Goblin Cock

The video for Goblin Cock's "Stumped" features girl softball players, comic books, and bad special-effects robots -- three sure signs that, while the band's music wouldn't be out of place on a mix tape with Sabbath's, these guys aren't your ordinary metal band. This is metal for the ironic indie kids; it's metal for people who've had their tongues in their cheeks for so long they can't say "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is way overrated" without lisping. Which isn't really all that surprising, considering Goblin Cock is the brainchild of one of indie rock's crown princes, Pinback's Rob Crow. Crow's known in his San Diego hometown as the man of a thousand bands (Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, Optiganally Yours, and his most recent project, the Ladies). Goblin Cock pairs his nerdy penchant for sci-fi and Dungeons & Dragons with a weird phallophilia (peep the NC-17 album art of the group's debut, Bagged and Boarded, released on the Absolutely Kosher label) and a desire to perform in black cloaks. Still, despite the doom-and-gloom chicanery, you can expect more horn-rimmed specs than hair-spray whores when Goblin Cock throws down at the Rhythm Room.