The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 89

WEEKEND PREVIEW Friday, June 27, 1997 G3 The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution Jones' offbeat explorations pay off 1 fa ftej. i it. if The occasional getaway trip to Atlanta: "It's a weird town. Little Five Points, that -was nice. You know what I like down there is the smell of the wet air.

If there was anything to do, I'd consider being down there. I want to be somewhere where the communities are not entertainment-based. 3, But then I wonder, what will I do?" What she's noticed since -moving back to Los Angeles: "How incredibly -concerned men are with the 1 way they look. That's been really fun. Discovering that the lowest common denominator Vfcd LEE CANTELON Reprise Records J8 exploring.

"That was it," she says. "To take chances and be around people and be stimulated and see what happens." That attitude led Jones, who composed most of her lyrics during the recording sessions, to some fanciful choices, such as hiring a musical saw player after glimpsing her on an episode of "Home Improvement." And with several near-classic albums to her credit, including 1989's "Flying Cowboys" and 1993's "Traffic From Paradise," she'd earned a healthy measure of creative confidence. "If the music rings true and you listen to it and you're taken on a journey, then I've done a good job," she continues. Of course, she adds a few minutes Billy Joel did it, I would have a hard time with it. You would question his motive." To hear Rickie Lee Jones call 511, enter 8600, then access code 420.

people like it? I initially pooh-poohed everything new. But it opened me up to the validity of new things, the power of something because it's young." The singer, who performs Sunday at Variety Playhouse, is talking on a recent day from the east Hollywood home she shares with her 9-year-old daughter. It was after moving back to the city after a lengthy stay in the more sedate climes of Ojai, that Jones began to hang out a little bit and was exposed to a new world of musical possibilities. "Because I was a parent, I was surrounded by a basically conservative crew," she says. "All your friends are based around your child's life.

I started looking around at the people I knew who were my age and thought: 'You're really old, and you look down on Looking to shake herself up, Jones began working with producer Rick Boston. She worked up some new songs and did a brief, unheralded stint on last year's H.O.R.D.E. tour. She began is starting to be shared by men." Why you probably won't find her playing at Lilith Fain "When they do articles about women in music, they should never exist. Women are still considered a special group.

We still describe that they are women. As long as that goes on, it's not good. It's also not fair. The media will always tell you about -Joni Mitchell, but they won't often tell you about Laura Nyro. They talk about Tracy Chapman, but they won't often tell you about Odetta, who influenced Nina Simone." Fans who balk at her new sound: "That's all right I don't belong to them.

I still sing the same. I don't find the setting so extraordinarily different." That Dog's bark delivered with bite Rickie Lee Jones 8 p.m. Sunday. 1 7.50 advance, $20 day of show. Variety Playhouse, 1 099 Euclid Ave.

N.E. 404-521-1 786. much," says Jones, 43, by way of explaining her new direction, which amounts to something quite different from David Bowie or U2 trying to juice up their music with techno beats. "It just trickled in and started to open up my mind," Jones says. For some fans and critics, "Ghostyhead" will seem a radical new approach, as if the songwriter's aesthetic had been hijacked by Beck or Tricky for a sonic retooling.

Yet hers is still the same voice that sang "Chuck in Love," the 1979 hit that made her name and is a key influence over a generation of young female singers. Jones wasn't always taken with the sources that influenced her, either. "At first I wondered, What's so good about it? Why do i i By Steve Dollar STAFF WRITER nother ITU Lollapalooza. The 1997 version of the 7-year-old roadshow hits Lake-wood Amphitheatre at 2 p.m. today, bringing with it a variety of musical and environmental Lollapalooza Orbital, Dogg, Julian and Second eels, Toback, 2 p.m.

today. Lakewood By Steve Dollar STAFF WRITER ever an artist to play to expectations, Rickie Lee Jones has short-circuited quite a few with her new album, a stream-of-consciousness song cycle she calls "Ghostyhead" (Warner Lib erally littered with offbeat sounds drum and keyboard loops, muffled industrial clatter that skew the music toward ambient experimentation, it's a record that sets fire to the musical safehouse Jones has built through an uneven but memora-, ble career. In its place, she conjures a house of spirits, an unsettled and unsettling realm of lullabies and nightmares in which vivid, poetic language takes the place of conventional story-songs. "Norman Mailer said, 'Precedence is the essence of and I agree with him so ORBITAL Topping the bill for Lollapal-ooza sounds like a choice task for Orbital, the British electronic band founded by brothers Paul (above, left) and Phil Hart-noll. "It's great," agrees Phil, tak-; ing a break from recording in an east London studio to talk about the tour.

"But I guess it depends on who you talk to. It's been described as the 'walk-out' slot." True enough, fans who have slogged through a long, hot day of loud music have a tendency to use the concert's final act as fancy theme music for that crowded walk to the parking lot. Hartnoll's not too concerned, however, as Orbital expects to have a stunning visual presentation an abundance of lights and video projections meant to capture attention. And offset the band's lack of gripping rock star postures. I "We're not much to watch," Phil Hartnoll concedes, in the midst of remixing an old Orbital track for inclusion on the soundtrack for the forthcom- ing movie "Spawn." (Kirk Ham-' mett of Metallica has added a gui-.

tar solo.) "We don't like to use the visual element as a necessity, but on these big festival things, it's good." Along with outfits such as the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, Orbital has been heavily promoted in the United States as part of a new wave of techno acts destined to become a mythical next big thing. Yet, Hartnoll insists, Orbital shouldn't be confused with them because of a shared British accent and a knack for creating deluxe soundscapes. Both Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers use heavy backbeats a debt to hip-hop where Orbital is prone to atmospherics. "I've been knocking around a long time," says the musician, whose band has built a strong club lowing in Atlanta with frequent appearances over a seven-year career. "We've always sort of plodded along." j- Range Recordings DR.

OCTAGON While the hip-hop world has been caught up in the gangsta-and-Gucci blues, the past year brought a perverse twist with the release of "Dr. Octagon" (Bulk), the debut of the San Francisco Bay '97 featuring Tool, Snoop Doggy Tricky, Korn, James, Damian Marley. stage: Dr. Octagon, Summercamp, Jeremy Old 97s, Inch. $36.50, $30.50.

Amphitheatre, 2002 LakewoodWayS.W. 404-249-6400. area act whose principals include vocalist (and ex- Ultramag-neticMC) Kool Keith (Thorton) and producer Automator (Dan By Steve Dollar STAFF WRITER Bt's not as if Anna Waronker planned on being a pop sing- "It started with a friend as a joke," says the 24-year-old frontwoman for That Dog, the Los Angeles-based quartet that is breaking commercially with its third album, "Retreat From the Sun" (Geffen), and opens Sunday for Blur at the Roxy. "We just wanted to write lyrics about our boyfriends dumping us." Except Waronker couldn't stop writing songs typically pitched somewhere between arty intention and precocious novelty. And her eventual band-mates, Petra and Rachel Haden, inherited not only the musical chops of their father, legendary jazz bassist Charlie, but could sing decorous harmonies that lent a girl group authenticity to a decidedly post-punk vision.

just come out of the '80s," Waronker explains. "There were no guitar solos and lyrics not about cherry These days, Waronker is steeped in '80s pop giddy stuff like the Go-Gos and Bow Wow Wow and her band seems much less bent on "deconstructing modern music." Instead, "Sun," co-produced by Brad Wood (Liz Phair's "Exile in finds That Dog making a full-fledged move to Alter-naville. The album's first single "Never Say Never," a cutesy number about romantic obsession that features a way-cheesy synth riff, is getting ample airplay on modern rock radio. But other tracks display more deliberate sophistication, whether in HOT ON SALE TODAY Radiohead British act tours behind new release "OK Computer." It headlines Aug. 1 0 at the Masquerade with Teenage Fanclub.

Advance tickets are 1 7.50. Ticket-master. 404-249-6400. Veruca Salt My vote for "most-improved" alternarockers, the Chicago foursome headlines Aug. 3 at the Masquerade.

Local H. opens. Advance tickets are 1 5. Ticket-master. Juliana Hatfield Singer performs Aug.

2 at the Cotton Club. Advance tickets are 1 0. Ticket-master. Del Amitri Rock group headlines Aug. 7 at the Roxy.

Advance tickets are $15.50. Ticketmaster. Verve Pipe Top 10 hitmakers headline Aug. I at the Roxy. Tonic, K's Choice open.

Advance tickets are 1 5.50. Ticketmaster. Alan Stivell Harpist performs Aug. 1 3 at Variety Playhouse, celebrating 25 years of music. Advance tickets are 1 5 Ticketmaster or box office, Euclid Ave.

N.E. That Dog Opening for Blur 8 p.m. Sunday. $16. The Roxy, i 3IIOrhswelllbadN.W.

404-249-6400. JESSE FROHMAN Geffen Records That Dog: Rachel Haden (from left), Tony Maxwell, Anna Waronker and Petra. '-i Haden. the focused details of the girl- 7 meets-boy saga "Minneapolis is true," says Waronker) or the frisky attitude of "Gagged and Tied" Waronker stresses, "a true The album's wider exposure surely means more fans for That Dog, which has developed an appeal to the all-ages crowd working as an opening act (though, the singer notes, the, band also gets its share of year-old "girl-band "The first Weezer show we played outside of L. A.

was interesting, because we were at a 'j high school," she says. "There i were little 10-year-olds there, wondered, what am I showing these kids? I'm used to playing in bars. But then, kids don't yell mean things. So that's a To hear That Dog call 511 enter 8600, then access code 423. 'A TICKETS 404-524-7354.

Aquarium Rescue Unit Local jammers cut loose July 25 at Variety Playhouse. With Agents of Good Roots. Advance tickets are $8. Ticketmaster. ON SALE SATURDAY Lord of the Dance Renegade i "Riverdance" performer Michael Flatley brings his flashier production to Lakewood Amphitheatre on Sept.

1 8-20. Advance tickets for reserved seats are priced $48.50 to $57.50. Ticketmaster. Rage Against the Machine You say you want a revolution, well you know you got to cough up $22 advance for tickets to see these Los Angeles radical rowdies at Lake-wood Amphitheatre on Aug. II.

i The hard-core bill also features Wu-Tang Clan and Atari Teen- age Riot. Ticketmaster. Too Jewish? A Mensch and Hit Musical One-man show features entertainer Avi Hoffman and come die themes of Jewish culture, v. 3 Advance tickets are $20.50 for the -Aug. 9 and 1 0 shows at the Roxy.

Ticketmaster. i Steve Dollar BRIAN CROSS SKG Music attractions such as the Brainforest, a foliage-stuffed tent featuring disc jockeys and performance artists aimed at stimulating a mostly under-25 audience. Unlike last year's tour, which tried to avoid more conventional concert sites and stressed a heavy rock theme with headliner Metallica, Lollapalooza '97 returns to the mix-and-match roster that's typified earlier incarnations. Here's a glance at three of the acts. To hear Korn, Orbital or Dr.

Octagon callSU, enter 8600, then access code 421. KORN Korn's'lifels Peachy" debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Top 200 chart last October and racked up sales of more than 500,000 in three weeks, but front man Jonathan Davis says, "We're definitely an The album's bizarre, motor-mouthed raps introduced the mad physician Dr. Octagon, whose pornographic obsessions collide with sagas of alien abduction, surgical catastrophes and catch phrases that sound like fodder for Weekly World News cover stories shark-alligator, half or surrealist diagnoses of the "He's a little bit different," Nakamura says, coyly understating the charms of his collaborator. His outer-limits persona is matched by the producer's unusual mixes, made disorienting through deliberately retarded beats, snippets of adult movie soundtracks, psychedelic sound effects, even strings Vivaldi meets Meco.

DreamWorks has reissued the CD, now called "Dr. Octagonecologyst," and a companion disc of instrumentals. Yet, for all its warped futurism, Dr. Octagon is loyal to what hip-hop fans call the "old school." As Nakamura insists, the genre is about more than "drinking Kristal and shooting people and doing drugs." But he still chafes when other artists keep their creative blinders on. "Everyone in New York wants to rap over the same jazz loop, and in Los Angeles, everyone wants to be Dr.

Dre. "A lot of these people are caught up in the smaller world of hip-hop," continues Nakamura, whose cohorts in a burgeoning Bay area scene include DJ Shadow and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, a turntable-wielding collective that will make a guest appearance during Octagon's set. "We want to broaden people's horizons. It's not like this is some ambient music. I have a hard time buying anything at the record store." i- m-i Mi ii I DEAN KARR Sony Music underground band." That's because Korn is seldom seen on MTV and rarely heard on radio.

Maybe it's the heavy-metal label usually applied to Korn's raunchy rock or maybe it's the uncensored lyrics in tunes like "K0!" from "Life Is Peachy" (a title lifted from the saying, "Life is peachy, but sex is an all-season Things are improving, though, Davis says from his Long Beach, home. "We're getting a little more attention good or bad now, because of our fan base. But it's still hard to be a heavy band today." The Internet has been a valuable tool for Korn during its fight for recognition. One of the first bands to perform live on the Net, Korn updates its Web site (www.korn.com) daily and it gets about 50,000 hits per day. "I'm always on there checking out new bands, too," Davis says.

"It's a good way to do that.".