Rough Tough Muffs

The Muffs whip up quite a frenzy with their catchy brand of power pop-punk. On the trio’s three major-label releases, pounding rhythms collide with Kim Shattuck’s crunching electric guitar and distinctive howl of a voice.

Yet for six years now, Shattuck and ex-beau Ronnie Barnett on bass--plus drummer Roy McDonald, since he joined in ‘95--have often garnered more attention for the nonmusical ruckus they create. The Los Angeles group’s reputation for rowdiness was enough for an LA Weekly writer to begin a recent feature story with the sentence “You’ll never play in this town again!”

Indeed, after scuffles with concert promoters who the band claims ripped them off and fans who hurled objects--or themselves--onto the stage, the Muffs haven’t been invited back to several cities, including Seattle and Detroit.

And locally, because of ill feelings between Shattuck and management of the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, don’t expect them to perform there again (or at its sister venue, the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana) any time soon.

A calm mood prevailed, though, during a recent phone interview with Shattuck from a San Francisco hotel room. Throughout the conversation, Shattuck was open, chatty and humorous, even when the subject turned to the Muffs’ volatile history.

“Most of our rambunctiousness stems from the fact that someone is treating us badly,” said Shattuck, a Long Beach native who spent time growing up in Mission Viejo and Orange and now lives in Los Feliz. “So we rally against that and respond.”

To support her claim, the singer, songwriter and lead guitarist pointed to a stopover last week in Portland, Ore. As she explains it, a man in the audience--wearing a “Kill All Artists” T-shirt--used his camera to repeatedly invade her personal space.

And he paid the price.

“This older man in front of the stage reached under my dress and tried snapping a picture of my genitals,” Shattuck said. “Ronnie came over to block him off, but then the guy did it again! I was so [expletive] mad. As soon as that song ended, I walked over and kicked him in the face, really hard. I mean, do you really need a shot of my you-know-what?”

Rather than being disheartened or rattled, Shattuck said, she drew energy from that experience. She says such confrontations can even be inspiring.

“That guy was just one bad egg in a crowd that otherwise was receptive and supportive of us,” she said. “In some ways, I don’t mind when something like that happens because it can give me a lift, a real boost of energy. Honestly, it’s hard to play with a lot of intensity night after night. That negative incident wound up being invigorating for us.”

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Musically, the Muffs’ sources of inspiration range from classic, melodic pop (Beatles, Cheap Trick) and old-school punk rock (Ramones, Sex Pistols) to contemporary hybrids of both (Weezer, Redd Kross). The band’s first two albums were noisy and primal, with the emphasis on raw, garage rock and punkish simplicity.

Bringing more pop to the party, the threesome’s latest effort, “Happy Birthday to Me” (Reprise), is warmer and discharges less sonic bite. With no song lasting more than 3 1/2 minutes, its 16 songs are concise, crisply played and melodic. But according to Shattuck, the emphasis on glimmering pop textures doesn’t mean the material is frivolous.

“Some people think we’re just this light and happy pop band now, sort of to be consumed as a guilty pleasure,” she says. “But we’re not. Lyrically, we can be cynical, darkly humorous, even sick. I mean, listen to ‘My Crazy Afternoon’ and ‘All Blue Baby’ [which opens with the line ‘It’s a sunny day / And I wish it’d go away’]. I don’t think our songs are all radically different, but there is depth and variety to what we do.”

Definitely new for the Muffs is record producing, with “Happy Birthday to Me” being their first venture in that role. It was a learning, sometimes exhausting experience, says Shattuck, but ultimately a worthwhile one.

“I had to learn things about engineering and some technical stuff, so the recording process was harder and it took longer than the time required by our other records,” she said.

“But we knew going in [to record] what we were after . . . the kind of cleaner sound we wanted. I love having the control over the end result and not having to go through some committee to get something approved. I feel sorry for people, like actors, because unless you’re Woody Allen or Mel Gibson, they don’t have much say in the decisions that affect their work.”

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Overall, Shattuck is pleased with the independent-minded career path taken by the Muffs. The band is hardly a household name, but members insist that was never one of their goals.

“I’m glad we’re not splattered all over MTV, because I don’t think that’s entirely the right way to go about building a career,” she said. “Look at Green Day--they were built up--and then came crashing down. The overexposure is just too much of a burnout for most people.

“I like how we’re doing it . . . using the slow-build. Even our new album is a ‘creeper.’ We don’t even have a single or video out, yet our fan base continues to grow. How? Through word of mouth, and I think that’s healthy both for us and music in general.”

* The Muffs, Chix Diggit and Groove Ghoulies perform Thursday at Club Mesa, 843 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa. 9 p.m. $9. (714) 642-8448. Also appearing Friday at the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. $12.50 (310) 278-9457.