Still Alive & Amplified: The Mooney Suzuki

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THE MOONEY SUZUKI hasn't been snake bitten; the band's been chomped worse than Jon Voight in "Anaconda" — not to mention the movie-goers who sat through that piece of crap.

The New York City maximum R&B rock 'n' rollers were kicked off one label (Columbia) only to sign to another (V2) that went out of business before it could release a Mooney Suzuki album.

"If you're in the music industry these days, you're going to be wondering when your company is going down," said singer-songwriter Sammy James. "I'm serious. No one in the industry right now feels good or is not working on their resume."

The biz might be depressing, but there's plenty to feel swell about in music, starting with The Mooney Suzuki's new CD, "Have Mercy," which was liberated from major label stasis in June by Elixia Records. "The 'Have Mercy' songs were written in my apartment, with my guitar, as our world was collapsing in," James said.

The band was in disarray after its "Alive & Amplified" album and subsequent Columbia axing, with members coming and going at the rate of Spinal Tap's drummers. But eventually the band did come back together with founding guitarist Graham Tyler, original drummer Will Rockwell and bassist Reno Bo.

The tracks on "Have Mercy" are the most varied of The Mooney Suzuki's career, from the soulful headbanger "99 Percent" and the country-rocker "Down but Not Out" to the '70s power pop of "First Comes Love" and the hootenanny feel of "Good Ol' Alcohol."

"The first track, '99 Percent,' is the linking song — it's the most similar to "Alive & Amplified," but the rest of the record goes off in even more uncharted direction for us," James said.

Not one to stay down after getting socked in the chin, The Mooney Suzuki's Thomas Edison-penned slogan — "1 percent inspiration ... 99 percent perspiration!" — fits the hard-working quartet tighter than a pair of peg-legged jeans.

But James won't soon forget the band's travails: "It was like the Greek myth where the guy [Tantalus] has water up to his neck and he's dying of thirst but he can't drink the water."

» Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; with The Dark Romantics, A Born Idler and Marfa, Sun., 8 p.m., $10; 202-388-7625.

Photos courtesy Tell All Your Friends PR & The Mooney Suzuki