I was listening to the Pernice Brothers‘ album Live a Little today, and enjoying it immensely. The top was down, the sun was shining, traffic was light, and the band was as tuneful and tasteful as ever.

At one point, one of the tunes sounded an awful lot like “Working Girls” from their previous album, The World Won’t End. I didn’t care. The next song sounded a whole lot like some other Pernice Brothers song I loved. Did I give a shit? No! I realized a great deal of Pernice Brothers songs sound a great deal like other Pernice Brothers songs… and I was perfectly happy with that.

This got me thinking about other bands that are — thankfully — one-trick ponies. You know the bands I mean: bands that only do one thing, over and over — and that disappoint us when they try to do anything else, so good is the one thing they’re good at doing.

I’d like to make a definitive list of Great One-Trick Pony Bands. Will you help? If “yes,” then a word of advice: don’t give me any lazy-ass choices like AC/DC. They’re not a one-trick pony — they used to kick ass in a raw, almost punk kind of way, and now they mostly suck ass, in a stadium-rock kind of way. They look different, they act different, and they sound different. Same goes for lazy answer #2: ZZ Top. Once great, now lame, for many of the same reasons. Also: please don’t list garage/freakbeat revivalists, who try to recreate one-trick pony rock.

A *good* answer would be, say, HVB faves Supagroup: testosterone-fueled ’70s hard rockers who keep making the same album over and over again — and all of them are awesome.

So: gimme your best one-trick pony bands. Hand ’em over!

HVB