Wheatus

If Wheatus had emerged as a new band within the past few years — and not, say, had the misfortune of arriving at the tail-end of the '90s alt-rock boom — it'd likely be right up there with bands such as Fountains of Wayne in the new-wave-perpetuators stratosphere. Instead, the co-ed sextet suffers the one-hit-wonder tag (thanks to the sublime, Iron Maiden-geeks-in-love ditty "Teenage Dirtbag") and had to rename albums Suck Fony after acrimonious record-label splits. Yet somehow this cult status hasn't soured the band's power-synthpop sugar-rushes, confetti-explosion backing vocals and subversive lyrics ("Just tell me his name /....Just tell me if his dick is bigger than mine") — all of which make Fony and their latest, TooSoonMonsoon, the perfect rainbow-hued remedies for the winter blahs.