I recently spent some time in the city of Seattle. One thing I always do in a new city is find the local rock club and check out the telephone poles and newspaper vending machines around the club. This is where local bands will plaster their flyers and band logos. I always write every single one of the bands down and then go back to Google and search for the band. Most of the times the bands are crap, but every once in a while, there is a band who is worth a damn.

I saw a sticker for a band called Underride somewhere around the Showbox on 1st avenue. I went back to my hotel room and checked out the bands MySpace, hoping for a gig in Seattle so I could check them out. I would miss them by one day because they were playing SXSW the week I was in Seattle. (FUCK!)

I listened to the first song on their MySpace. It is a cover of Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. The song doesn't play automatically so there was about four seconds where I thought, "should I really listen to this? Their logo looks like Hinder and they covered Lady Gaga." I am glad I did! Underride's cover of Paparazzi is more rocking and more interesting than the original slow dance tune. But the band isn't just a good cover, in fact they are much more.

I decided to download 2008's One of Us from Amazon. It's only $6.99 and I could spare the extra cash. The first song, Side by Side sounds like Motley Crue as fronted by Sebastian Bach. It has the big arena riffs that made the Crue famous and the screaming vocals of Sebastian Bach from his recent Angel Down album. The second song Candy Girl continues in the same vain, you want to jump in your car and speed down the freeway, which I do anyway because I had a rental car. Candy Girl has a Crue Same Ol' Situtation feel.

I was shocked that the band really didn't have any grunge influences in the first three songs. It was pretty much 80's arena rock. But lead singer Rev proved to be a chameleon much like Scott Weiland. The band kicked up the grunge influences through the rest of One of Us. There are songs like Riot Stick that could have been a teen angst song during the 90's.

There are times when Rev sounds like a screetching Sebastian Bach, but moves on to sounding like Weiland and then even Layne Stanley (We Don't Want What We Want). The band mimics Rev's vocal changing moving from The Crue (Candy Girl), to Stone Temple Pilots (My Little Hell) to Velvet Revolver (Kink into my Heart) and then to Alice in Chains (We Don't Want What We Want). It is an amazing musical progression from song one until song fourteen.

I chose the band's Paparazzi cover as my Cover Thursday song for our Twitter and Facebook fans. They got an advanced peek at this band and now the rest of you now know about Seattle's best kept secret. I hate coffee (Starbucks) and have no choice but use Microsoft Windows, so Underride is the only Seattle product I choose to ingest on my own.

I have covered a lot of Canadian bands because they seem to be the only thing worth while in rock recently. I stand corrected. Seattle's Underride is poised to take the US by storm. They have the hooks, the ability, and the right pedigree to headline their own shows.

One of Us is a great record. I cut my time from my downtown hotel to the Sea-Tac airport by HALF thanks to this band. They make me want to do shit fast! I am going to put One of Us and see if it increases my efficiency in the bedroom. Ok, One of Us isn't a miracle worker. I will always be a bumbling dolt. But now I'll be able to cum in less than 15 seconds instead of my normal 20 seconds.

Here is my favorite song from One of Us, Candy Girl.