TWIN CITIES--Although Governor Jesse Ventura has angered many Minnesotans with his recently-publicized remarks about organized religion, the Tailhook scandal, and the Kennedy assassination, the five members of the Minneapolis band Ike were sanguine Friday about the unexpected attention that the interview did not bring to them. Ventura did not complain about Ike in an extended interview in the November issue of Playboy, which went on sale Wednesday at some Twin Cities convenience stores.

Ventura’s remark that "organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers" was not followed by a blistering indictment of Ike, nor was his stated wish to be reincarnated as a 38DD bra contrasted against an aversion to returning as toilet paper or as a member of Ike.

"Ike is just--is? are? is?--just a bunch of lame rock-star-wannabees screwing around in someone’s basement and making the most horrible noise they know how," the governor did not say. "The ones I feel sorry for are their friends and family, who have to pretend to enjoy that crap," he did not add.

When not pressed to elaborate, the governor failed to attack each of Ike’s members individually.

"This Erik Hallberg, the lead singer--and I use the term very loosely--he couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle on it," Ventura did not argue. Nor did he continue about the band’s lead guitarist, "And that Jeremy Wikre is just a thief. He’s never had an original musical idea in his life." Ike’s rhythm guitarist also escaped criticism, as the governor did not ask, "Is it Richard Mueller, or Miller? What is up with that anyway? Is he embarrassed about being German, or something?"

Ike’s rhythm section was not subjected to particularly crude abuse. "This Jeff Alexander clown," Ventura kept to himself, "he’s got hundreds of dollars in musical equipment, and I can do better than him by just farting into a microphone. And with a copy of this magazine and a tube of Vaseline, I can sound just like Pete McDonnell’s drumming, too," he did not fume.

When not confonted with the govenor’s nonexistent rantings, Ike did not react with unexpected fury.

"Hello? Does anybody remember the inaugural gala?" Hallberg did not snap. "Tell you what, Jesse, I’ll put my 'Werewolves of London' up against yours any day," he did not challenge.

"He might be onto something with that Kennedy thing, though," Hallberg did not later admit.

"I’d be really pissed off about it if he hadn’t been on The X-Files that time," Mueller did not remark, not referring to Ventura’s 1996 guest appearance on the popular science fiction series.

"If he can really fart the bass line to 'Badlands and Montana Skies,'" Alexander did not say, "the man needs to see a proctologist. And I don’t mean tomorrow."

McDonnell did not become simply incoherent with rage, or require physical restraint to mute his nonexistent roars of "BRING IT ON!"

Wikre merely did not respond to the interview with a blank stare and the words, "I don’t remember."

Ventura's spokesman John Wodele did not comment on Ventura’s lack of comment about Ike, saying "The interview speaks for itself."

An Ike associate who asked not to be named expressed little surprise at the governor’s silence on the band, pointing out that among other things, the actual interview was conducted last summer, at which time Ike was still known as Verbal Love Tap.