Frontman Brian Molko once described Placebo's music as "punk pop for postponed suicides." Like most suicide casualties, Placebo are true outsiders. They don't really fit in with their contemporaries, and no matter how hard they strive to create the perfect pop song, it always winds up sounding skewed.

The trio, which formed in 1994, is composed of American-born Molko and two Swedes, but the band decided to base itself in London, where they happily stood out from the thriving Brit-pop community. A bisexual who could pass for a woman even when he's not decked out in mascara, eyeliner, lipstick and glitter nail polish, Molko is an anti-hero comparable to Dr. Frankenfurter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. His cynicism and depression is accompanied with a firm sense of irony, and even though he's been known to be boorish and arrogant, he's acquired a loyal legion of fans who hold his every word sacred. He's also earned respect from many of his peers, and has even attracted the interest of David Bowie, who empathized with Placebo's outsider image enough to take the band on tour in Europe and America.

But while the band has made waves in the European rock community, Placebo has yet to make inroads in America, where androgyny and misery are treated as trite and passé, unless of course, they're coming from Marilyn Manson.

http://www.placeboworld.co.uk/