The Verve Pipe by The Verve Pipe

The Verve Pipe is the self-titled third studio album by Michigan rock band the Verve Pipe, released on July 27, 1999. The band's second release for RCA Records, the album followed the platinum-selling Villains and its mammoth single, "The Freshmen". The band worked with Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn and created a generally dark, sonically textured grunge-pop album. The lead single "Hero" received sporadic airplay on alternative rock radio and its video was in rotation on MTV2 in late summer 1999. Throughout the album, primary songwriter and singer Brian Vander Ark comments on the fleeting nature of fame with tracks such as "Supergig" and "Headlines". The song "The F Word" serves as a bittersweet response to the band's success with "The Freshmen". The album's cover features a diagram for frog dissection, with the song titles used as references to various body parts.