When a musician is kicked out of a high-profile band, or if that band breaks up, he or she can usually be expected to start another band soon afterwards. While these new bands are rarely better than the old ones (see: Wings, Big Audio Dynamite), sometimes the new band is actually better. Here are six artists whose second band was better than their first.
1. John Lydon - The Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd.
This may be an extremely controversial opinion, but I find John Lydon's (aka Johnny Rotten) post-punk group Public Image Ltd. to be far more fascinating than the Sex Pistols ever were. Though the Sex Pistols are undeniably fun and are one of the most influential bands of all time, there's no way it could have ever released an album as extreme and uncompromising as PiL's Metal Box. Plus, Lydon's lyrics for PiL are far more conceptually dense than his naively violent rhetoric for the Sex Pistols.
2. Lou Barlow - Dinosaur Jr./Sebadoh
When Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow was kicked out of the band in 1989, he decided to put all of his furious, nervous energy into his side project Sebadoh, which had a more varied and intense sound than Dinosaur Jr. Much like the Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd. comparison I made up above, Dinosaur Jr. is the more famous and influential of these two bands, but it's Sebadoh that had more musical and emotional depth.
3. Ian MacKaye & Guy Picciotto - Minor Threat & Rites of Spring/Fugazi
Fugazi formed in the aftermath of not just one, but two legendary DC bands: Minor Threat and Rites of Spring. Though both of those groups are incredible and highly influential hardcore acts in their own right, it was Fugazi, formed by Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye and Rites of Spring's Guy Picciotto, that would bring them more critical and commercial recognition than ever before. Fugazi practically invented post-hardcore, which takes the fury of hardcore punk and puts a more dynamic and experimental spin on it, and therefore makes it more intense and listenable than straightforward hardcore.
4. Jimmy Page - The Yardbirds/Led Zeppelin
Though the Yardbirds are considered legendary and have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the band is less famous for its music than for its line-up, which consisted of no less than three guitar legends: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Page would of course go on to form Led Zeppelin (originally the New Yardbirds), and if Led Zeppelin isn't a better band than the Yardbirds, I don't know who is.
5. Davey von Bohlen - Cap'n Jazz/The Promise Ring
Though Davey von Bohlen was a member of the highly influential Cap'n Jazz for just two of its six years, he did play on the band's only album, the classic emo LP Schmap'n Schmazz. However, it was with Von Bohlen's post-Cap'n Jazz group The Promise Ring that his songwriting talents were truly allowed to shine. Cap'n Jazz may have kickstarted the entire Midwest emo scene, but the Promise Ring brought it to national attention with its poppy, radio-friendly take on the genre.
6. Gram Parsons & Chris Hillman - The Byrds/The Flying Burrito Brothers
If anyone can be considered the godfather of alternative country music, it's Gram Parsons, who released several excellent albums between the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and on his own, before dying of a drug overdose at 26. Though the album that made him famous, the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, is a classic of country rock (he wrote the album's best song, "One Hundred Years from Now"), it's Parson's next band The Flying Burrito Brothers, founded with fellow Byrd Chris Hillman, which made him an alt-country hero. Though it's difficult deciding which of these two bands was superior, I'm giving it to the Flying Burrito Brothers based on the fact that they wrote their own material, as opposed to the Byrds, whose repertoire consisted largely of cover songs.
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