DIVINYLS: HOW YA GONNA KEEP ’EM DOWN ON THE LIP FARM?

Theres a new entry in the Battle of the Australian bands; theyre called the Divinyls and they stand some chance of winning the war. Theres also a new entry in the Battle of the Celebrity Lips, a clash which Divinyl Christina Amphlett stands a superb chance of winning. Kinski, get ye back to your bad movies. If the Divinyls ultimately fail to do-be as good they could be, Christina will at least be remembered for her oral pulchritude. Oh, yeah. The one with the LIPS.

Full mouths are in" now, according to fashion swamis, but Amphletts would gross the swamis out. Her lips have ucky little fleshy bumps on them, like Jaggers do. Jagger is a boy, so having lips that look carnivorous isnt subversive. On a woman, those LIPS are practically a political statement, more insurrectionary than Wendy O. Williamss tits. Much more.

If I were 13 years old, Christina Amphletts mouth would serve as what the hippies once called a signpost to new space, what everyone else might call a green light. Nonviolent resistance to life in general could be costumed by Amphletts short, tight schoolgirl dresses and torn net stockings and plastic rat pin and big white collars that make her look like a Puritan girl doing a long term in the stocks. Her stringy, sloppy stable-boy haircut could be the bane of my mothers existence, especially with the vision-blocking bangs. In between classes at school I would watch all the groovy chicks with their overdyed jeans and Flock Of Seagulls haircuts and feel an inexplicable freedom.

And if I liked the songs, it would be gravy.

Thirteen-year-old girls might very, well feel the undertow in cuts from the debut Desperate, like Boys In Town," Only Lonely," Science Fiction" and Only U," four of the most delectable pieces of pop to show up on the 1983 menu. Matter of fact, a kid could probably get" Divinyls songs better than oldsters with a bad habit of looking for meaning. Amphlett gives the signal for anarchy without writing a goddam term paper about it. Thats part of her personal credo—if you say too much about it youll steal its thunder." Our lips are sealed.

Not so for the trusty CREEM interview, during which mighty mouth Chris and guitarist/song co-writer Marc. McEntee spoke fairly freely. They also ate apples and deli delights, sparred with each other (no, no Marc, I dont think that) and smoked fags" in a suitably James Dean rock star fashion. Up close, Amphletts mouth has an even more fascinating topography. As usual, she wore no cosmetic lip goop of any kind. Behind the LIPS lurks a whapping overbite and crooked teeth. If the rest of her face didnt get so comfortablelooking in a smile, one might think twice about that carnivore comparison. (But her hair is not perfect, Aoooo.)

She describes herself as ordinary; I guess well take her word for it, ordinary being in the eye of the beholder. Definitely, though, it is not ordinary for a woman in her 20s to retain the acuity and directness and open-minded loopiness of a 13-year-old. Amphlett has pitched her tent on that spot, where gut smarts and head smarts get equal opportunity. With ladies like Amphlett and Hynde around, you wonder whos keeping Tane Cain in nail polish, you know?

On stage at New Yorks Ritz in May, Amphlett didnt seem 13, she seemed about four, and very pissed off at something. At the other end of the bell curve, the three boys in the band are very different from Christina and fairly different from each other; who showed up at the wrong gig by mistake? Guitarist Bjarne Ohlin looked El Lay cute, twinkled at the crowd, and did his gig like he likes his gig. From what one could see of him, drummer Richard Harvey looked to be following suit, as did low-key bassist Rick Grossman. Marc McEntee is a scrawny, fierce-faced boy with beautiful blond hair and a concentrated physicality toward his guitar.

During our interview the three of us came up with some weird word pictures to describe Christinas connection to the band. Pix uno: Mark is a rope, the three other boys are at the top holding on, and Christina is at the bottom, waiting for the rope to break." In another, Bjarne is surfing" on the lighter side of the bands music, and Amphlett is the little monster underneath the water." The Ritz crowd, to make a long night short, was only moderately enthused with the water sports.

The pouting, trashing little girl is a giant step forward, according to Christina and Mark: I was so shy up there when we started, I was so embarrassed to be singing my own words in public. It was very depressing. Something had to change, and when I started to externalize things a little more, this is what came out." (Well, at least shes not the 15 millionth chick in the last five years to do Debbie Harry.) Then again, what else do embarrassed 13 yqar olds do? They thrash, stomp, scowl and sulk. On to 14, Christina!

Basically her show stuff has to catch up with the expressiveness of her voice, a spooky meld of Chrissie Hyndes tone quality and Lene Lovichs noise making, among other things. She and McEntee tell atmospheric little stories about this old Yugoslavian opera singer who lived in the same hotel for a while. The man heard them rehearsing one day and offered to help Christina with breathing, making animal noises" and other fundamentals. The guy had a lot to work with. Feel her belly up next to the choruses of Victoria."

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Okay, lets take a deep breath, drop down in a crouch position and say a bad word: feminism. As long as you dont use that f word," shell talk about it. I think I scare some women with the way I look and act, because I remind them how safe theyre playing their lives. They like their choice and they dont like to be challenged." No labels here, either: Mostly I just want to give something. Like the soul singers I listened to, they always gave so much." Nor here: I dont want to intellectualize things right out of existence." Just tell me where to get those stockings.

Meanwhile, back in Hitsville, Matt Dillon attracted all sorts of attention at the aftershow" pahhhrty, particulary from women with hair gloss, lip goop, hip hairdos and the vitality of embalming fluid. Those gals should have hunted Christina down in the attitude of pilgrims, humbly asking to be delivered from the ravages of 20th century grown-up galhood. ^