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PUT TOGETHER THE EIGHT SONG TITLES from the Marvels’ EP Cheat To Win (on the new Abbey Lounge label) and they practically form complete sentences that form a narrative: "I’m so ugly, all alone, hate myself. Drunk and irresponsible, tragic, sorry. One foot in the grave, dead to the world."

Think these guys might have a problem? "No, we just think that hopelessness is really funny," says drummer Jesse von Kenmore when we sit down at Abbey. "Everybody has their little angle. Some bands are about drinking; we’re into self-loathing. That’s our little defining theme," adds singer Staffy, who also writes the lyrics. "I probably don’t have the largest self-esteem balloon in the world." Concludes Kenmore, "It’s not like Staffy really hates himself. It’s more that everybody else has a problem with him."

In fact, the music on Cheat To Win is loads more fun than the titles would indicate. Although the Marvels are a guttersnipe punk band at heart, they’ve been given the New Alliance studio treatment by engineers Nick Zampiello and Mark Schleicher, which means the EP kicks heavy like an arena-rock disc. It doesn’t hurt that the newly added rhythm section, Kenmore and bassist Michelle Paulhus (respectively a former Kenmores and Caged Heat member and a former Real Kid and current Dent), matches the bad-assed guitars of Zimmy Coma and Nice Guy Jimmy B.

"That bigger sound was probably the scariest part of making this record," Kenmore suggests. "You can cross the line where it loses its teeth and stops sounding like the Dead Boys. So we told them, ‘This has still gotta sound shitty in certain elements.’ It couldn’t be Stone Temple Pilots or something like that. There’s a long tradition of Boston bands who were great on stage but didn’t get it in the studio — the Outlets, the Zulus — and we didn’t want to be one of them."

If one song title sums up the Marvels’ image around town, it would be "Drunk & Irresponsible." It makes sense that the band are recording for the Abbey’s in-house label, since they embody the loose and boozy spirit of that club. Suffice to say that a lot of beer gets ordered at their shows, and it doesn’t just get spilled, it gets thrown directly at the band. Staffy happened to get a beer shower when some disorderly friends turned up at the first Marvels show, and it’s been a tradition ever since. He’s also consumed a bit of the stuff himself, but he avers that "nobody in this band has ever gone on stage too sideways to play. It’s just that people can tell we’re having a good time."

Still, the band take some pride in their reputation. "You oughta see our shows in Portland — they make Darkbuster shows in Boston look like Up with People," Kenmore claims. "When we played at Geno’s, they sold out of every brand of domestic beer."

That’s not the only horseplay that’s occurred at their gigs — Staffy recalls that fans at one Portland show took to licking Paulhus’s boots. Fortunately, they never found out that she’d been standing in cow manure all that afternoon.

The band’s closest thing to a dark secret is that two members don’t even drink much: Zim likes to stay sober at gigs and Kenmore has kicked his habits and stays sober altogether. In fact, punk rock is the one thing that binds this crew together, since there’s also a 20-year gap between the oldest (Kenmore) and youngest (Jimmy B). Kenmore’s not fazed. "I’m old enough to be my girlfriend’s father as well, so who cares? People ask me what I’m doing in this band and I say, ‘Playing rock.’ Long as you don’t mind having 400 gallons of beer thrown at you during every gig, it’s totally fine. And I know of plenty of clean and sober people that I like and trust a lot less than these fuckers."

The Marvels appear with Street Dogs, Avoid One Thing, and Confront this Saturday, May 8, at Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street in Boston; call (617) 262-2437.