GEIGER COUNTER: The man behind last summer’s...

GEIGER COUNTER: The man behind last summer’s imaginative rock ‘n’ rap Lollapalooza tour--one of the few box-office triumphs in a lean concert year--is now going to try to work his magic on the record business.

After eight years heading the alternative music department of the Triad Artists Inc. booking agency, Marc Geiger, 29, has joined Rick Rubin’s maverick Def American Records.

The goal: expand the label, known primarily for brutal heavy metal and straight-ahead rock acts such as Slayer and the Black Crowes, into the imaginative world of alternative/college rock.

As an agent, Geiger was known as a trend-setter, helping develop such acts as Lollapalooza headliners Jane’s Addiction as well as Love and Rockets, the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Pixies.

Geiger expects to use the same philosophy as head of marketing and artists & repertoire at Def American, going after acts that interest him rather than conventional acts, even if that means a sacrifice in sales.

The funny thing about the new arrangement is that Rubin is not apparently a fan of alternative/college music.

“Rick hates the stuff,” Geiger says. “I played him things I like and he thought it was drony and boring. But he hired me for a specific reason: I love the things he hates and he hates everything I love, so we figured we’d make a good team.”

Geiger has already scored an artistic coup--and potential business coup--with his first signing to the label: the Jesus and Mary Chain, the influential Scottish band that has so far enjoyed only limited sales success in this country with its three albums on Warner Bros. Records. Def American will release a special radio-only compilation of the group March 10, with a new studio album due in the spring.

And Geiger has also already suffered one defeat: The English 4AD label turned down his bid for Def American to be its U.S. distributor, opting to go directly with Warner Bros.