Friday, January 17, 1997 By MIKE ROSS --

Hugh Dillon is awfully proud of the upcoming Headstones album, Smile and Wave.

But since it comes out on March 25, only the twitchy singer and his gang have actually heard it, so we'll just have to take his word for it.

"I think it beats the (crap) out of a lot of the complacent drivel that's out there," he says, on the phone from his home in Toronto. "You know how some songs hit from the gut level, you know right away, `hey, I like that song?' These new songs - and I'm bragging a bit - they're working so well that people like them right off the bat. They just have a kind of innate rock 'n' roll-ness to them that people respond to immediately."

An innate rock 'n' roll-ness? We can hardly wait.

Fans can get a sneak preview of the new album when Headstones play the Edmonton Convention Centre tonight. Of course, you'll also hear old favorites like Heart of Darkness, Son of a Bitch to the Core (from the Hard Core Logo soundtrack) and Cemetery. The latter has a delightful sing-along chorus: "Went down to the cemetery, looking for love; got there and my baby was buried, had to dig her up," and so on.

It's no wonder Headstones has been criticized for dwelling on doom and death, which is addressed in a track from the new album, Pretty Little Death Songs.

"I remember reading a few things about us only writing negative songs," says Dillon. "This whole record is a little bit lighter but it rocks a little harder, and this particular song kind of answers the questions: `it's still nice to have these pretty little death songs.' "

It all goes with Headstones' image: loud, gritty, street-level attitude and Dillon at the forefront as the menacing anti-hero no one wants to mess with. Dillon says he has no intention of living down the fact that he used to be a heroin addict; and he now seems to be in a win-win situation - sober and relatively lucid, but with the shady past that only adds a further allure of danger and intrigue to the band.

It's also no surprise that Headstones have become fast friends with the group it gets compared to most often: Teenage Head.

"It's funny having them show up at gigs now," says Dillon. "(Teenage Head singer Frankie Venom) got up and played with us a couple of weeks ago in Hamilton. And it's just funny to see the kind of heroes that you once knew treat you as an equal. Esthetically, I see the similarity. But musically, I don't see it that much ...

"We didn't have it easy as a band. We didn't get our big break with lots of airplay and lots of video play. We got our break by being on the road and by playing every place and any place we could, which is kind of an old-fashioned way of doing things. But that's what we worked with."

It didn't take long for the band to become a hit south of the border, however. Not that border - Headstones are currently without an American distribution deal - but farther south, in Mexico. One particular show the band did before Christmas in Guadalajara drew 3,500 people; the promoter had thought maybe 200 would show up.

"I think they're just deprived when it comes to rock 'n' roll," Dillon says. "And there's a huge youth culture there, so I think that helps.

"They just love it. We're close enough to being American that we're taken for being bigger celebrities than I think we are. If you come from another country, they automatically assume that you're at the stature of the Rolling Stones. They assume that's who you hang around with."

With opening sets by the Killjoys and Bloody Chicletts, tickets to tonight's concert are $14.

Call Ticketmaster at 451-8000 for details.