Ant Farms and Armadielos

The microscaled, high-concept humor piece seems to be in vogue with all the cool kids: see the recent book of lists from McSweeney's, "Mountain Man Dance Moves," or "The Areas of My Expertise," by John Hodgman. What's different about Rich is his tone and his references—or rather, his lack thereof. You'd think that a current Harvard senior and former president of The Harvard Lampoon might serve up a hipper-than-thou shivaree of pop culture or highbrow allusions. But aside from the occasional nod to...

Two years later they made their major-label introduction with ANThology, issued in March 2001. Debut single "Smooth Criminal" was a funky metal mix of Michael Jackson's original song, and pop kids of the TRL generation loved it. The song hit number one on the modern rock charts, and the album eventually went platinum. A year later, between tours of Europe, the band was back in the studio recording new music. Their new song "Bug Bites" was featured in the Tobey Maguire flick Spiderman in May 2002...