POP MUSIC : Fighting to Make It : Two years ago Mary’s Danish was poised to become the next significant L.A. band; now, after nearly breaking up, it’s ready to try

In the song “Axl Rose Is Love,” Gretchen Seager of the Los Angeles rock band Mary’s Danish goes after Guns N’ Roses’ singer the way Thelma and Louise take on a sexist trucker.

Incensed by the hotheaded Rose’s use of racial and sexual invectives in his song “One in a Million,” Seager takes aim at the rocker on the new Mary’s Danish album, “Circa”:

Your time will come

You will be done

On earth as in Hell

What goes around comes around. . . .

So Seager’s easy to peg, right? She hates Axl Rose and loves “Thelma & Louise.”

Wrong.

“I’m a fan of Guns N’ Roses,” Seager says. “I just don’t agree with their politics. The song is my way of making a social comment. I mean, Rose is criticized for being racist and misogynistic, but the bottom line is there are a million people who love him and Andrew Dice Clay, so there has to be some truth in what they’re doing. And that in itself says a lot about our society. . . . But I love Guns N’ Roses’ music.”

And being well-versed in feminist literature, Seager found the conclusion of “Thelma & Louise” to be “totally contrary to the feminist statement,” even though most of her own songs are about taking control and taking responsibility for one’s own life--just as that movie’s heroines do.

Those are just a couple of the many complexities and contradictions that make Mary’s Danish perhaps the most intriguing and promising band to emerge from the L.A. alternative-rock scene since Jane’s Addiction.

Those contradictions have at times nearly torn the band apart. But to Seager, 25, they are the sextet’s strengths.

“You should just look at our record collections,” said the blunt, bright blonde, sitting in a Melrose Avenue restaurant with the band’s other singer-lyricist, Julie Ritter, 24, and Louis Gutierrez, 28, one of the band’s two guitarists. “There are a few common threads, but for the most part the influences are so different. When you see Mary’s Danish you’re seeing a bunch of people who really don’t have that much in common musically.

“One guy in an interview criticized us, saying that the diversity hurts us. He said, ‘You have these two Exene-style singers, a funk bassist and drummer, one psychedelic guitarist and another who plays more blues-based. Where’s the continuity?’ I said, ‘That is the continuity.’ We’re not going to shy away from any styles or ideas.”

Seager and Ritter were bored French majors at UC Berkeley when they decided to transfer to UCLA early in 1987 so they could start a band in the city where they had grown up.

After choosing the name Mary’s Danish (“for no particular reason,” according to Ritter), the pair hooked up with David King, a guitarist who was working as a clerk at Tower Records, and bassist Chris Wagner.

With a succession of other players, the quartet recorded the demos that were eventually released in 1989 as the album “There Goes the Wondertruck,” which was hurried out by the independent Chameleon Records to capitalize on the airplay that the spunky single “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” was receiving on KROQ.

Just before the release of “Wondertruck,” guitarist Gutierrez and drummer James Bradley Jr. joined. The pair brought a background of music-biz experience to Mary’s Danish, whose other members were relative newcomers to professional music making. Gutierrez had been a member of Los Angeles’ Three O’Clock, which released several heralded albums of fragile psychedelic pop, and Bradley had played with the likes of Anita Baker and Chuck Mangione.

The members of Mary’s Danish don’t have a lot in common outside of music, either, and the different backgrounds and interests helped make the two years between album releases a tumultuous time.

Though Mary’s Danish was rapidly gaining recognition and musical stature--aided by tours opening first for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and then Jane’s Addiction--the group nearly broke up on several occasions. Seager actually did leave at one point, having tired of the touring grind and fallen out with King.

“We fought like cats and dogs,” Seager said of both the musical and personal disputes. “It seemed more trouble than it was worth. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in a rock band. There was no money, and we had all been putting in a lot of time and energy beating our heads against the wall. . . . Ultimately I had to give that up in order to discover that being in the band was something I really wanted.”

Her frustration was compounded by several other personal crises suffered by band members and by legal entanglements over the group’s recording contract that delayed the release of “Circa,” which was recorded more than a year ago. (In the interim, a partly live EP, “Experience,” was released last year.) Finally released by the new Morgan Creek label, the album reflects many of the hard-learned lessons of all that turmoil. (See review on Page 60).

As hard as Seager is on Axl Rose on the album, she and Ritter are even harder on themselves. In “7 Deadly Sins,” Seager berates herself for sticking with a bad relationship:

My rationale is black

My rationale is blue

The silver tongue has struck again

My rationale is black and blue.

In the album-closing “Cover Your Face,” Ritter is even more resigned to a self-imposed fate:

You hoped for much more

You fail in every way . . . .

So what you had it coming.

“I meant for ‘Cover Your Face’ to be heavier than ‘Sister Morphine,’ ” Seager said, referring to the Rolling Stones song.

“I wanted it to be the most depressing song ever.”

That’s the kind of self-examination and self-torment that have characterized the most dynamic rock to come out of Los Angeles since the late ‘60s, from the Doors through X and the Blasters through, yes, Guns N’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction.

“I don’t know if we think of ourselves as part of L.A. history,” Seager said. “But it’s hard to escape that.”

Added Ritter: “I think you can’t help but be influenced by your environment and what came before you. I grew up seeing X a lot, and that had something to do with me wanting to be in a band. There’s a legacy that goes on.”

Perhaps what distinguishes Mary’s Danish from those other bands--besides the musical diversity--is the fact that all the lyrics are written by women.

“These songs are really about emotional violence and being put through--or putting yourself through--hell,” Seager said. “I don’t know if they’re supposed to be from a woman’s point of view, but just ‘cause we’re girls means we write from that perspective. But anybody can relate to emotional abuse.”

“I’ve been through so much in the 4 1/2 years since the band started, and it’s all chronicled in the record,” said Ritter, wearing a myriad of earrings on both lobes to go along with a nose ring and a new tattoo on her upper back.

“I wonder if I was working as a bank teller if it would be the same thing. It seems to me I’ve gone through an extraordinary amount of problems, but then it’s my job to write about that . . . questioning relationships and your own sanity and confidence.”

But for all that, it’s the attack on Axl Rose that is getting the most attention for the band now, including a recent spot on “MTV News.” That’s a mixed blessing.

“As far as I’m concerned, the song shouldn’t be the focus of our album,” Seager said. “But I’m ready to stand behind my viewpoint and the reasons I wrote the song. The main message I’m trying to say is, ‘Yes, everybody has freedom of speech and the right to say what they want, but what does it ultimately say about that person when they say things (like Rose said)?’ Axl Rose, whether he likes it or not, is influencing millions.”

“There are more dramatic songs lyrically by both of us on the record,” Ritter said. “It’s funny how you can pour out all this poetry, and it’s this song that gets the attention. Pop culture loves pop culture.”

Will the attention be enough to get the band the national recognition that has come to the Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, especially considering how hard the band is to pigeonhole?

“They certainly don’t sound like a Top 40 band,” said Craig Marks, editor of the College Media Journal, which tracks sales and airplay of alternative bands. “But often whether a band makes it has more to do with what label they’re on and the label’s patience. (Morgan Creek) is a new label that’s very involved and has made the band a high priority. The single, ‘Julie’s Blanket,’ is pretty catchy, and even though the rest of the album is very different, it only takes one song to break through.”

Also helping to set up the band to move beyond recognition within the fragmented L.A. scene is its new manager, Peter Asher, who has guided the careers of, among others, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and 10,000 Maniacs.

Now, having survived its time of turmoil, Mary’s Danish is chomping at the bit to get moving again. Tour plans are pending while bassist Wagner recovers from surgery to repair a damaged hip, but a national trek is penciled in for September and October, with a Los Angeles show likely to come sooner.

“With this record I feel like we’re still playing catch-up, like we were with the first album, because we’ve been playing the songs live for a year now,” Ritter said. “I can’t wait till the next record, when we’ll finally be on track. . . . A lot of different writing combinations are happening between people. I’m curious to see what direction the band evolves in.”

Gutierrez is also eager to move forward. “The record is so old and we’ve been sitting on it for so long that it’s almost like it’s part of another era,” he said. “We’ve gone through so many changes since then, a lot of complications and a lot of problems, not knowing if we were gonna be together, not knowing if we were going to have enough money to feed ourselves.”

The three musicians sat silently for a moment. Finally, Ritter spoke.

“You know, Gretchen has always said that if it ever stops being fun, it’s over. Well, she was wrong, because it has stopped being fun at certain times, but so far you’ve always had the feeling that it will come back. There’s always been a sense of hope. This is what I’ve always wanted to do--what we’ve all wanted to do--and I’m just so grateful.”