HOWDY DO: In these competitive times, it’s...

HOWDY DO: In these competitive times, it’s understandable that new acts would want to make a lasting impression on their record companies. So no one at Geffen seemed too surprised when Jesse James Dupree, singer for the Atlanta-area band Jackyl, went around the company’s Sunset Strip headquarters recently carving his initials in walls with a chain saw. The band had previously sent Geffen staffers live chickens by way of inviting them to come visit the group in the recording studio, where it was working on its debut album, which Geffen will nonetheless release on Aug. 11. (The chickens were ultimately donated to a petting zoo.)