Popular rock music in 2007 has been almost entirely dominated by earnest balladeers and angsty emo dudes, leaving more macho or unhinged rock singers to stand on the margins unless they happen to be in some sort of severe heavy metal act. Each of the acts featured in this week's column offer urgent rock tunes kicked up a notch by a charismatic vocalist who isn't afraid to get a little wild, or a bit weird.

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Electric Six "Down At McDonnelzzz" (Metropolitan)

The Electric Six's fourth album "I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master" is just as sprawling, excessive, and absurd as its title suggests...and then some. The album's first single "Down At McDonnelzzz" is one of the group's finest efforts to date. The song's sharp set of lyrics about depressed food service workers getting drunk and partying after hours at work is set to a heavy disco-rock groove that incorporates a catchy piano figure and a sultry saxophone part straight out of a late night dirty movie on cable. As usual, singer Dick Valentine's words drip with humor and irony, but his bold, hyper-masculine voice sells even his most ridiculous lines with a great degree of commitment and authority.

Right click to download here: http://tinyurl.com/2sftsr

Buy it here: http://tinyurl.com/2wr4r5

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Coin-Op "Favourite Subjects" (self-released)

Despite hailing from Brighton, England, the singer from Coin-Op affects a strange, cartoonish twang on "Favourite Subjects" which lends the anthemic punk number a slight touch of country rock flavor. The song boasts at least three memorable hooks and even though the lyrics are essentially a bitter rant against obnoxious drug-addled hipsters, the tune bursts with an ecstatic energy that nearly cancels out its abrasive sentiment.

Right click to download here: http://tinyurl.com/34lkop

Buy it here: http://www.myspace.com/coinopmusic

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Linfinity "Chu Chu Train To Venice" (St. Ives)

Linfinity's "Chu Chu Train To Venice" is a manic, rollicking rave-up that sounds as though it is being sung by a crazed hobo playing the crude, urgent piano part by jogging in place on the keyboard. It's a compelling and incredibly fun piece of music that sounds simultaneously insane and comfortingly old-fashioned. The song is all the more surprising when you take into account that despite this super-charged bit of madness, the band also has written some other tracks that sound rather like the stadium ballads of Coldplay and U2.

Right click to download here: http://tinyurl.com/36w7a7

Buy it here: http://tinyurl.com/2llpfd

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Matthew Perpetua is the maestro behind http://www.fluxblog.org.