling into singing and composing, eventually forming the Nymphs two years later.

“I write about darkness and death,” she says. “So many people close to me have died by suicide. Depression, anger, desperation have been a big part of my life. I write about what I know best. When I was writing I was exorcising demons. Unfortunately, I didn’t get rid of all of them.”

Lorre, who’s been in and out of drug rehab centers, insisted she’s been drug-free for about a month. “I cleaned up but then I slipped when I found out my father has cancer,” she says. “I couldn’t handle that. But I’m clean again. God, I hope I can stay that way.”