Free Popcorn

On 1999's Free Popcorn, the follow-up to 1997's Emerge, again you find the Lynnfield Pioneers combining hip-hop beats with hard rock riffs, while vocalist Dan Cook does his best Jon Spencer impression. John Paul Jones provides steady drumming and other instrumentation. The band's diversity is a true asset, with each member stepping in on keyboards and organ, while Cook adds a wave of chaos on turntables and Jones adds samples and extra percussion. Guitarist Mike Janson holds it all together, as well as stepping in on vocals on a few tracks. Cook's rhymes on lead vocals are probably what draws most of the band's fans to the group. The New Yorkers create an array of party songs on Free Popcorn, with Cook's raps bringing it all together, as the band meddles with funk and its own variety of stripped-down rock. "Wide Open Spaces" is the closest thing to a ballad the band has ever done. The jazzy organ on "Feels So Good," mixed with Cook's layered vocals, is easily one of the grooviest songs the group in the band's history. The album was recorded and mixed at Waterworks Studios in New York City.