**1/2 Tribe 8

ROLE MODELS FOR AMERIKA

(Alternative Tentacles)

With their tongues placed equally in their cheeks, your face, and various nether regions, Tribe 8 dish 40 minutes of viscera and vignette on their third full-length. The San Francisco dyke-punk band pour as much punk snot as rock blood into a mix of songs dealing with mastectomy, the love of bike-messengering, and "the scene."

Tribe 8's brassy-sass take on gender identity "issues" may at first sound like ladies aping macho moves to have a good time and make a vague lesbian-liberation point. But these women go well beyond "if they can do it, so can we." Lyricist Lynn Breedlove switches from heavy-handed sloganeering to ticklish suggestion, forming an identity at once angry and amused, clever and blunt. Some tunes -- "Queen of the Scene" and "Hapa Girl" -- can come off as run-of-the-mill politicking; others, like "Estrofemme" and "Ta Ta, Ta-Ta's," reveal the band's collective sympathies, criticisms, and contradictions. But whatever Breedlove is singing about, having a good time seems to be Tribe 8's main rock-and-roll goal.

-- Chesley Hicks