10 '90s Bands Everyone Forgets About

If you had never made it past the late '90s, you would have thought that Weezer was all but dead after bottoming out with Pinkerton. Even when Rivers Cuomo reassembled his crew of nerd rockers in 2000 for the Green Album, there was always that little extra spark that seemed to be missing from the days of Buddy Holly and My Name is Jonas. While most could never put their finger on it, The Rentals are a good indicator of where that magic went.

Being initially a one-off side project for bassist Matt Sharp in between Weezer albums, these guys blossomed into a truly great power pop act as the years have gone on. Though nowhere near on the same level as their horn-rimmed counterparts, the Rentals have adopted a strange blend of pop rock that fits comfortably between the quirky weirdness of something like the Cars while not being afraid to experiment with genres like new wave and even some pop punk in the process.

Even as late as last year, Sharp has still managed to keep his creative juices flowing with Q36, which adopted a sci-fi tinge to their traditional style of rock and roll. Though Sharp will probably always be in the shadow of Weezer, this is about as close to landing on your feet as you could hope for.