Super-alterna?

"She was a friend of my high-school girlfriend. I was always extremely impressed with her; she showed me a lot of stuff on guitar. She went to a special school for artists, and I was always Mr. Punk Guy who didn't know shit about music."

Larson stayed in New York, where he formed Shudder To Think. His guitar-playing friend, Mary Timony, wound up in Boston, fronting Helium. Thus was born one of this year's most unlikely rock collaborations, Mind Science of the Mind (in stores this Tuesday, on Epic).

When Larson finally got Timony into the studio, some other prominent Bostonians were involved as well. Rounding out the ad-hoc band line-up were Dambuilders violinist Joan Wasser and drummer Kevin March.

"Mary's roommate in college was Joan, so I would always visit those two and hang out. We always intended to do something together, but it took so long to get something happening because we were all busy with our respective projects. Then we wound up in these moderately successful alternative-rock bands" -- Larson gives those last three words a self-depreciating spin. "And we said, `Fuck, let's do a record.' I was going to front it myself, but my A&R guy [at Epic] gave me the money on spec. I wrote the songs quick, compared to the time it takes me to write other stuff, and we wound up doing it dirt cheap."

Whatever you might expect the album to sound like, it doesn't -- unless you expected it to sound like arena-monster rock rather than an alternative supergroup. Larson (who does most of the writing and all the lead singing, and overdubs bass as well as guitar) has always been more up-front than most about his '70s influences, but here they're more basic than the art/glam, Queen/Sweet influences that show up in Shudder To Think. The opening "Infidels (When Your Hips Came Loose)" layers airy harmonies atop a space-funk guitar riff. Robin Trower, phone home. "To the Tender" echoes Cheap Trick. But it's later, metallish Cheap Trick rather than the early albums that everybody emulates (and a Hendrix-like guitar breakdown is thrown in for good measure). Surprisingly, nothing sounds like Led Zeppelin, but "Oceans Don't Need Us" -- a slow-builder that sets Middle Eastern violin against a boogie-esque rhythm -- sounds as if it could have come from a Robert Plant solo album.

The players apparently try their best throughout to hide their alterna-rock quirks. That they don't always succeed is one reason the album comes out so interesting. Even when rocking straight-ahead, Larson's songs take odd turns -- like cutting off after two verses or introducing a pop hook just before the song's over. Wasser's violin winds up supplying many of the "lead guitar" parts -- no shocker, since there have always been moments at Dambuilders gigs when Wasser looked like a closet guitar hero who happened to choose the wrong instrument. March plays in his usual rock-solid style, but Timony's presence is the major surprise. Her voice turns up only once (on a cameo back-up part in "Do You Rule?"), and it's highly unlikely that anyone taking a casual listen to this album would guess that the leader of Helium was involved.

"I was surprised by the album; we all were," Larson says. "We had no clue. I would have expected it to turn out messy and crazy in a fun way, but it turned out really structured and tight and orchestrated. It's quite unlike what we usually are, but it's also appropriate to the material as it was written. I don't think we made a conscious choice to play it so straight; it just turned out that way. Mary's playing came out real fluid, kind of jazzy. That's her classical training coming through. Kevin and Joan are also well schooled, so maybe some of their knowledge came into play."

In the spirit of alterna-rockers doing arena rock, there's a slightly tongue-in-cheek element to Mind Science of the Mind -- starting with the band's name, whose repetition brings to mind Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight." But Larson says that much of the album can be taken at face value.

"We're poking fun at rock, but only out of respect. Before punk came along it was rock, it was metal, and that's where we all come from. I like the rock aesthetic, even though I know how silly it is. What went into our album is the more traditional stuff, the things we've been listening to all our lives. Things like the Beatles and Prince, which don't occupy a specific genre the way punk does. It struck me as revolutionary and crazy to be playing something this simple, because my band had been doing this dense, proggy stuff." There's also a more immediate reason for the relative simplicity of Mind Science's material. "Well, we knew we had to justify the money and our time in the studio by coming up with 10 songs. So we said, `Oh, shit! Okay, E to A.' "

Mind Science are undertaking a limited tour that will bring them to town early next month (May 5 at the Middle East), but Larson isn't sure what they'll be playing, since the 36-minute CD covers their entire repertoire so far.

"Then again, there's something to be said for short sets. I was feeling weird because the CD is only 36 minutes, but if you look at the old Van Halen albums, they're even shorter." Meanwhile Shudder To Think are getting to work on their second album for Epic. Originally on the high-integrity label Dischord, Shudder received a major push last year, making nice to the industry by playing such gigs as a Bacardi-sponsored party at the Middle East and a "back to college"-themed WFNX show on Lansdowne Street.

But Larson puts such things into perspective. "Shudder has not arrived at the mainstream level, nor should it. What we do doesn't translate into mass appeal. When we've done shows with the Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins, the kids can't always hang with it -- because it's not for everyone, and that was one of the assumptions we made when we entered the major-label arena: `If we're successful, we'll eat our fucking hats.' We haven't had to do that yet."

NEW VENUE

Roadsaw member Tim Katz has come to the rescue by booking Thursday-night gigs at O'Brien's Pub, a former blues bar that's been quiet in recent years. The series was launched last week with Juno, who drew a packed house. Supermodel and Flo play tonight.

"We're trying to create an alternative, with a cheap cover and cheap beer, and the bands get 100 percent of the door," Katz says. He also promises kung fu movies between bands. Next week's show looks especially interesting; the feature band will be a new outfit known as Kyusss. (Note the third "s"-- it's actually a Kyuss cover band featuring Roadsaw and Stompbox members.) Katz says O'Brien's will offer "art-damaged Allston rock, surf, and anything experimental, but no tough-guy bands and no hardcore. So far we're accomplishing our goal, which is to put the rock back in Allston Rock City."

COMING UP

Supple, Laurie Geltman, and King Missile's John Hall (doing spoken word) are at the Middle East Saturday, Powerman 5000 are at Mama Kin, and Jimmy Thackery rocks the blues at Johnny D's . . . For the first time in five years, the Bristols play their traditional Marathon Day show, Monday afternoon at the Rat. That night Golden Smog are at the Paradise, and San Francisco's answer to XTC, the Mommyheads, are at the Middle East.