----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Smith" <SamSmith@colorado.edu>


> Okay, somehow I missed this completely until today, but it's priceless.
>
> http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19367

Sadly, I don't think the story is all that it seems.  To reach the chart
position they did, they sold 4000 records.  There's a reasonably sized,
loyal following for the Alarm and Mike Peters, who probably snapped up the
lion's share of that total.  I certainly hadn't heard it on radio or seen it
on TV until it made it into the chart.  It's not as if they were picked up
by the radio stations and touted as the next Rancid.  I'd love to think
they'd playfully duped 4000 image-conscious kids, but it's more likely that
just about everyone who bought it was in on the joke, as it were. And to be
honest, the track's not up to the standard of some of his post-Alarm solo
work.