Punknews content is syndicated to a handful of your favorite social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Join our Last.fm group and contribute your listening habits to our weekly charts. All of our high definition video footage can be found at Vimeo.

Here's your question and answer of the week from the Punknews Formspring:

Q: So, we're ALL aware of bands having a new direction in sound and making it either more poppy or more experimental. Is there such thing as a band that did the opposite and released a bunch of poppy records then surprised us all with a real banger?

A: I mean, I guess the best example would be The Monkees. Hang with me. While the band is entirely prefabricated and what not. Their first two albums were pretty much handed to them and they just did the vocals. On their next two (Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.) they played much more of their own music, picked the songs and even had music written by members (mostly Michael Nesmith). These two albums were not only some of their most successful work but generally their best material. The albums were far more cohesive and even groundbreaking, with Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. featuring some of the very first use of a Moog synthesizer. Now this isn't exactly like Smashmouth releasing a grindcore album but you basically had a group of four guys (two who weren't even musicians) who were handed a gift wrapped career playing prefab pop garbage and decided to push to become actual musicians and it fucking worked (mostly, if you ignore their utter implosion a few years later). I mean, even their soundtrack to Head was fucking out there.

-Rich

P.S. I'll work on a more contemporary answer later, but I'm feeling like old people music right now.

Of course your day wouldn't be complete without knowing every inane detail of your humble editors' lives. Follow @aubinpaul, @adamwhite, @justinaugust, @brian_shultz, @dante3000, @ameliaaacline, @kiraface, @mcflynnthm, @kidecono, @wackymondo, @BrittStrummer, and @bryneyancey's every move at Twitter. A few of the new fathers on staff have even started a punk dad blog.

Where else are you online? Share your links below and keep connected with the Punknews community.