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Platinum punks Good Charlotte showed up to the MTV party wearing suits and spikes in their breakout smash video for "Lifestyles Of the Rich and the Famous." The track was just one of the deceptively sugarcoated, anti-authority call-to-arms on their multi-platinum second disc of pop-punk, The Young and the Hopeless. Good Charlotte consists of Joel Madden on vocals, while his twin bro Benji backs him up, plays lead guitar and wears lots of eye-makeup (sexy!) The quintet is rounded out by local Maryland buddies Paul Thomas and Billy Martin on bass and rhythm guitar, respectively, and newcomer Dean Butterworth on the skins. When they're not rallying the kids to break into mansions, Good Charlotte's other sonic specialty is adolescent angst. Having only recently graduated high school themselves, their discs are full of cruel girls, tough days and raging basement parties. Their track "Hold On" is a tender plea to a suicidal friend and hit single "The Anthem" unites the kids for some old fashioned fun. They've been responsible for plenty of mosh-pit bruises, too, by touring with pop-punk contemporaries like blink-182, Lit and A Simple Plan. Their follow-up, The Chronicles of Life and Death, saw the band toying with their sound. For the first time, string sections, horns and synthesizers show up, along with more introspective lyrics. The fans weren't feeling it it's two hits, "Predictable" and "I Just Wanna Live" were modest successes and the band has since played the disc down as "selfish." But it could be a hint at where Good Charlotte are going on their hotly anticipated next album, tentatively titled Good Morning Revival! According to Good Charlotte's myspace page, it's due sometime in Fall 2006 and will feature diverse collaborations with headbangers Avenged Sevenfold, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, club-rapper Fabolous and dance music pioneer Junior Sanchez.

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