FETCHIN BONES UPGRADES ITS POSITION

“I just saw a famous person,” Hope Nicholls, the lead singer of the rock group Fetchin Bones, said in an excited whisper.

Nicholls had just spotted Tony Curtis two tables away as she and drummer Marc Mueller ate breakfast in the restaurant of a Hollywood hotel.

Mueller confessed that moments earlier he overheard in the lobby the actor talking about some show-biz deal--and made a funny face at him. “I didn’t know it was him,” the drummer sputtered.

Mueller’s gaffe and the musicians’ conspicuous thrift-shop attire both symbolize the fish-out-of-water status that has come with Fetchin Bones’ shift from an obscure band on tiny Atlanta-based DB Records to a semi-obscure band recording for major-label Capitol Records, which has released the group’s “Bad Pumpkin” LP.

Staying in an elegant hotel and hobnobbing with--or at least making faces at--movie stars is quite a change for these two members of the Bones. They’re hardly obsessed with the music business (“I don’t even have a record player,” admitted Mueller), and Nicholls said that on a typical day back home in Charlotte, N.C., “I’d go to a thrift store I like, check out the bargains.”

Capitol is home to star acts like Tina Turner and Duran Duran and a slew of heavy-metal groups but has generally shunned the more adventurous young bands championed by college radio and critics. So it came as a bit of a surprise that the Hollywood-based label decided to sign Fetchin Bones.

Among those startled by the move were the band members themselves.

“I thought it was really surprising,” Nicholls acknowledged. “I mean, if it was Warner Bros.--some label that seems to like ‘new music’--it wouldn’t have been so surprising. But I think it turned out great because we’re like their little pet project.”

The signing was particularly unexpected because Fetchin Bones wasn’t even courting record companies at the time. Under its contract, the band still owed DB Records another album.

Mueller and Nicholls had nothing but kind words for their former label, but they pointed out that DB’s small staff and limited resources prevent it from matching Capitol’s efforts in such areas as promotion and distribution.

“The only thing I’m worried about now that we’re on Capitol is there may be a tendency for people to think, ‘Oh, wow, they’ve sold out. The music’s not legitimate anymore,’ ” Nicholls said. “But I think if they listen to it, they’ll find out that Capitol is really just, like, distributing our record, and we’re still 100% in there.”

That figures, since negotiations with Capitol were completed after the band had recorded “Pumpkin,” effectively limiting corporate “input” on the album. The LP retains the raucous garage-band sensibility of last year’s debut, “Cabin Flounder,” while expanding the Bones’ eclectic--and eccentric--tendencies.

Propulsive pop pieces like “Flounder” and “Greensburg” have a sonic kinship with R.E.M. The cut “ 1/2 Past” unfolds into a slow, reflective, quirky piece, and “Chitty Chitty” is a bizarro surf-guitar instrumental. Probably the most striking cut, though, is “Wine,” a funky, chaotic romp that begins as a wry tale about buying jug wine at a convenience store, then gets curiouser and curiouser.

The LP bristles with wit and a festive spirit that suggest it was as much fun to make as it is to hear. It was , Mueller confirmed, partly because the band--and producer Don Dixon (R.E.M., Marti Jones, the Smithereens)--were so in sync that “Pumpkin” was done in nine days.

That’s quite a contrast with “Cabin Flounder,” which was recorded over a nine-month period--testimony to how far the group has come since its birth in early 1984. That’s when Nicholls and guitarist Aaron Pitkin, who had worked together in other bands, started performing as the bare bones of Fetchin Bones.

It wasn’t long before they hooked up with singer-guitarist Gary White. Mueller came along next (replacing their drum machine), and the lineup was completed in last January with the addition of bassist-violinist Danna Pentes.

Through extensive live work--and now the association with Capitol--the band is starting to develop a higher profile. While “Pumpkin” has yet to achieve a Smithereens-like breakthrough on the charts, it has been a favorite on college and alternative radio in the month since its release.

R.E.M. also helped the quintet gain key exposure: The Georgia band had the Bones open 13 dates of its 1986 tour. Fetchin Bones is now taking a break from its tour and hopes to book some Los Angeles dates in February.

The primary purpose of the Bones’ recent Hollywood visit was to tape a segment for “The Cutting Edge,” the new-music show aired monthly on MTV. In general, though, the group is skeptical of videos, and knows what kind of clip it wouldn’t do.

Asserted Nicholls: “It can’t be a shake-and-bake video: Get out there, play live, run the cameras, put the make-up on, edit the film, throw it on. . . . A good video has to be conceived.”

LIVE ACTION: Cyndi Lauper will appear at the Universal Amphitheatre on Feb. 3 and 4, and Freddie Jackson is due there March 13. Tickets go on sale Sunday for both shows. . . . Tickets are available now for the Beastie Boys’ Hollywood Palladium concert Feb. 7. . . . A rap show headed by U.T.F.O. will be held Jan. 2 at the Santa Monica Civic. . . . Lone Justice will be at the Palace on Feb. 4 and 5.