By Jimmy Draper

'MEN DON'T MAKE passes at girls who wear glasses," Dorothy Parker once observed.

If the recent debut Girls with Glasses (Retard Disco) is any indication, however, the specs-sporting ladies of Partyline are better off on their own, anyway. After all, the fierce tour de force finds the Washington, DC, trio – singer Allison Wolfe, guitarist Angela Melkisethian, and drummer Crystal Bradley – making a garage-rock racket that's far more enjoyable than anything their male peers in the nation's capital are doing these days. Besides, when you and your gal pals have this much fun together, who gives a rat's ass about guys?

Certainly not Partyline, whose tight-knit camaraderie gloriously evokes the spirit of both girl groups and girl gangs.

"Don't mess with girls with glasses / Watch these girls, we'll run you down!" taunts Wolfe, better known as the lead shouter of riot grrrl legends Bratmobile, on the EP's title track. Elsewhere she brags about her group's ability to "blow your mind" and threatens anyone who says otherwise, while, on "Nuthaus," all three of them gleefully chant, "Angela! Allison! Crystal! Partyline!" The women sound so enthralled by their solidarity that it's hard not to wish you were part of their crew.

It's no different in conversation. Speaking by phone a couple weeks before their first national tour, Wolfe and Melkisethian sing each other's praises and talk excitedly about how much fun they have in the band. They're also both hilarious storytellers, from Wolfe's tale of a practical joke involving fake-bloodied maxi pads to Melkisethian dishing the dirt about her American Idol audition last year. (She appeared on the show wearing a mask.)

"I made it to the second round and sang Debbie Gibson's 'Only in My Dreams' for an executive producer," she says, then laughs. "But he was like, 'Only in your dreams, sweetheart!' "

Had Melkisethian made it further on American Idol, Partyline's development would've been delayed – not that the group wasn't already a slow-going endeavor.

"We started out sort of as a band-in-theory for awhile," Wolfe says of the group's inception, in 2002. "It was just me and Angela then, and we just talked about it and named the band. We were like, 'Yeah! It will be political but fun and about gossiping on the phone!' "

Actually implementing the idea took time. When Bratmobile went on hiatus that year, Wolfe briefly relocated to San Francisco and devoted much of her time to performing with Da Hawnay Troof, while Melkisethian focused on her band Hott Beat. Once their schedules relaxed, they enlisted Bradley to play drums and began crafting their wonderfully rudimentary blast of cheerleader-style vocals, hard-rock riffage, and danceable drumbeats.

In summer 2004, the trio finally recorded six tracks – including a cover of Nikki and the Corvettes' "Girls Like Me" – that would eventually become their debut. "Those songs were just gonna be a demo, but they turned out pretty great, so we decided to release 'em," Melkisethian says of the sessions.

When Partyline make their first Bay Area appearances this week, expect to hear the ladies big-up one another as well as make biting political commentary. Because, while their songs boast a joyous vibe, Wolfe says she also aims "to point out the ridiculousness" of the post-Sept. 11 world.

"I just get really angry every day when I read the paper and listen to the radio," she says. "When I see the news, I wanna throw something at the TV."

Wolfe expresses her frustrations in her lyrics. In "Zombie Terrorist" she rails against the Bush administration's scare tactics, while the thundering "No Romantic" and "Nuthaus" mock traditional notions of heterosexual romance with lines like "I don't wanna marry, and I don't wanna have your brats / Yeah, I had a mother and she taught me to want more than that!" Then there's "Unsafe at Any Speed," which both criticizes Ralph Nader for his dismissive views of young people and treats him like a bit of a pinup. "There's something foxy about him," Wolfe says, giggling. "I've even had a dream about him where we were about to kiss!"

That feisty blend of politics and levity defines the band's music. No matter how serious the message on Girls with Glasses, they deliver it – along with their pro-Partyline rhetoric – with such gusto that it's never less than infectious.

"I feel like, along with the political stuff, there needs to be a certain amount of cheerleading going on to amp ourselves up and get psyched," Wolfe says. "Because it's gotta be fun. If it's not fun and we're not in this together, then what's the point?"

Partyline play Thurs/18, 6:30 p.m., Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. $5. (415) 923-0923. Also Fri/19, 8 p.m., 924 Gilman, Berk. $7. (510) 525-9926.