The Katies are a trio from Tennessee (Gary Welch, Jason Moore and Joshua Moore) that play mainstream rock music for the teen masses. Spongebath (Elektra, 1999) is a confused hodgepodge of cliches. Powerkiss is a hybrid of Byrds, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nirvana, Noggin' Poundin' mimicks the Beatles at their most moronic and the Twisted Sister at their most falsely anthemic, etc. The driving riff of Drowner (probably the best thing on this album) is halfway the Breeders' Cannonball and Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers, but, again, wed to a Cheap Trick refrain. A panzer-grade Jimi Page-ian riff in Miss Melodrama is wasted in a criminal way.