“Girl! I wanna take you to a gay bar.”

With that immortal opening line, Electric Six both garnered their biggest hit and assured their future failure. You see, there is nothing worse for the longevity of a band than starting a career with a novelty hit — it’s almost a guaranteed ticket to one hit wonderland. Think about it: Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” Nada Surf’s “Popular” — all songs that were major hits, but were too quirky, funny, or generally off the wall to let the bands break free from their goofball shackles.

And the truth is, most bands that begin with a novelty hit will take a few more stabs at another success and then fade into obscurity. However, in the five years following debut album Fire, Electric Six pulled out four more records — most of which were actually pretty effin awesome. While their first album was mostly dancefloor fun, later work became more genre spanning, and, as a lyricist, singer/principal songwriter Dick Valentine proved he had something of a knack for cultural satire. (more…)

Most musical artists change somewhat throughout their careers. (Unless, of course, you’re AC/DC.) Names like Madonna and David Bowie usually come to mind when thinking of the music industry’s chameleons, but there are many others who’ve made significant changes, both in look and sound. Read on for a list of 10 current artists who’ve completely transformed themselves for both the better…and the worse. (more…)

Somebody took rock n roll and pumped it full of estrogen. Has anybody else noticed that every new rock band that appears on the scene always has this depressing down tone to all of their songs? Having a couple ballads or sad songs is good for a band but when every song on the album is about them breaking up with some chick it gets real old real fast.

Great rock bands have written great sad or depressing songs and usually the lyrical and instrumental part of the song is good. Plus if its really good, you might even be able to relate to it. But the only people relating to this new rock are women. Don’t get me wrong, i love women and there are a lot of good women musicians out there (mainly Heart), but rock n roll used to be a dudes thing. Whatever happened to the testosterone driven bands like AC/DC?

Sure they had a bunch of songs about chicks, but it was all about getting laid not crying over them. But basically what im saying is that rock needs to get a shot of adrenaline and start to not suck again. We need rock to feel like someone screaming at us, spitting on our face and then rubbing our head in the dirt. Thats what rock should do, not make us want to get in touch with our inner feelings but make us take our feelings out on other people. So for all the manly-ness still left in rock, ROCK ON.

- Dan