HARCOURT PLAYS HARDBALL ED'S SINCERE ABOUT HIS MUSIC, BUT DON'T MESS WITH HIM WHILE HE'S PLAYING IT.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Ed Harcourt may be an earnest singer-songwriter, but give him reason to embarrass you and the 24-year-old won't hesitate.

During a show in Europe, Harcourt was mocked by a man in the audience for the whole of his tender love song about crimson tears. At the song's end, he asked the light technician to point the spotlights on the heckler, telling the audience that ``this is the man that ruined the song.''

``It was hilarious to see how he buckled and quivered under the light,'' Harcourt recalled from a London studio, where he and his band were rehearsing for their North American tour that stops at the El Rey Theatre Wednesday.

The fact is that Harcourt enjoys humoring the occasional rabble-rouser. He considers people of the sort very ``entertaining.''

A prankster at heart himself, Harcourt said that he knows how to handle hecklers, whether it's embarrassing them such as in the above-mentioned case or making up a song about them on the spot.

All kidding aside, Harcourt said that he takes his music very seriously. He always has.

Harcourt was classically trained on piano as a boy, soaking up the music his parents played on the turntable. Luminaries from the worlds of the blues, jazz and pop (such as the Beatles) were his earliest musical heroes.

But it was his brothers' record collection - which included albums from Jane's Addiction and the Band - that really got him moving toward a career in music.

``I started getting into Randy Newman and Tom Waits, stuff like that,'' he said. ``Those two songwriters, alone, are just amazing.''

Harcourt's own music has earned the approval of critics. Spin magazine called his album ``Here Be Monsters'' ``one of the purest, loveliest records we have heard in this very short year.''

Time Out New York described it as ``gripping and surreal, melodic and chaotic.''

For Harcourt, the album was ``too slick'' for his own taste. He said that he would have preferred the grittier sound of four-tracks and cassettes.

``It usually comes out really sort of low-fi and scratchy that way,'' he said. ``You can hear it when we play live. It's really raw, you know, and quite loud and sort of epic.''

This will not be the first time Harcourt has performed in Los Angeles, where Santa Monica-based KCRW-FM (89.9) has made his music a fixture on the air waves, thanks to the program ``Morning Becomes Eclectic'' and host Nic Harcourt.

``Right,'' said the vocalist, chuckling. Then, taking on an Australian- tinged British accent to imitate that of the KCRW host, he added, ``no relation.''

While in L.A., Harcourt performed at the Troubadour and Largo, where he offered up a lounge rendition of Kylie Minogue's new hit, ``Can't Get You Out of My Head'' to a receptive audience.

``There are people who sort of stand back at the bar and stroke their chins, but there was none of that,'' he said, adding, ``There was no hecklers either.''

ED HARCOURT WITH EILEEN ROSE

Where: El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com

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no caption (Ed Harcourt)