Deflowers Rocking Sound: It Bashes, Bangs And Rips

Who are the members of The Deflowers? Chris Martin, guitar, vocals Scott Kostopoulos, drums Rob Mercer, guitar, vocals Dan Rathman, bass

It's a shame the only action figures the toy companies see fit to market are those of sports heroes. Sure, the bendable finesse of a Rich Amaral lends itself beautifully to a rubber doll - this goes without saying - but there remains the nagging feeling that there must be more ways to utilize the superior technology that action figures enjoy. Why not musicians? And why not The Deflowers?

Together for nigh unto four years now (three with charismatic action-figure-candidate-drummer Steve Kostopoulos), those Deflowers seem to have punched an action-filled niche for themselves in the West Coast music scene. Since the release of their current CD "Shiny New Pony," they need not arm themselves with conventional musical weapons to get an audience in this town. Which is why they won't be playing locally anytime soon.

"We're going to Yakima Friday," says Kostopoulos. "We just got done playing some really big shows, but after that we decided to lay low a little bit, get our stuff ready for the new CD. I think we're right where we should be, as a band. We're happy with putting out our own CD. That taught us a lot, and it's actually done quite well."

Hence the tiny towns tour. "Shiny New Pony" has gone great guns for the band, selling very well on the East Coast and in Japan and putting them in the position of releasing another one to feed the frenzy the first one created.

"You know," Kostopoulos mentions, "we're on a Japanese compilation CD. It's called `Pop Goes . . . Pop Goes-something.' I can't remember what it is."

Clearly this taste of the big time is still somewhat heady. One can easily imagine little five-and-a-quarter-inch-high, fully-jointed-with-rooted-hair-and-eyelashes, poseable Deflowers, blasting away on guitar and drums and giving it all their two AA-batteries allow. Action and power are great adjectives for the band.

"Well, when I first joined the group it was really pop-y," says Kostopoulos. "Really pop-y and more simplistic. Everything was really clean, the guitars were really clean, but it's become a lot harder. It has a punk sort of hard edge to it now."

That sound is definitely a group effort, with songwriting duties shared equally among the members.

"I insist on it!" shrieks Kostopoulous, remarking on whether as a drummer he gets equal input into songs. "The drum stuff is totally mine! We change anything if something's not working, and I fight like hell to get my two cents in!"

That noise is tight. They sound like they're bashing and banging and ripping out something, which flows into this groovy cohesiveness that's powerful, but oh-so-together.

Meanwhile, they'll be playing the odd small town or two, working on that new CD, getting into more happy accidents tune-wise until that March 1995 release date. If Mattel or Hasbro does not get right on this, there is no justice.