Pods

Pods formed in Seattle in 1990, with Peter "P.K." Kreten on vocals and guitar, Jonathon "Jonny" Evers on bass, and Mike "Mikus" Wolak on drums. They came up around the same time as the city's grunge wave, but their music had a rougher, more confrontational edge that didn't fit neatly with what was getting popular. They worked on their sound in local clubs and on college radio, putting out their first album, "Deerheart," in 1994.

That debut included the song "My Dick," which got them noticed for all the wrong reasons. Its explicit lyrics caused some stations to refuse to play it and drew criticism, but it also found an audience and became something of a cult track. The band didn't really soften after that. Their 1997 album "Now" dealt with heavy subjects like suicide and drug use, which kept them in that space where their music was both listened to and argued about.

They kept putting out records through the 2000s, including "Serenade," "Exit," "Everything," and "The Blessed and the Cursed" in 2008. The lineup stayed the same the whole time. Other songs like "Amanda," "Big Black Box," and "Deprogrammin'" show the range of their work, from more melodic moments to their characteristic bluntness.