Girls Against Boys play college art-rock the way it should always have been done: fast, unfussy, and way too loud. Their new album, House of GVSB, has all of the freakish buzz of classic avant-indie, but none of the pretentious aftertaste: It just rocks. If Allen Ginsberg's son got signed to Sub Pop and they paid him in coffee instead of money, he would sound like GVSB.

GVSB have two bass players and only one guitarist. They are in the tradition of other fine but differently instrumented bands like Cop Shoot Cop (two bassists), the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and early Cramps (no bassist), and the Presidents of the United States of America (no bass, but two mutated guitars called the basitar and guitbass).

GVSB singer/guitarist Scott McCloud, bassist Johnny Temple, and drummer Alexis Fleisig met in high school and around the Washington, D.C., hardcore punk scene. They joined a band called Soul Side, and their future (other) bassist Eli Janney sound-engineered their albums. When Soul Side broke up in 1989, Scott went to film school in New York. Soon, the rest of them followed him there, and slowly they restarted Eli's old side project, GVSB.

Alexis the drummer says there are five basic themes to GVSB songs: "Wanting something you haven't got, not wanting something you have got, showing off, losing your nerve, and shotguns."

This summer, Girls Against Boys are playing the second stage at Lollapalooza. "We've done it before, but we have a better time slot now," says singer Scott. "The last time we were on real early. Our audience was the guys who set up the Porta Potties."

A common misconception about GVSB is that they are sexy. "It started off with one journalist describing our music as sexy," Johnny says. "I mean, there are some sexual aspects to our music, but when I read about our alleged sexiness . . . I just don't know. We're not an unattractive lot, but I just don't know that we're the hottest band." GVSB did, however, merit a "Cute Band Alert" in Sassy magazine.

The essence of the GVSB sound remains elusive even to the band. "I've always strung together a few words like 'psycho-disco noise attack,' " Scott says. "But it's actually in between a lot of things. Our music is like Velveeta -- a blend of different cheeses."

Eli used to go out with Kerri Kenney of the comedy troupe the State. After missing each other terribly during a six-week tour, they broke up the second Eli got home.

Eli remembers his first brush with fame: "I went to see Seven, and a trailer for Mallrats came on, with our song 'Cruise Your New Baby Fly Self' in it. I stood up and screamed, 'My band did that! That's our song!' People told me to sit down and shut up."

Alexis used to be a graphic designer for the Justice Department. He still does graphic design for the band. Scott became a production assistant on video shoots after he graduated from NYU film school. Eli was a record producer, and still is.

Johnny Temple has a degree in social work. He describes the psychological state of the band as "highly dysfunctional."

Girls Against Boys' second album, Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby, was named after a Spanish soft-porn soap opera.

Girls Against Boys were once booked in a studio space right next door to rock legends Toto. "It was awesome," Scott says. "We were like, 'You guys are great, man! Alice in Chains is ripping you off!' "

Scott cannot resist a challenge. "We were in the studio, and Scott was having a little to drink," Alexis remembers, "and we bet him that he couldn't sing naked 'cause he's too intimidated. But to our surprise he did it. So then we decided to bet him that he wouldn't run out into the street totally naked, which he did too. Then we locked him out. That was in England, in January. He's been through a lot with us."

Scott says the overall theme of House of GVSB could be "What the fuck is going on?"

Compiled by Suzan Colon.