Sounds from the UK: Muse

Muse are an alternative rock band from Teignmouth, England. The band consists of Matthew Bellamy on lead vocals, piano, keyboard and guitar, Chris Wolstenholme on backing vocals and bass guitar, and Dominic Howard on drums and percussion.

They have been friends since their formation in early 1994 and changed band names a number of times (such as Gothic Plague, Fixed Penalty, and Rocket Baby Dolls) before adopting the name Muse. Since the release of their fourth album, Morgan Nicholls has also appeared with the band at live performances to provide keyboards, samples/synth, and backing vocals.

Their sound is a blend of alternative rock, classical music, electronica, metal, spanish guitars, and progressive rock. Usually they use the bass line as the driving force, often with the guitar providing only an extra layer to the song rather than carrying the melody, the bass has distortion and other effects applied to it to achieve a greater weight, allowing the guitar to digress from the main tune and play higher notes. Another peculiarity is Muse´s piano style in many of their songs; their music has been inspired by the works of Romantic pianist-composers such as Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt, and has thus resulted in a fusion of Romantic style with modern rock.

The band is known for their energetic live performances and front man Matthew Bellamy’s eccentric and avid interests in global conspiracy, extraterrestrial life, theology and the apocalypse (as much as in Space and theoretical physics). Their lyrical themes involve madcap conspiracy theory, revolutionary rabble-rousing, weird stuff about aliens (or Zetas, if you please), religions and other such classic Muse concerns.
(bio courtesy of http://www.last.fm)

Muse is one of those bands that I hadn't heard much about until I started playing RockBand3 a few years ago. There is only 1 official Muse song in the RockBand game library, and without fail you could find a weekly (if not daily) post in the game forums where the fans were begging for "Moar Muse!" Curiosity takes place, and I found myself looking for more of their discography (or as the fans would say "Moar Muse!") to see what the attraction is.

"Plug In Baby" was featured on their 2001 second studio album Origin of Symmetry. Released as the lead single from the album on 5 March 2001, "Plug In Baby" became the band's highest-charting single when it peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, until it was surpassed by "Time Is Running Out", which peaked at number 8 in 2003. Today, "Plug In Baby" is considered one of Muse's most notable songs, and has been featured on the live albums Hullabaloo Soundtrack (2002) and HAARP (2008). "Plug In Baby" is often praised for its opening guitar riff which Total Guitar magazine readers voted as the #1 ultimate guitar riff of the 2000s.

http://youtu.be/dbB-mICjkQM