Variety is the spicy Jones’ life

TIME was when you couldn’t walk into a Starbucks or wine bar in the country without hearing Norah Jones’ slow-burn jazz-pop -- the soundtrack to a generation of yuppie romantic wistfulness. But since early ‘06, the multiple Grammy-winning 26-year-old has been making concerted efforts to upend her established persona.

In March, the music world met the singer-songwriter’s side project, the Little Willies, a country quintet by way of New York’s Lower East Side that has covered Willie Nelson’s “I Gotta Get Drunk” and Hank Williams’ “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” among other mordant ballads.

She guests on “Sucker,” a song for former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton’s new hip-hop-inflected side band, Peeping Tom (see review, Page 42), vampily purring the lyric “What makes you think you’re my only lover? Sucker!” -- part of a couplet containing a certain curse word that can’t appear in a family newspaper.

In Cannes last month, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai announced he had cast Jones as a lovelorn cross-country traveler (alongside Jude Law and Natalie Portman) in Wong’s English-language debut film, “My Blueberry Nights,” which begins shooting this month.

“Of course everyone knows her because she’s a singer, but I didn’t pick her for this film because she’s a very successful singer,” the director said at the Cannes Film Festival, adding he feels Jones has “a very special aura.”

And in the most dramatic departure from her sleepy-voiced torch-song sound, she has begun semi-secretly fronting a “punk” band called El Madmo under the alias “Maddie.” The group performed at New York’s Delancey Bar & Nightclub in mid-May.

Disguised in a blond wig and raccoon eye makeup and dressed in red short-shorts and fishnet stockings, No Jo rocked her way through a short set of cheeky, slinky art rock.

“One song was a warning to scuzzy boys to not ‘dare look at my derrier [sp],’ ” a reviewer posted on the music blog stereogum. Gothamist.com, which also critiqued the performance, cited another El Madmo lyric: “We’ll do it like bunnies, I’ll call you honey, We’ll spend all your money.”

For now, only Jones knows whether this is creative experimentation or a new musical direction; she has declined interview requests (as did representatives at her management company and Blue Note, her record label as a solo artist).

But judging by the early returns, her extreme makeover has already won Jones new rock snob fans.

” ... [A]ll in all, the playing was tight and the girl’s got pipes,” stereogum wrote. “Did we mention the fishnets and short shorts?”

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A sweet project for the Peas

THE four members of the Black Eyed Peas have signed with Snickers to appear in the comic book-inspired “Instant Def,” a series of Internet films premiering Monday on www.InstantDef.com.

In its futuristic trailer, which has been up since last month, an appropriately bassoon-voiced narrator explains the plot line: “Hip-hop has been hijacked and the old school has been forgotten. Violence and materialism rule. The fate of the hip-hop nation rests on four heroes.” That would be the Peas, appearing as uncharacteristically sucker-ish MCs.

Directed by Jesse Dylan (Bob’s son), a new “digi-sode” will hit the Internet every three weeks for five weeks.

“I was very attracted to this project because Snickers gave me creative freedom,” the Peas’ Fergie remarked in a news announcement. Not, it should be noted, because the peanut-y chocolate bar “satisfies” her in any way.

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When reggae meets Radiohead

NEW YORK indie label Easy Star Records is following the cultish success of its “Dub Side of the Moon” -- which featured reggae performers reinterpreting Pink Floyd’s most famous album -- with the August release of “Radiodread: A Complete Reggae Version of Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer.’ ”

“Radiodread’s” all-star lineup includes Horace Andy reworking “Airbag,” Citizen Cope taking on “Karma Police,” Sugar Minott covering “Exit Music (for a Film)” and Toots & the Maytals putting their distinctive twist on “Let Down.”