
Southern California's Alien Ant Farm employ a freewheeling blend of nu-metal, post-grunge, and punk-pop that landed them mainstream success when their quirky, souped-up rendition of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" topped the Billboard Alternative Songs charts in 2001. The band continued to maintain a steady radio presence throughout the aughts, delivering a string of efforts like ANThology, truANT, and Up in the Attic, that owed more to alt-metal outliers than the work of many of their peers did.