Some of the most interesting fringe acts have been those that toe the line between novelty and projects deserving of future development. Where is the line separating gimmick from lasting innovation? One might have said that early Hip Hop was just a fad. The rest of the pop world certainly treated it that way. In the end, it's not about the immediate viability of an idea. The real question is whether or not the clever premise of a new sound can go beyond being just that, merely clever.

Back in 2004, a Brit named Ian Parton decided to make a quirky, little project called The Go! Team based on the idea that other people might want to listen to cheerleader chants placed atop fuzzy guitars. He made a makeshift recording studio in his parents' kitchen (supposedly) and put together Thunder, Lightning, Strike. Critics liked it but it only charted as high as #48 on the UK pop charts, and it took more than a year to get there.

The reason I classify The Go! Team as a novelty act, beyond its unusual combination of premises, is that almost all of Parton's success has come piggy-backing on something else. Music from Thunder, Lightning, Strike has appeared in everything from video games to car commercials. It was from the latter that I, like many Americans, first heard The Go! Team. Honda licensed "Huddle Formation" for a Civic advertisement, several actually.

Aside from allowing his songs to show up in curious bits of cultural ephemera, Parton also put together a live band for The Go! Team's support of Franz Ferdinand. The live group is practically a different band, though. Parton recruited English rapper Ninja to add her own vocals in lieu of the extensive sample library used on the studio album.

Lightning has some impressive work on it. Impressive enough to suggest a better band than a quick novelty act. Take "The Power Is On". Of all the tracks on the album, it's the best example of what The Go! Team can do. It drives from start to finish and it makes excellent use of its samples. The busy sound isn't claustrophic, it's fun. It's also a sort of proof of concept. The centerpiece of the track is a team of cheerleaders encouraging a high school team called The Falcons. And yet, it's not ridiculous. It's actually pretty rousing.

The Go! Team's second album, 2007's Proof of Youth rescues the band from the dust bin of novelty-dom. With Ninja to provide some fresh vocals and move the band away from being too sample-dependent, I think The Go! Team has a lot more to offer than just catchy car commercial music. At their best, they're a synthesis of rock, funk, hip hop and electonica.

If The Go! Team can maintain its current trajectory, they might just achieve an impressive chart position by the end of the decade. They're fringe because they don't do radio songs, but in an age when radio is essentially irrelevant thanks to the likes of youtube and Rhapsody. The band certainly has pop ambitions.