We Search MySpace For Electroclash Revivalists, Second-Rate Sublime Disciples, And Will Ferrell Homages

Each week, dozens of songs and albums from up-and-coming (or just plain unknown) bands debut on the world’s music charts. Some of these bands will never be heard from again; some may become the next little thing. That’s why we have Chuck Eddy exploring the world beyond the Billboard 200, where he’ll look for diamonds in the MySpace rough. This week, his roster of up-and-comers includes some gentle Scripture rock, a new animated guise for some of the Gorillaz, the Talladega Nights fan at left, and a former Dial MTV staple who’s back in a newer, rougher guise.

B-HAMP Wackiest title to enter the Billboard charts this week–in this particular case the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, at No. 86–is unarguably “Do The Ricky Bobby” by Dallas/Ft. Worth rapper B-Hamp. The top of his MySpace page features a possibly unpaid ad for Will Farrell’s two-year-old NASCAR flick Talladega Nights. Beneath that, there are lots of links to videos of people participating in an alleged Ricky Bobby dance craze that may or may not be a hoax: guys, girls, babies, cartoon characters, Oklahomans, Californians–on driveways, in bedrooms, you name it. Judging from a confusing YouTube video labeled “B-Hamp Performing Ricky Bobby” (the music for which seems to be a hodgepodge of unrelated rap songs from other artists), the dance has plenty of popping and locking and zipping up of zippers in it. But “Do The Ricky Bobby-FTH,” labeled an “official video,” has more identifiable steps, plus a song where people actually tell you to do the Ricky Bobby–though the dancers in the background seem more perfunctory about the activity at hand than the B-Hamp-T-shirted fellow in front.

RA “Ra is an American alternative rock band taking their name from Egyptian sun god,” the band’s Wikipedia page tells us, which totally reminds me that I’ve always wanted to tell Sun Ra how redundant his name is. And sure enough, Ra’s fifth album, which enters the Billboard 200 at No. 193 this week, and now jumps to No. 2 on the Heatseekers chart after debuting at No. 32 a week ago, is called Black Sun. But while Sun Ra comes from Saturn, Ra merely come from Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. They claim to be influenced by a bunch of borderline-prog (Peter Gabriel, Rush, Queensryche, Tool) and funk (Stevie Wonder, Prince) artists, but I dunno, to my ears they mainly just sound like regular old screamo hacks. Interesting looking guys, regardless–one baldie, one mohawk, one soulpatched longhair, and a drummer who might be right at home in Rascal Flatts. Okay, not that interesting, maybe. What seems to be downplayed on official band pages is that the bassist, PJ Farley, used to be in the hair-metal band Trixter. Some female fans totally remember, though. And on YouTube you can watch a vid of PJ being interviewed back in the day on Dial MTV, wearing a Cincinnati Reds cap and Kiss shirt and cutoff shorts while anticipating Trixter’s tour: “We’re going out with Warrant and Firehouse, and it starts in Bismarck, North Dakota–party town!”

RUSH OF FOOLS Was hoping this outfit would live up to their name by sounding like Rush except dumber, and I’m pretty sure I got half my wish. No By-Tor and the Snow Dog here, catch my drift? Wonder Of The World made an appearance on the Billboard 200 at No. 187 last week, and in its second week on the Christian chart it’s now at No. 15. The band comprises five clean-cut young folks from Alabama playing extremely wimpy acoustic Scripture rock, with lyrics directed at the son of God himself. “Label me a prodigal,” one song goes. “Bring me back to the place of forgiveness and grace.” Most intriguing venue names on their fall tour: Evangelical Free Church of Naperville; The Church in Peaster; The Church at Quail Creek; KLOVE Friends & Family Music Cruise; Godfrey Parks and Recreation; Anchorage Baptist Temple. “Sounds like: A pastor, an auto mechanic, and three guys whose names begin with a ‘J’ playing on some instruments,” we’re told. A note from Stef: “Thanks for being awesome guys! Keep up the rockin for JESUS!”

GROUP 1 CREW There’s a whole lotta forgivin’ goin’ on this week. Group 1 Crew comes off more or less like a Christian-pop answer to Black Eyed Peas (with perhaps a little Macy Gray and Beyoncé thrown in), and the video to their song “Forgive Me” starts with a sad homeless man living in a car while pointy-haired Crewmember Pablo Villatoro complains about morning indigestion, after which the chorus starts quoting either the 23rd Psalm or “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio, and then it builds like some Eminem song from 8 Mile as the living-in-the-car guy gets saved. Afro-haired Crewmember Manwell Reyes recalls how much his life sucked before Jesus entered it–which was apparently long before this Orlando trio’s Ordinary Dreams album entered Top Heatseekers at No. 15 and the Christian Album chart at No. 19 last week. This week, it slips to No. 22 on 24 in those respective tallies. “Forgive Me,” it should be noted, also contains the following inspirational hook: “I only fear that I don’t have enough time left to tell the world that there’s no time left,” which is either an End Times warning or a remarkable simulation of one. “Love Is A Beautiful Thing,” meanwhile, is catchy in a college-kid-discovering-old-Motown kind of way; hard to dislike Blanca (no relation to Manwell) Reyes’ jazzy vocal excursions, not to mention her blue eyeshadow in the summery and uplifting video. On MySpace, “one of those people that keep learning the hard way” thanks Group 1 Crew for their “testimonies.” And there’s also news from GMusiq.com, about an exciting new format called “God’s Music Card,” “a quality plastic, full-colored digital download card that gives users exclusive access to the music they want and other content provided by the music provider and artists….a brilliant alternative to hard copied CDs.” Our Savior easily prefers to it SlotMusic Cards, Ringles, and Digital Audio Tapes!

BREATHE CAROLINA Two-geek electroclash-revival act from Denver; they’ve apparently been together a mere two years, but their debut album It’s Classy Not Classic (preceded by only a self-released EP) bowed in the Billboard 200 at No. 186 and Heatseekers at No. 6 last week; a week later, it tumbles to No. 47 on Heatseekers, still not bad for an act that would probably get booed off the stage at most high school talent shows. Or maybe not: The geek with the keytar almost gets his plain white T torn off by screaming girls in the front row in a live clip of the twosome’s typically inept “The Birds And The Bees.” The fans on their MySpace page all look like they’re 14 years old. So I just figured out that this band and their fellow Colorado electrogeek-for-horny-teens duo 3OH!3 (whose even higher Billboard debut in July I chronicled here) might qualify as a new genre. Remember, you heard it here first. I fully expect to start reading trend pieces about the crap any day now.

ONE BLOCK RADIUS Another burgeoning trend: bands who sound like cut-rate versions of Sublime crossed with Fun Lovin’ Criminals! Let’s see: This year alone we’ve had Slightly Stoopid, Shwayze, Rehab, and now these guys! Some of whom probably don’t even count (maybe not even these guys), but my point still stands! Last year my kid asked me (true story) “Dad, what other bands sound like Sublime?,” and I couldn’t think of any at all, but now I can! One Block Radius, whose self-titled album made a brief stop on the Heatseekers chart last week at No. 34, consists of a rapper with a Hieroglyphics connection and two guys who used to be in Scapegoat Wax, a group whose not-totally-horrible Grand Royal album Okeeblow came out around the same time that Rehab’s Southern Discomfort did. Which just goes to show that old white-boy rappers never die, they just go back to Square One. (Ask Kid Rock.) None of which is to deny that the video for “Loud and Clear” is at least fleetingly entertaining from a visual perspective: turntables nailed to the wall, backwards handtruck-pushing scenes, lots of graffiti, boxes of vinyl albums without sleeves being unpacked, people running with said albums and handing them out to strangers. And the Hieroglyphics guy, if I’m not mistaken, can actually rap.

MONKEY These primates look suspiciously like Gorillaz, only classical, or at least their cartoon lemurs and pigs do–their carnivorous plants maybe a little less so. Journey to The West, which checks into Heatseekers at No. 30 this week, has something to do with an opera that opened in Manchester last year and made its U.S. premiere in South Carolina in May, “with lyrics based on ancient Chinese texts and performed in Mandarin.” The music for some reason reminds me a little of Kate Bush, but I’m probably wrong. As suspected, Damon Albarn is involved. As are marionettes. Possibly British ones, so be careful.