Top 1000 Bands #300-#291

300 - Duran Duran - They take a lot of flack for their cheesy videos, but if you compare one of the great pop bands of the 80's to the crappy pop music we have today you can't help but notice that they were at least trying and they did have legitimate chops as artists.

299 - Matchbox 20 - Another maligned band that never got the appreciation they deserved. Sure, their music lacked edge and was about as un-hip as it got in the 90's, but the songwriting was legitimate and the hooks were outstanding.

298 - A.F.I. - One of the most popular modern rock bands around at the moment, A.F.I. has created a string of great goth punk albums that finally crossed over to the mainstream with their last album.

297 - The Doves - A forgotten indie rock band from the late 90's, The Doves created several albums worth of great material before fading away.

296 - Bad Company - One of the most popular rock bands of the 70's, Bad Company perfected the AOR sound that is both widely listened to this day and widely despised.

295 - Queensryche - A prog metal band from the early 80's, Queensryche enjoyed a major career surge when they aimed at more mainstream audiences with their Floydian "Silent Lucidity" and other radio-friendly songs like "Empire".

294 - Gang Of Four - One of the biggest names in New Wave, Gang Of Four are better known for the bands that they've inspired than for their own hits, though the beats that they created are among the best of the early 80's.

293 - Dirty Pretty Things - Their second album was a huge disappointment, but DPT's debut was one of the most under-rated albums of the new millennium with great indie pop song after great song, rivaling even The Arctic Monkeys for licks and lyrics.

292 - The Drive-By Truckers - Not that Lynyrd Skynyrd was entirely dumb with their songwriting, but it's more than fair to describe this band as the thinking man's Skynyrd. Featuring some of the best Southern Rock lyrics ever written, DBT have released a series of great albums over the past few years.

291 - The Hold Steady - They should expect to leap up quite a bit when I revise this list as their latest album will end up in my 2008 top 25 albums list easily. A rocked out Springsteen with indie cred is the best way to describe this up and coming band.