 | | As the guitarist/singer/head-songwriter for the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan was one of alt-rock's leaders and focal points for much of the '90s. |
 | | Former Nirvana bassist Chris Novoselic is one of rock's most politically minded musicians. Born Krist Anthony Novoselic on May 16, 1965 in Los Angeles, CA, to Croatian immigrants, Novoselic and his family remained in California until 1979, when they moved to the tiny logging town of Aberdeen, WA. |
 | | Known principally for his role as drummer for the post-grunge rock act Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins was born in Dallas on February 17, 1972. |
 | | |
 | | As the propulsive engine driving the Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlin earned respect as one of the most popular, influential drummers of the '90s. |
 | | Following the dissolution of the Smashing Pumpkins in December 2000 and a brief stint moonlighting with New Order, Billy Corgan quietly put together his first official post-Pumpkins project in late 2001, a quartet known as Zwan. |
 | | Rarely in the history of rock has a musician switched bands and instruments simultaneously with such a high degree of success as Dave Grohl. |
 | | Alex Turner became one of Europe’s most popular frontmen in early 2006, when the first Arctic Monkeys album became the fastest-selling U. |
 | | A Scott Walker and David Bowie-inspired collaboration between the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and the Rascals' Miles Kane, the Last Shadow Puppets began when Kane's previous band, the Little Flames, toured with the Arctic Monkeys in 2007. |
 | | Of all the major alternative rock bands of the early '90s, Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. |
 | | Best known as the lead singer/songwriter of the Strokes, Julian Casablancas was born on August 23, 1978 to Elite Model Agency Group founder John Casablancas and model and former Miss Denmark Jeanette Christiansen. |
 | | Similar to fellow British pop act Busted, London-based McFly came together and quickly won over the youth masses with their boyish charm and lively tales of adolescence. |
 | | Sponge was one of the more underrated groups in the post-grunge boom of the mid-'90s. When they were on top of their game -- as evidenced by the hits "Plowed" and "Molly (Sixteen Candles)" -- the band's songs had a knack for jangly riffs and catchy, anthemic hard rock hooks, despite being wrapped in the fuzzy guitars and brooding seriousness that typified grunge music. |
 | | Although formed during the late '90s, Interpol rose to international attention in 2002 as part of New York City's post-punk revival. |
 | | Although the members of Marcy Playground met in New York City during the mid-'90s, both singer/guitarist John Wozniak and bassist Dylan Keefe originally hailed from Minneapolis, and drummer Dan Rieser grew up in Ohio. |
 | | Willfully abrasive and atonal, the Jesus Lizard emerged in the early '90s as a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground. |
 | | Joining the massively successful circus of teen pop comes the pre-pubescent boy band called Dream Street. |
 | | Nirvana may have been the band that put an entire generation in flannel, and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden both sold a lot more records, but Mudhoney were truly the band that made the '90s grunge rock movement possible. |
 | | Out of all of the bands that made SST Records a towering force in the American underground during the mid-'80s, Meat Puppets lasted the longest, surviving where other bands fell apart. |
 | | As one of the most popular groups to emerge in the post-grunge alternative rock aftermath, Weezer received equal amounts of criticism and praise for their hook-heavy guitar pop. |
 | | Sonic Youth were one of the most unlikely success stories of underground American rock in the '80s. Where contemporaries R. |
 | | British indie rock trio the Wombats make driving guitar post-punk and electronic-influenced pop. Formed in Liverpool in 2003 while the members were all attending the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, the Wombats feature vocalist/guitarist Matthew Murphy, drummer Dan Haggis, and Norwegian-born bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen. |
 | | The Melvins were the first post-punk band to revel in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath. Their music is oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the silly mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos; it's just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime. |
 | | Truly a band out of time, the Australian power trio Wolfmother were conceived in 2000 -- about 30 years too late, considering that the musicians' psychedelic brand of proto-heavy metal sounded similar to the late-'60s/early-'70s craft of Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath. |
 | | Live rose to success on the strength of its anthemic music and idealistic, overtly spiritual songwriting, two hallmarks that earned the group frequent comparisons to U2. |
 | | One of the most pleasing pop groups of the '90s, the Cardigans specialized in sugary confections that would grow annoying very quickly if they weren't backed by solid musicianship and clever arrangements. |
 | | Originally finding success as the frontman of Seattle's Soundgarden, rock vocalist Chris Cornell forged a successful career after the band's 1997 demise, both with the supergroup Audioslave and as a diverse solo artist. |
 | | Led by singer/songwriter Jason Wade, Lifehouse emerged in the early 2000s with a commercial blend of pop/rock melody and throaty, post-grunge vocals. |
 | | A combination of indie rock muscle and theatrical, unapologetic bombast turned Arcade Fire into indie royalty in the early 2000s. |
 | | Glasgow's art-damaged rock quartet Franz Ferdinand -- named for the Austro-Hungarian Archduke whose murder sparked World War I -- feature bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson, and singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos. |
 | | Led by guitarist/vocalist Gavin Rossdale, Bush became the first post-Nirvana British band to hit it big in America. |
 | | Few bands in the early 2000s rose so quickly to the forefront of pop music as the Killers. With a mix of '80s-styled synth pop and fashionista charm, the band's street-smart debut, Hot Fuss, became one of 2004's biggest releases, spawning four singles and catapulting the group -- particularly their dandyish, 22-year-old frontman, Brandon Flowers -- into the international spotlight. |
 | | A novelty rock band in the same vein as Presidents of the United States of America, but with surf and garage influences instead of the Presidents' punk/thrash background, Smash Mouth found a hit in 1997 with the '50s-influenced "Walkin' on the Sun. |
 | | Jerry Cantrell first came to prominence as a member of Alice in Chains, one of the prototypical Seattle grunge bands. |
 | | With their emo-punk songwriting, theatrical vocals, and neo-goth appearance, My Chemical Romance rose from the East coast underground to the forefront of modern rock during the early 2000s. |
 | | The Ataris have produced several full-length recordings of relatively cookie-cutter pop-punk. Taking more influence from mainstream alternative acts than the punk artists they tour with, the Ataris were discovered by Vandals founder Joe Escalante in early 1997, after songwriter Kris Roe met him at a Vandals concert. |
 | | Already an entertainment business veteran by the age of 18, singer, guitarist, pianist, songwriter, dancer, and actor Colby O'Donis seems to approach the whole world as a stage. |
 | | One of Disney's most successful endeavors of the 2000s, the High School Musical franchise wasn't just one of the most-watched projects on the Disney Channel; it also launched nearly as many teen pop stars as The Mickey Mouse Club did in the '90s, when Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake were among the cast members. |
 | | Radiohead were one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. |
 | | Best known as Troy Bolton, the captain of the basketball team who discovers a passion for singing in the Disney Channel movie High School Musical, Zac Efron has been an actor and singer since childhood. |
 | | Out of all the post-Nirvana alternative bands to break into the pop mainstream, Green Day were second only to Pearl Jam in terms of influence. |
 | | Prior to Nirvana, alternative music was consigned to specialty sections of record stores, and major labels considered it to be, at the very most, a tax write-off. |
 | | Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. |
 | | R.E.M. marked the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock. When their first single, "Radio Free Europe," was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. |
 | | Initially, Blur were one of the multitude of British bands that appeared in the wake of the Stone Roses, mining the same swirling, pseudo-psychedelic guitar pop, only with louder guitars. |
 | | OK Go didn't find an audience until 2005, when the band began creating homemade music videos to support their combination of off-kilter guitars, Pixies/Cars fetishism, and straightforward power pop sensibilities. |
 | | Formed during the height of New York City's post-punk revival in 2003, the Bravery took equal influence from dance music and stylish indie rock. |
 | | Along with Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder reluctantly became a celebrity and an alt-rock spokesman when his band, Pearl Jam, hit the big time in the early '90s. |
 | | As the lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain's musical success began in his twenties and was heightened when he formed the band Nirvana. |
 | | Combining the melodic jangle of post-Smiths indie guitar pop with the lilting, trance-inducing sonic textures of late-'80s dream pop and adding a slight Celtic tint, the Cranberries became one of the more successful groups to emerge from the pre-Brit-pop U. |
![Let It Come Down [Bonus Track] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/341617/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Let It Come Down [Bonus Track] Album Cover")
