"What the hell happened to the Cobra Chicks?" I say, slapping last year's "Loaded" album onto the cafe table. Four rock chicks stare up at me from the CD jacket pulling pouty poses so effortlessly steamy that only a eunuch or a nun could resist dashing off to snap up a ticket for the next show.

Then I look at the four members of Cobra Chicks who are sitting round the table . . . There's been some drastic cosmetic surgery going down by the look of things. OK, bassist Dee and singer Kumi are looking in fine shape, but one of the other "Chicks" is sporting enough facial hair to make the Unabomber look like Britney Spears, and the other, with his chopped blonde hair and crooked teeth, is certainly no rock babe. But, this is the newly hatched "Cobra Chicks." And at live shows, there might be 50 percent less chicks on stage, but there's a helluva lot more venom in the rock 'n' roll.

Dee tells me that previous girl members -- original bassist-singer Yasuko and drummer Chie, plus short-term guitarist Cao Lin -- either didn't have enough ambition or just weren't good enough. So this year guitarist Junya and drummer YasuMasa joined, and apparently, the dudes have got what it takes, which, in the gospel according to Dee and Kumi, is skill, determination, ohhh, and loads of boogie.