Artist: Prick
Album: Prick, 1995
What happened: After Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral affirmed industrial music's chart capacity, the field was wide open for followers. Trent Reznor's own label, nothing, went sniffing around, and while bringing to the world's attention Marilyn Manson and German British electro-rap group Pop Will Eat Itself, actually did some good by discovering Cleveland's Kevin McMahon, at the time recording under the name Prick.
Why it should have been a hit: Prick's eponymous debut—produced by Reznor and engineered by Alan Moulder (Spiral, Siamese Dream)—was singer-songwriter industrial, sung with an English affect highly reminiscent of Marc Bolan. "Other People," with background vocals from Reznor, was the single, but "I Apologise" is the album's true winner. Alternating strummed acoustic guitars with red-needle screaming, McMahon tries to win back an ex-lover through sheer volume. We'll never know if he succeeded, though; Prick was dropped by nothing parent company Interscope before a follow-up could be recorded.

Prick - Other People [MP3, link expired]
Prick - I Apologise [MP3, link expired]

Future Pilot AKA (f. Stuart Murdoch & Sarah Martin) - Eyes of Love [MP3, link expired]
Future Pilot AKA (f. Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon) - Nuclear War [MP3, link expired]

Jean-Claude Vannier - Danse des Mouches Noires Gardes du Roi [MP3, link expired]
Jean-Claude Vannier - Danse de L'Enfant et du Roi des Mouches [MP3, link expired]

Here at the flophouse, we can't stop unpacking the layers of irony in VH1's Ego Trip's (White) Rapper Show. We are pleased to see the program progressing according to our plan: 100 Proof and G-Child were certainly a fun pair to watch (especially G-Child's little b-boy dance—how cute!), but Serch and Prince Paul recognized their dearth of talent and reclaimed their green Converse. After the jump, we handicap the remaining six white rappers, and give odds on those destined to receive the Gas Face:

Jus Rhyme: The lobotomized, white-guilt version of The Real World's Kevin Powell—his heart and his social conscience are on his sleeve, and he'd do well to switch to tank tops. His saucer-sized eyes, mile-wide grins and non-stop positivity seem to indicate severe amounts of self-delusion. Worst of all, he's also apparently a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies at USC. Unless the department has drastically reduced its expectations, we can't imagine a 200-page dissertation about the evils of "white supremacy." Serch has to hate this guy. Look for him to turn in his sneakers on the next episode. 50:1

Jon Boy: Easily the least personable of the remaining six. While shyness might make for a decent interpersonal trait, it does not necessarily make a good rapper, unless he aspires to be the next Emmehnem. 10:1

Shamrock: He's the one who knew how to do laundry a couple episodes back, and that should really count for something. But despite his southern decency and moderately good Bubba Sparxxx impression, his muffed-up mug makes Sparxxx look like T.I., and even Serch, who himself resembles fellow VH1 star Tom Sizemore, can't let that slide. 6:1

Persia: She's come a long way from her bitchy, dildo-waving, fight-picking behavior in the early episodes and emerged as a brassy Earth mother prone to crying jags. Yet while she's certainly got more East Coast/Golden Age cred (what the show's really looking for, after all) than her remaining competitors combined, the waterworks reveal a persona that's more Paula Abdul than Yo-Yo. 5:1

John Brown: He's not much more than the sum of three or four unintentionally hilarious slogans, but if he's able to work the irony angle he so desperately needs, he could have a viable shot at something more than a second career making prank calls for Crank Yankers. Like Persia, he's also been exposed as a Big Softie—and, more importantly, the only competitor who understands that, contrary to Serch's constant, seemingly unironic claims, the show is a game. Last episode, when he had the opportunity to choose sides for a challenge, he picked the weaker team, figuring that he'd be less likely than Jus Rhyme or Jon Boy to get voted off. As the recipient of Persia's dildo attack, he's automatically the sentimental favorite, and will be one of the last two. 4:1

Sullee: He seems to be Serch's personal favorite, and he's certainly the most talented character left on the show. While we know that he's going to have to figure out how to not completely blow it during pressure moments if he wants to stay, we predict that Sullee straightens out his stage fright, wins, and releases the most exciting collection of white, Boston-repping rap music since the salad days of the Funky Bunch. 3:2

Ego Trip's (White) Rapper Show [vh1.com]

The Broken West - On the Bubble [MP3, link expired]
The Broken West - Brass Ring [MP3, link expired]
The Broken West [MySpace]

Equal parts Wonder Showzen, South Park and Pee-Wee's Playhouse, The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuted last night on Comedy Central, takes place entirely within Silverman's extended adolescence, where poo jokes abound and cough syrup gets you drunk. We've been unable to extract its theme music from our heads this morning, and we were able to extract an mp3 of the song from our DVR. We're convinced that these 39 seconds represent a compressed version of both the show and Silverman's comedic M.O., which has caused more than a few after-school scraps, so we figured we'd throw the whole thing to a vote:

Sarah Silverman - Sarah Silverman Program Theme [MP3, link expired]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

· A Tribute to the Indianapolis Backfield

· Performance opens with Billy Graham (via satellite) saying "Dearly beloved, we R gathered here 2day 2 get thru this thing called ... HALFTIME"

· Children paid to fill the area in front of the stage will stand silently with the word "Slave" written on their cheeks

· "22 positions in a Goal-Line Stand: A Retrospective of Red-Zone Defensive Alignments"

· The "Happy Feet" Penguin-Punting Charity Kickathon

· Instead of background dancers, Prince is surrounded by The FCC WatchDawgs, who walk slowly around him, taking copious notes and suspiciously leering

· New game title: Super XLI

· Wendy and Lisa replaced by Lesley (Stahl) and Katie (Couric)

· "Race and Representation in Professional Sports: A Roundtable with Professor Cornel West, author Michael Eric Dyson, and Morris Day"

· David Caruso (CSI: Miami) comes out with a giant brush to Dust for Prince

· Giant Inflatable "Darling Nikki"

Earlier: Videodrone: What Not To Expect From Prince's Super Bowl Performance
[Photo: Getty Images]

Artist: BMX Bandits
Hometown: Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Album: C86 Plus, 1992
What is it?: The Bandits, formed by Duglas Stewart c. 1985, never exactly seemed destined for long-term success. Stewart gave the band its name, taken from an early Nicole Kidman vehicle, because he was sure they'd disappear quickly. Though the Bandits counted among their ranks future members of Teenage Fanclub, The Soup Dragons, and Eugenius, they were denied entry onto the notorious NME-curated C86 mixtape, and responded by using the critic's-clique turned genre-classification as the title of their debut full-length. We don't know if the joke was still funny when the album actually hit shelves, but it didn't matter; roughly 2,157 other musical trends had since swept through the UK, and the Bandits' fey amateurism quietly disappeared, along with their record. A shame, really; Duglas Stewart's laconic Buddy Hollyisms on "Your Class" alone deserve a much wider audience than the collector crowd it currently entertains.
Where is it?: C86 was re-packaged in 1992 by Vinyl Japan, padding the original tracklist with 8 additional songs and gaining the new name C86 Plus. Included with the new material was the wonderful "Strawberry Sundae," a ebulliently sleazy ode to repressed sexuality (that might, we've been told by more than one source, also be code for staying at the ol' Red Roof Inn, if you know what we mean). More recently, Elefant seems to have taken a measure of control over distribution, but they too don't seem to be able to keep up with demand.

BMX Bandits - Your Class [MP3, link expired]
BMX Bandits - Strawberry Sundae [MP3, link expired]

Above the Law - Never Missin' A Beat [MP3, link expired]
Above the Law - Gs and Macaronies [MP3, link expired]

Van Morrison - Caravan (Live) [MP3, link expired]

Steely Dan - Don't Take Me Alive [MP3, link expired]