Today I would like to introduce you to the band Rock Sugar.

There are a lot of ways that music can combine with geek culture. Obviously, the work of Jonathon Colton and Kirby Krackle show this. Rock Sugar comes from a different angle.

The band’s connection to geek culture is not immediately obvious, but just listening to one of their songs gives one the sense of it.

The reason we care starts with the band’s lead singer, Jess Harnell. Jess is also a very successful voice actor, best known for being the voice of Wakko Warner from Animaniacs and Ironhide from the Transformer movies.

He is also an excellent singer, which should not be surprising to any Animaniacs fans.

But it’s not the fact that Jess is the band’s singer that makes them stand out. It is their hook.

Rock Sugar is a heavy metal band that does mashup songs of heavy metal and pop songs from the 80s.

I’m sure that last sentence didn’t make a lot of sense.

Basically, they will take two songs from the 80s, one metal, one pop; and arrange them into a single song with elements of both.

Mashups are nothing new. There is long history of taking two songs and mixing them together. Go on YouTube and you will find an endless stream of mashups, to the point that it has become a kind of art form all its own.

In the case of Rock Sugar, the difference is that they aren’t making a mix. They are writing a new song combining the two original songs and performing it themselves.

For example, one of their best known songs is called “Don’t stop the Sandman”, which combines Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Journey’s “Don’t stop Believin” – and yes, they make it work. You can see the video for it here.

A personal favorite of mine is “Shook me like a Prayer” which combines AC/DC’s “’You shook me all night long” and “Hell’s Bells” and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Here is a video of Rock Sugar performing this song in concert.

As that last video shows, they are well-liked at music festivals, which is certainly helped by being excellent musicians.

Rock Sugar also have an active fan base, and they work to interact with them. Fans are encouraged to come up with new mashups for the band to make. This doesn’t mean it will necessarily happen, but they still want to include the feedback. 

If you are interested in hearing more about Rock Sugar I would suggest going here and checking out their web site.