Multiple choice: Drill Team is ...

A. A colorfully dressed group of young women choreographing moves to excite spectators during the half-time break of a sporting event.

B. Hopefuls in the annual North Georgia electrical tool competition.

C. The title of the latest film by the Dark Brothers.

D. An Atlanta band comprised of four fifths of the defunct abrasive-rock unit Tweezer and one member of Fiend Without A Face.

Correct answers: A and D.

No cheerleaders would agree to appear in an article with ex-Tweezer members, though, so we ended up meeting band vocalist Timmy Smith and guitarist Freddy DeShon in Smith’s East Atlanta video store. After tossing around layout plans for the new porn section, DeShon explained why Drill Team is shaping up to be a better outlet than their previous band.

“We have a lot less frustration now,” DeShon says. “We’re not worried about going on tour, paying for our practice space. We’re not like, ‘We gotta put out a CD.’ It’s really low pressure and more fun.”

The last days of Tweezer were apparently fraught with the kind of tension that renders creativity nearly impossible. “We didn’t get along most of the time,” Smith says. “At least once a week someone hated someone else.”

In Drill Team, the tandem guitarists of Deshon and Clint Logan spend time writing the music, along with drummer Michelle Mercier, whose presence was missed when she quit Tweezer. “When she left,” DeShon says, “the whole chemistry changed dramatically.” Smith agrees: “A big reason we wanted to do this is because Michelle wanted to. She’s such a different drummer, not like basic rock.”

With the recent recruitment of Fiend bassist Steve McPeeks, Drill Team thrives as a rock unit eager to carve out its own identity. “We’re all there, everybody’s into it,” says DeShon. “We’re not sitting around looking at our amps after each song. We’re actually talking about the songs and writing ‘em, which is rare for us.”

But while this may cast Drill Team as serious, sensitive artists honing their craft, DeShon makes no bones about it: “We still want to rock for Satan.”

Drill Team play the Echo Lounge Fri., May 11.??