by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"All the cool people hate us," says Hunx, "but I don't care - I think it's funny." With their hoochie costumes, matching monikers and hyper party music (Bis meets the B-52s?), Oakland's Gravy Train!!!! leave few people on the fence. Splendidzine recently placed them at the intersection of "revoltingly cute and just plain revolting," while the likes of Pitchfork have praised them as a John Waters film in band form. Their new album is Are You Wigglin?, the follow-up to their 2003 debut Hello Doctor, which consisted entirely of songs about food and sex. The new LP addresses more serious subjects, like the dangers of tanning beds, disappearing boobs and "statutory romance." The band has also added guitars to the mix, replaced synths with organs and replaced Drunx with Junx. The Mirror spoke to Hunx and Junx about fame and fans.

M: I see from your Web site that you're into celebrities.

Hunx: Oh my God, please. Celebrities is, like, my favourite thing on Earth. Every time I go to L.A., I see, like, 20. Everyone down there pretends there's no one famous around when there totally is. That's what sets me apart from them, 'cause I just get right in there with my camera. I love L.A., but I think I might go psycho if I lived there 'cause when I don't see a celebrity for a couple of days I get really depressed and weird.

M: After you guys move on to solo projects [Country Glamour by Hunx, out next year], will Gravy Train!!!! continue, Menudo-style?

H: We could just keep getting younger and younger. There's actually these high school kids that dressed up as us for rock 'n' roll day at school, so it'd be cute if they took over one day.

M: Have you ever been accused of being a bad influence on your teenage fans?

H: Mostly, we're just comedy. Junx is the most hilarious dancer, he's the best, but when we play all-ages shows, sometimes he gets naked - like, at all shows - and he's been kicked out of clubs for being pornographic. God, it's just a wiener! It's not like it's hard and in your face, it's just flapping around. Like, who hasn't seen that?

M: I heard that fans sometimes reciprocate -

H: Yeah, we get nudie pictures, tons. Usually, I give 'em to Junx because he's more into it.

Nudies on the road

M: So how did you join the band?

Junx: Me and Hunx had known each for a couple of years. He was in Arizona and I was in Alabama, we were just punk kids, really into [Gravy Train!!!!'s label] Kill Rock Stars, and we would e-mail each other and send each other tapes of our bands. I moved out here and they needed a dancer to fill in for Drunx for a European tour, and I did it and they were just, like, "Stay," and I was like, "Shiiit, girl, I will, don't worry."

M: Are you as much of a celeb hag as Hunx?

J: Hell, no. I'm into, like, the cult of celebrity, but only like underground superstars. If it was anybody from the cast of A Different World or the dude from Double Dare, I would be all over that shit, like, gagging in the street, but the people in Star? Like, who gives a fuck about them, really? Hunx will go on, like, forever, and I'm, like, shut that shit up!

M: Do you get macked by fans?

J: It's always these really young fans that, like, come up to me after the show and, like, all accost me and wanna get dirty. Not wanna get dirty with me, but just, like, "SHOW ME YOUR PENIS! NOW!" and I'm, like, "Oh my God, ew, really? Like, nooo!" One time, it was, like, hella pervy, we were in France and I was just, like, dancing on stage, like, doing my thing, and this fucking PERVY old dude - he was so old! - does that little thing where he sticks out his tongue at me, for like a full minute, staring dead at me. But I was actually really into that 'cause I like old dudes.

With Veronica Lipgloss at la Sala Rossa
on Thursday, July 28, 9 p.m., $12

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